BWW Reviews: Cirque du Soleil's VAREKAI Waxes Athletically of Icarus

Something rare and wonderful happens during the second half of Cirque du Soleil's Varekai, a touring production now making a stop at the Barclays Center. One of the clown routines turns out to actually be funny.

If that remark seems unnecessarily sarcastic, please keep in mind that, with all due respect to the undoubtedly talented artists I've witnessed performing clown routines through my years of reviewing their shows, the troupe has never exactly come close to Emmett Kelly territory.

Though the main theme of writer/director Dominic Champagne's evening is centered on the ancient Greek myth of Icarus and his unawareness of what sunlight does to wax, there are numerous escapades involving a cheesy lounge act of sorts with an ineffectual magician named Claudio and his perky assistant, Molly. (Cirque is not in the habit of providing performers' names.)

Their routines are genial at best until Claudio is featured in a hilarious bit. It's an old classic where a vocalist is trying to get through a serious ballad, but the spotlight keeps moving on him. At first it's just a few feet, but by the end of the number he's lunging from one end of the arena to the other. If you know the tune being warbled is Jacques Brel's "Ne Me Quitte Pas" ("Don't Leave Me"), so much the better.

Meanwhile, back in Greek mythology, Varekai has Icarus, after being sent plunging when the wax of his wings melt, landing in a magical forest inhabited by athletic creatures who all have their own ways of taking flight.

There are aerialists maneuvering through the air while suspended on straps or climbing on cloth, acrobats juggling their partners aloft with their feet, a winged dancer gliding across the floor on crutches, a woman contorting her body on stationary canes and daredevils propelled into the air by large Russian swings.

The singers and actors appear to be communicating in a combination of French and gibberish, although locals can understand perfectly when one annoyed character says to another, "Go back to Williamsburg, you hipster!" (Anyone with info on how that line is altered for each city they visit, please let me know.)

As Cirque du Soleil performances go, it's a fine and satisfying evening, although this traveling arena show lacks some of the more elaborate attractions you would find in one of the company's longer running productions. The story-telling elements may be a little superfluous but the feats of strength, grace, agility and courage are always extraordinary to behold.

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