Last Night at the Circus

Any night I get to have popcorn, hot dogs and soda for dinner is a good night, and the only restaurant I know that serves those all together is the concessionaire at the circus. And among those, my favorite is the Big Apple Circus. This year we were grateful to get in to see the show just under the wire — the annual Lincoln Center run closes this Sunday, January 11. But first, for some reason we’re still not certain about there was an art show!

Artist Emmanuel Jose creates original decks of cards using paper-cutting techniques. The originals of his third custom deck, which are circus-themed, were on view last night and a handsome sight they were.

These custom decks may be purchased here. (Too late for Christmas, I’m afraid!)

Then it was on to the big top! And all I can say is the artistic director Guillaume Dufresnoy and show director West Hyler have done it again. As much as I lovedLegendarium(saw it twice) this one was just as good and that without my beloved Americana!

The title and the theme were Metamorphosis…and, yeah, okay whatever. It’s as good as anything else, and probably better than a lot of other abstractions to hitch circus acts to. Indeed, the more observant in the audience will note that the famous magic trick “Metamorphosis”, long associated with Houdini at the beginning of his career, was stuck in the middle of the charivari. It’s a fast illusion, that’s the whole point, “if you blinked you would have missed it”, but it’s characteristic of the revitalized BAC that there is THAT MUCH GOING ON.  Not everything riffed on the show’s theme but stuff that overtly did included the quick-change act The Smirnovs, an astounding husband-wife team from Russia whom I’ve seen at BAC before. For their big finish the wife does a change in full view of the audience obscured only by falling confetti. It remains one of the most breath-taking things I’ve ever witnessed. Francesco the clown, as is traditional, weaves throughout the show, keeping the audience engaged during scenery shifts. His gimmick is musical and many of his bits center around transforming objects into instruments: his suit is a xylophone. He plays Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” on pots and pans, etc. The lovely animal trainer Jenny Vidbel is back as well. The entrance of some her small critters came in the form of a magic trick, with bunnies, then ferrets, then a sheep dog all coming out of the same box.

Vidbel’s menagerie was most welcome. While I do miss Woodcock’s elephants and Katja Schumann’s equestrienne act, there was much diverting adorableness on view. The most spectacular creature was a camel, and frankly, screw the rest of the circus, I could watch that damn thing walk around in a circle all day. Smaller scale, but no less exotic to see in an arena, was a porcupine. That one can do even fewer tricks than the camel, but darned if it isn’t a diversion. Then there were llamas, goats, donkeys, a piglet. A sheepdog jumped rope. A puppy rode a goat. It’s like being in Oz.

The photo above is only half of this act. This Mongolian contortionist Odbayasakh Dorjoo climbs into that small cube, and then she is joined by an Armenian contortionist named Tatevik Seyranyan (there’s no point in showing you what that looks like. It looks like an abstract sculpture. We’ll call it “Cubism”!

This is Seyranyan doing a less impressive stunt — her piece de resistance was an amazing balancing act, the Rolla Bolla, during whcih she made jaws drop.

Returning throughout the show for several different acts were the Anastasini Family of acrobats, who did an aerial act, some impressive foot juggling, and some kind of a thing with a flying rocket.

I really, really, really loved the music, by the way. And no wonder. I just looked in the program – -it was composed and arranged by Jack Herrick of the Red Clay Ramblers, whom I absolutely love, being as they are past collaborators with the likes of Sam Shepard and Bill Irwin/ David Shiner.

Get tickers here: there’s still time!