Review: Cirque du Soleil's CORTEO At T-Mobile Center

If, by chance, you are still looking for something fun to do with your visitors this holiday weekend, I highly recommend Cirque du Soleil’s incredible “Corteo” now playing at the T-Mobile Center.   This is family entertainment of the first order; unlike almost anything you will ever have witnessed.   It will re-awaken your childhood dream of “running off to join the circus.”

Corteo is a massive undertaking from Montreal’s Cirque du Soleil.  It took an incredible twenty-five semi-tractor-trailer loads full of costumes, sets, makeup, and all manner of services to cause this army of performers and staff to appear in our town for a four day run.  The touring cast is 108 people.  Half of these are performers from twenty-eight countries around the world.  Corteo has been touring the world since 2005.  And then they hire an additional forty people from the community to become part of their Kansas City family.

Corteo is a deceptively simple idea, wonderfully executed from the mind of renowned Swiss clown and director Daniele Finzi Pasco. An elderly circus clown in the European tradition, Mauro, has lived a good life. As he passes from this life to the next, the circus people with whom he shared experiences pass and perform before him for one final time.  Mauro is accompanied throughout by a host of angels flying around the stage.  “Corteo” is Italian for cortege, the parade associated with a funeral.

When I first heard the concept, I admit I thought it might be a downer.  I was wrong.  Corteo is a gentle, beautiful, thoughtful, funny, and wildly athletic celebration of Mauro’s life.  If you ever wondered what happens to all those  Olympic-level gymnasts after the games close, I suspect you will find many of them touring with one of seven road productions from Cirque du Soleil.

I had the opportunity to take a backstage tour earlier in the day. The size and complexity of this operation staggers imagination. Like any traditional circus back in the day, the first thing encountered was the kitchen area where food is prepared for the crew and performers.   This might seem a little plebian, but anyone who has spent time around Ringling Brothers or Circus Vargas knows that the cook tent is the beating heart of the circus family.  The tradition continues with Corteo.

These folks are athletes doing extreme performances.  Corteo travels with in- house medical personnel, massage therapists, costume repair people and even a cobbler.  They are actors, comedians, aerialists, acrobats, jugglers, musicians and dancers.  There is even a giant person and two married little people, Valentina and Gregory.

A favorite scene, near the first act closer, is little person Valentina suspended almost weightless from a bundle of huge helium filled balloons.  She is set free to float over the audience and land randomly.  Audience members are encouraged to catch Valentina and propel her back to the air and toward the stage.  Surely, you remember attempting to keep a helium balloon suspended in the air forever as a small child.  The audience loves becoming a small part of the performance.

Act II is more filled with trapeze flyers and aerialists along with a climatic, spectacular, multi-gymnast, high bar routine as the high bars are arranged in a square and one stage right and one stage left.  All the bars are occupied at once as the flyers endeavor not to run into each other.  The circus ends with a final procession as Mauro ascends to heaven on a bicycle flown twenty feet high over the stage floor accompanied by his angels.

The poor description shared above does not allow Corteo the justice it deserves. If you go, I promise you will be surprised, enchanted, and fully entertained.  You will be impressed with the complexity, attention to detail, and the gentleness with which it is all presented.

Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo continues at T-Mobile Center through Sunday, May 28th.