Cirque du Soleil: Varekai

The show on TV was great, but the show it self... I have no words for it really fantastic!!!! And where is the the name of Gareth!? He (and Ashley) did such a great job and now there just thrown away! I just want to say, watch it! It takes you away in the world of ... VAREKAI!!!

I brought a friend to see this show; I was excited to introduce him to Cirque Du Soleil (I've seen 4 of them). I found myself apologising for the show - had to explain that it shouldn't put him off seeing the others. Too much slap stick pantomime and not enough aerial skills. I was embarrassed.

I absolutely loved Varekai the very first time I saw it. I'll admit that I wasn't much of a fan of the artsy circus world at first, but now I'm totally fascinated with it! The makeup is awesome (and at times can make some of the characters quite sexy!) and the costumes are fabulous! Not to mention the fantastic acrobatics and occasional funny moments. Varekai is by far my favorite of all the Cirque shows. I only wish it could've come here to my hometown. Oh well, I bought it on DVD so I can watch it whenever I want. I even got a few of my co-workers hooked on it. Of course Varekai is their favorite as well! Go figure. I'll make them all Cirque fans if it kills me. All in all I highly recommend it!

My wife and I went to a matinée performance of Cirque du Soleil's "Varekai" in the Nottingham Motorpoint Arena. As you would expect, most of the acrobatics were absolutely amazing, as were the costumes. Like other Cirque du Soleil shows, there was some sort of story but with most of the language being their traditional invented one that no one understands, this was not clear. But this didn't really matter. The music and vocals (even though I didn't understand them) were also very good. Regrettably, the circus tradition of using clowns was taken much too far, with about a quarter of the show dedicated to them. Their slap-stick antics were often bizarre or amateurish and at times downright irritating. They may have been entertaining a few decades ago but frankly fell flat and in some cases were risqué and unsuitable for the young children in the audience. So for us, this ruined what would otherwise have been an impressive and entertaining experience. Time for a re-think, SdS?

The DVD is based upon the live act, which is constantly on tour. Because of that the DVD will always be great. Unfortunately, the live show took a turn for the worse today. I just saw the last show in Seattle, and tomorrow they head for Vancouver, B.C.

Normally I love the Cirque, but today they made a big mistake. They have replaced their lead character Icarius, previously played by Anton Tchelnokov. I don't know yet if they have found a permanent replacement, but I do hope that it will not be the guy that they had as a stand-in for Anton today. He is dismally lacking the graceful naiveté that made Anton so believable as Icarius.

The show is still an awesome experience... especially Kevin and Andrew Atherton's strap act, and the big finale with all of those incredible athletes performing on the Russian Swings. But for anyone who has seen Anton as the original Icarius, any show in the future will always be lacking something: a Russian kid named Anton who was born to play that role.

Kevin L (kaveman7@msn.com)