CIRQUE Usher Hall Edinburgh 15th July 2023 Review
Cirque at the Usher Hall Edinburgh was a very different show from what the production company “Entertainers” usually bring to the stage, as their speciality is bringing a wide range of tribute artist/band performances to their audiences with production values not often seen in this genre.
In some ways, Cirque follows this well tried, tested and very successful formula, but here they have taken songs from a wide range of popular musical theatre shows or films that became shows (some directly associated with the circus) and merged them into a production with live circus performers on stage. The result is something different (and theatre always needs that), something that is a bold move to make, but does it all actually come together and create a seamless experience for an audience? The answer to that is yes and no for many different reasons.
Unusually for any circus show like this that I have ever reviewed over the years, there was no warning that these performers are skilled professionals and some of what they were about to do was high risk, so do not try this at home folks. This might sound a minor issue, but given that a lot of the audience this afternoon (this was a 2pm show) was made up of people with children (often very young children), then I think the announcement was needed.
Cirque is obviously a show that can be altered in both its performers and the scale of the show as required, and that makes it a good show for touring, but the Usher Hall is a large venue with a large stage and at times this production of Cirque’s “circus spectacular” struggled to fill its performance space and kept on one linear stage level all show. A pity as this venue does have the height for acts than can use that vertical space. Some of this may of course have been down to the technical options available as the Usher Hall is a classically built concert venue and not a stage production theatre.
There is obviously a lot of pre-production thought that has gone into this show and the concept of using a comedy mime artist (Christian Lee) as the link throughout the show is unusual. The premise that we start in his dull black and white world and watch as he enters and wins a competition to win a 14 inch technicolour television is a good one. It is through his new world of colour that we in the audience get to share with him the multi-coloured wonderful world that is now Cirque. Many people will also have recognised a musical snip of the Boots Randolph classic “Yakety Sax”, known to millions of us old enough to remember it as the theme tune to “The Benny Hill Show”.
The opening musical number, “From Now On” from The Greatest Showman” and the later “Roxanne” from “Moulin Rouge” have obvious connections to the circus acts, some songs/shows are perhaps less well known and the musical links were at times stretched a little. All too often the vocal performances of these songs relied on the very contemporary style that volume is everything from the singer and as always this left the emotions of some of these wonderful lyrics unattended to.
It is difficult to categorise this show, and that is perhaps good because it is such a different idea, but the show also seems to be struggling to find both its identity and its target audience. Is this a musical song show, a cabaret show, a live circus? I don’t know to be honest, as sometimes all three seemed to be fighting for the attention from the audience at the same time. For myself, I all too often found this split focus of musical and circus performance distracting and that meant I was not paying as much attention to some of the “cirque” performers as I should have been.
As you would expect from professional circus performers on stage, there was a lot of training required to do the routines, some of which included high-risk moves and very good timing but overall no surprises in the line-up, but nonetheless the show did what it promised. For some reason I have a special liking for Cyr Wheel performers and Pascal Haering gave us all a well planned display of its possibilities. Interestingly this routine, performed to pre-recorded music only, worked far better for me using this format - no visual distractions.
With roller skating, quick change, juggling, an updated fire act (now digital light display), balancing and more, Cirque certainly had variety and at times felt more like an old time variety show, and the audience were for the most part enjoying everything and more than willing to work with the performers on stage. Connecting the audience to the stage was really the work of mime artist Christian Lee and he was good at this with the ability to very quickly adapt as required to how audience members reacted to him. I do think that he was very lucky though to get away with his female audience selection for his routine to the classic Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg song “Je t’aime” as, although not offensive in any way, some elements of this are just so outdated now and for me they belong back in those bad old comedy days of “The Benny Hill Show”. The full title of this song "Je t'aime… moi non plus" would also have put a completely different story to this routine.
Overall this is a show that is perhaps trying to do too much at the one time and not really sure where its true strength or target audience really are. Still I have to applaud the production team for bringing a show that was a little different from the norm to the stage.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
In some ways, Cirque follows this well tried, tested and very successful formula, but here they have taken songs from a wide range of popular musical theatre shows or films that became shows (some directly associated with the circus) and merged them into a production with live circus performers on stage. The result is something different (and theatre always needs that), something that is a bold move to make, but does it all actually come together and create a seamless experience for an audience? The answer to that is yes and no for many different reasons.
Unusually for any circus show like this that I have ever reviewed over the years, there was no warning that these performers are skilled professionals and some of what they were about to do was high risk, so do not try this at home folks. This might sound a minor issue, but given that a lot of the audience this afternoon (this was a 2pm show) was made up of people with children (often very young children), then I think the announcement was needed.
Cirque is obviously a show that can be altered in both its performers and the scale of the show as required, and that makes it a good show for touring, but the Usher Hall is a large venue with a large stage and at times this production of Cirque’s “circus spectacular” struggled to fill its performance space and kept on one linear stage level all show. A pity as this venue does have the height for acts than can use that vertical space. Some of this may of course have been down to the technical options available as the Usher Hall is a classically built concert venue and not a stage production theatre.
There is obviously a lot of pre-production thought that has gone into this show and the concept of using a comedy mime artist (Christian Lee) as the link throughout the show is unusual. The premise that we start in his dull black and white world and watch as he enters and wins a competition to win a 14 inch technicolour television is a good one. It is through his new world of colour that we in the audience get to share with him the multi-coloured wonderful world that is now Cirque. Many people will also have recognised a musical snip of the Boots Randolph classic “Yakety Sax”, known to millions of us old enough to remember it as the theme tune to “The Benny Hill Show”.
The opening musical number, “From Now On” from The Greatest Showman” and the later “Roxanne” from “Moulin Rouge” have obvious connections to the circus acts, some songs/shows are perhaps less well known and the musical links were at times stretched a little. All too often the vocal performances of these songs relied on the very contemporary style that volume is everything from the singer and as always this left the emotions of some of these wonderful lyrics unattended to.
It is difficult to categorise this show, and that is perhaps good because it is such a different idea, but the show also seems to be struggling to find both its identity and its target audience. Is this a musical song show, a cabaret show, a live circus? I don’t know to be honest, as sometimes all three seemed to be fighting for the attention from the audience at the same time. For myself, I all too often found this split focus of musical and circus performance distracting and that meant I was not paying as much attention to some of the “cirque” performers as I should have been.
As you would expect from professional circus performers on stage, there was a lot of training required to do the routines, some of which included high-risk moves and very good timing but overall no surprises in the line-up, but nonetheless the show did what it promised. For some reason I have a special liking for Cyr Wheel performers and Pascal Haering gave us all a well planned display of its possibilities. Interestingly this routine, performed to pre-recorded music only, worked far better for me using this format - no visual distractions.
With roller skating, quick change, juggling, an updated fire act (now digital light display), balancing and more, Cirque certainly had variety and at times felt more like an old time variety show, and the audience were for the most part enjoying everything and more than willing to work with the performers on stage. Connecting the audience to the stage was really the work of mime artist Christian Lee and he was good at this with the ability to very quickly adapt as required to how audience members reacted to him. I do think that he was very lucky though to get away with his female audience selection for his routine to the classic Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg song “Je t’aime” as, although not offensive in any way, some elements of this are just so outdated now and for me they belong back in those bad old comedy days of “The Benny Hill Show”. The full title of this song "Je t'aime… moi non plus" would also have put a completely different story to this routine.
Overall this is a show that is perhaps trying to do too much at the one time and not really sure where its true strength or target audience really are. Still I have to applaud the production team for bringing a show that was a little different from the norm to the stage.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com