Cirque du Shekels

By Victoria Looseleaf

There’s been so much written on this multi-billion dollar operation, that we really don’t wish to spill any more ink on the subject. (Is it even a publicly traded company, and if so, we should definitely have bought stock when we first saw Cirque du Soleil under its blue and yellow tent in downtown Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo in 1987.) But this being the digital age and one in which we’re blogging as fast as we can, click here for our Dance Magazine review of Iris (pronounced, in that inimitable French fashion, “Eeyrees”).  Until then, click here for our Dance Magazine coverage of several Vegas Cirque shows, including the water-logged O. (We liked that one – it’s very Busby Berkeley – and went with our mother, who, however, opted out of going to Zumanity in favor of seeing David Copperfield, telling us she’d heard Zu was too obscene. Not true; indeed, not risqué enough. Oy!) In any case, click here for more from our Vegas trip, including foraying to the Liberace Museum, alas, now defunct.

For those of you interested in getting a bit of carpal tunnel syndrome, keep reading and clicking, as we also wrote a piece for Dance Mag on Jacques Heim (click here for that). Heim choreographed , the Cirque extravaganza directed by internationally famed theater guru Robert Lepage. That show, aside from Nouvelle Experience, the 1990 spectacle that was the first to feature the original Russian flier, Vladimir – and with whom we trysted – is, hands down, the best Cirque vehicle running. (To read more about Heim’s own dance troupe, Diavolo, click here. For more info on Vlad, sorry, we ain’t talkin’, but enjoy the picture below. He was, after all, anointed that year by People Mag as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World.)

And for the record: We also liked Alegrias, Corteo and the Vegas show Love (that last one is about the Beatles and reignited the passion we once had for the mop-topped quartet in their heyday). And though we may be accused of being jaded, cranky or downright nasty with regards to Iris, we at The Report gotta say it’s a gargantuan tourist trap, er, attraction, intended to partially fill the coffers of the Kodak Theatre 11 months a year – when it’s not hosting the Academy Awards ceremony – as well as to keep lining the pockets of Guy Laliberté, Cirque’s billionaire founder/entrepreneur/poker player/whatever, that last category one in which he’s “curated” (?) a book about space, Gaia, which can be had in a special hand-bound edition for a mere, uh, $875. And btw, we intensely dislike everything about that corner known as Hollywood and Highland, the mall wherein the Kodak roosts. The parking’s a nightmare, negotiating one’s way to the theater is even worse, and finally, there’s the venue itself, one for which Cirque shelled out some $40 million to “renovate.” Hint: The sight lines still suck.

Okay! Enuf already! We need to turn our attention to something more positive. How does the recent opening of the Los Angeles Philharmonic season at Disney Hall sound? It sounded just great, thank you very much. That’s because it was the gala opening of Gustavo Dudamel’s (aka The Dude’s) third season as music director, which he started  with a big George Gershwin bang. Herbie Hancock, who holds the LA Phil creative chair for jazz, was the piano soloist in the Rhapsody, but the less said about that, well, the better. In the interim, click here to read about The Dude’s Hollywood connection concert from earlier this year, click here to read about his July performance with superstar fiddler Gil Shaham at the famed Hollywood Bowl, and click here  to see how he was abiding back in February. We’ll be scribbling our thoughts about the real season opener this weekend, a program that includes a John Adams’ work and the U.S. premiere of Esteban Benzecry’s Rituales Amerindios. Meanwhile: As a personal favor to us, have a great life!

About Victoria Looseleaf

Victoria Looseleaf is an award winning arts journalist and regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times, KUSC-FM radio, Dance Magazine, Performances Magazine and other outlets. She roams the world covering dance, music, theater, film, food and architecture. Have pen - and iPad - will travel! Her latest book, "Isn't It Rich? A Novella In Verse" is now available on Amazon. Thank you for reading! Cheers...
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