By Ellis Nassour
Cirque du Soleil has come a long way from its 1984 beginnings in Montreal with a ragtag band of acrobats. It ranks internationally as “The First Name in Dazzling Entertainment.” There’re “sit-down” productions dominating the Las Vegas Strip and touring arena and tented shows in the round which have played to more than 160 million in 400 cities in 60 nations on six continents.
The Cirque du Soliel name still has cache, but bookies weren’t taking bets Paramour would succeed. For 85% of the time, this “first” show created for Broadway is a winner. A dismal failure at the Beacon Theatre and, later, so-so business at a Radio City engagement seem erased from memory. However, the third is the charm.
“Bringing Paramour to Broadway is the culmination of years of planning,” says Theatrical President and Managing Director Scott Zeiger. “Our creative team designed a show that’s specifically theatrical and a perfect fit for the Lyric Theatre stage.”
Paramour blends memories of Hollywood’s Golden Age—B&W film noir with rough and tumble fights, chases, and Technicolor-bathed MGM musicals, such as Seven Brides for Seven Brothers—an eye-popping spectacle with Cirque’s classic formula and elements of choreography made famous by Tommy Tune, Randy Skinner, and Savion Glover.
The opening number has the cast of 38 from the U.S. and 13 nations doing so much that you miss a lot. There’re singers, dancers, jugglers, agile acrobats doing contortions or somersaulting on light fixtures that become trapezes, and performing on elevators.
Unfortunately, Cirque decided to blend its acrobatic feats that defy the imagination with a book-driven story that’ll “transport you to a sublime world of emotion and awe as it walks the exhilarating tightrope of the heart.”
It’s the throbbing-heart tale of an ingénue being groomed for stardom and forced to choose between the man she loves and her director who can give her screenfuls of close-ups. It could be a lot better. It’s at its worst when the creatives forget that when you have, say, a trio of lovelorns arguing and/or singing, you don’t place an edge-of-the-seat acrobatic act in their midst. Who do you watch?
Golden-voiced belter Ruby Lewis, who could pass for Debra Messing—albeit with blond hair—stops the show with powerhouse ballads “Something More” and “Everything” by Guy Dubuc and Marc Lessard. Co-stars Jeremy Kushner, Kai Cunning [who provides comic relief], and Ryan Vonna boast Broadway and regional theater credits. The show features a number of Broadway “gypsies.”
In an epic recreation of the making of Cleopatra, aerial strap artists, identical twins Andrew and Kevin Atherton, fly over audiences. In the tribute to westerns and lumberjacks, there’s a hoedown with medaled gymnasts tumbling and flying high into the flies from a flexible Russian bar.
The show pays homage to Hollywood and TV zombies; a trio in a nail-biting love triangle partially performed on trapeze; a trio swinging perilously from street lights that become sway poles; and slick, dexterous teterboarders. In a scratch-your-head-what’s-this bit, lampshades transform into drones.
The finale is worth the price of admission. It’s a rollicking lovers v. bad guys chase across NYC rooftops—conceived with six trampolines and somersaulting daredevils.
Tickets for Cirque du Soleil’s Paramour are $55-$145 (inclusive of a $2.50 facility fee) and available at the Lyric Theatre box office, via the TodayTix app, and through Ticketmaster.com or by calling (877) 250-2929.
