Review: CIRQUE DREAMS HOLIDAZE Plays The Fox Theatre

The art of cirque seems to rapidly be growing in Atlanta. Of course we all know that Cirque Du Soleil tours here frequently, and high schools like Milton have started incorporating cirque into their performing arts programs. Even professional theatres like The Atlanta Lyric Theatre have used cirque, like in their summer production of BARNUM in which they utilized the brilliant performers from the new cirque training school, Akrosphere.

With that being said, The Fox Theatre's first holiday show if the season, CIRQUE DREAMS HOLIDAZE displayed the talents of unbelievable cirque performers, different from performances I usually see at the historic venue. Advertised as a family show, it featured singers in pseudo-musical numbers akin to narrators in a loosely-plotted children's musical. The combination of an over-glitterified set, patronizing musical numbers, and eccentric costumes all combined to make this show seem like a dumbed-down version of what could have been a grand cirque showcase.

CIRQUE DREAMS HOLIDAZE consisted of vignettes of cirque performances including silks, Cyr wheel, hand to hand, and other stunts whose names I don't know and were not listed in the program (instead of act names, they listed character names for every number). These stunts were impressive in and of themselves, but the production seemed to be doing its very best to hide their brilliance. That is, during the cirque acts, other performers in distracting costumes would meander onstage and just hang out off to the side, or sometimes in front of the cirque performers, dancing or picking on each other, successfully upstaging the cirque with their own independent antics. The side characters also moved set pieces during performances, which was equally distracting.

Decorated with ample glitter of every color- and I do mean every color- the set and costume design had no discernable concept besides maybe that every holiday party you've ever been to threw up on everything, invited Mardis Gras, but somehow forgot Jesus, Santa, and the Menorrah. It also featured confusing costumes that might have been at home in a theme park- for instance, from where this critic was sitting, one character can only be described as having the body of a knight and the head of a giant banana with sunglasses and a mouth. Banana-man lurked next to a Christmas tree in the background of a cirque performance and creepily watched the downstage action, then left with no explanation or interaction with anyone else.

Perhaps due to sound issues more than lack of articulation, the lyrics to the show's original, holiday-themed (I presume) songs were indiscernible. I was able make out words like, "dreams," "toy soldiers," and "night," but not much else.

The house music, which may usually go unnoticed, consisted of the same remixed recording of "Jingle Bells" played over and over again, before curtain and during all 20 minutes of the intermission. I'm sorry, but not even a song from HAMILTON can be played for that long without making everyone in the audience want to pull their hair out.

The best part of the whole show was the closing number which involved two flawless performers on silks, while other performers sang, "Oh Holy Night." Two white silks were spread across the stage and covered the entire set, which proved a refreshing change.

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