With the arrival of summer, one can always count on Hollywood to provide a plethora of light and breezy movies, designed to beguile audiences without straining their minds too much. Broadway got into the act last week with the opening of Cirque Dreams, Jungle Fantasy, a glitzy, often appealing, but ultimately hollow, new age spectacular created by Neil Goldberg.
Divided into two parts, "Fantasy" follows Adventurer (a winning Marcello Ballestracci) as he maneuvers through an enchanted forest where the creatures are ruled, or perhaps charmed, by Mother Nature (played with almost plasticene hauteur by Jill Diane). Each "act" in this represents an animal or group of animals that Adventurer meets. There's a quartet of lizards that are brought to life by contortionists (Uranmandakh Amarsanaa, Buyankhishig Ganbaatar, Erdenesuvd Ganbaatar and Odgerel Oyunbaatar) from Mongolia. The four women are superlatively lithe, graceful and rather amazing as they bend their bodies in heretofore unimaginable ways, often balancing on top of one another.
As the Adventurer makes his way through the jungle (from day to night when black light from designer Kate Johnston transforms scenic designer Jon Craine's Hanna-Barbera-ish forest of loopy vines, rounded trees and mushrooms into something vaguely spooky), other creatures like spiders, frogs, giraffes, and eventually lions, appear on the scene. Each performs an act that feels familiar from previous visits to new age circus events, but each has a specialty within his, her or their sequence that manages to surprise. The giraffes (Vladimir Dovgan and Anatoliy Yeniy from Ukraine and Moldova respectively) balance on rolling tubes in ways I'd never witnessed. Surprisingly, one of the most fascinating comes early on – it's a jump-rope extravaganza that dazzles.
As these acts – which include several aerial acts, including one by a Stefka Iordanova from Bulgaria who's suspended by her hair – unfurl, we watch in amazement, but then, in between, Diane (who's dressed in something that brings to mind some of Cher's most outlandish getups – designed by Cirque Productions, Lenora Taylor and Santiago Rojo) comes onto the scene to sing something. These tunes all have insipid lyrics (from Jill Winters) that theoretically are meant to inspire, but all one can do is cringe as Diane, accompanied by Jared Burnett who plays the Soultree Violinist, a sort of cross between the elves and ents of Tolkien's Middle Earth, sings them and hope that she'll quickly move on to make way for the next set of performers (generally the wait isn't too long).
Actually, time, like the performers, seems to fly during much of "Fantasy," and that's not a bad thing, but somehow, one can't help but wish there were something more substantial, even during the dog days of summer, to be found here.
--- Andy Propst
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Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy plays at the Broadway Theatre (1681 Broadway). Performances are Monday at 8pm; Tuesday at 7pm; Thursday and Friday at 8pm; Saturday at 2 and 8pm and Sunday at 2 and 7pm. Tickets are $25 to $95 and can be purchased by calling 212-239-6200 or 800-432-7250. Online ticketing is available at www.telecharge.com. Further information is available online at: www.cirquedreamsbroadway.com.
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