Review: Cirque du Soleil Zarkana @ Radio City Music Hall

It's been a long time... Consequently, bits and pieces of reviews have been queued up, waiting completion. This one is from this past August:

There are few reasons that I feel can justify going into a city. Cities are full of people and dirt. Ground dirt, the kind you plant things in, is alright, but puddles of stagnant city water and subway slime are unsightly and disgusting. And I’m not into that.

But like I said, there are a few things that can justify the trek. There are upscale restaurants, some nice music venues, and I have some friends that I will bear the masses for. But a unique opportunity presented itself to me a few weeks ago; one that, indeed, justifies going into a city.

So I got an email from Chase, my credit card company. Most of these emails are just shy of spam and promptly deleted – special discounts and savings that I’m not interested in. But then I got an email for savings on Cirque du Soleil tickets. For their last year in New York City with their current show. Afterwards, I’m assuming they’ll just be back in Vegas, which is inconveniently far away. New York I can drive to.

And so I looked at tickets, just for kicks. And it hit me: Kelly’s birthday. She’s always said that she wanted to see them and I had seen them as a kid, but wanted to see them again. So I found literally the only weekend it could possibly work, this past weekend. And the only way that it way that it worked was that we were in upstate New York for a wedding on Saturday night and left first thing Sunday morning; a lot of traveling, but worth it.

Naturally, Kelly figured something was up when I suggested we go to NYC, but she didn't know what. There was much protest, but eventually she gave up and we were on our way into the city. It took some time, but we found a place to park (accidentally the $45 valet parking garage) and were out into the city. As we walked up to the prestigious Radio City Music Hall, I handed her the tickets. There wasn't much time to eat so we grabbed a sandwich at a café and headed back to find our seats.

Our seats, which were awesome, because, as I've stated before, a show (in this case, not a concert) isn't worth seeing from a distance. As you approach the nosebleed section, the point for going is quickly outweighed by sitting at home, watching on your big-screen TV. So since I hold such a philosophy and it was a special occasion, I figured the center of the second row would be pretty good.

If you are unfamiliar with Cirque du Soleil, they are basically a circus acrobatic act. Except take whatever you just thought you perceived and make the stunts harder, add choreography, a plot, and music. This particular show was Zarkana.

Which is a rock opera? Something about the word “opera” is an immediate turn off. And actually, I didn’t know that this show was anything opera related until we got there; Kelly looked up the show description on her phone. Not that it would have turned me off from Cirque du Soleil, but it’s just something I’m not into.

And neither is foreign language. I’m the guy who complains about the cereal box having Spanish on it. We’re in the US; speak English. But that’s a separate discussion. The point being, that this show wasn’t in English. There were English words thrown in here and there, and some French, but most of it was in what Kelly thought may have been Italian (I'm still thinking French, but it was hard to make out any words ...opera, remeber). So an opera in Italian? What a great way to waste a life experience.

Except this is Cirque du Soleil. The plot is there, but it’s such a small part of the performance that not understanding the language or the plot in its entirety is okay. And, this is a rock opera, not just an opera. So the music was something I could relate to.

And that’s the goal, right? To relate to people. It makes you real and accessible. It made Italian (French?) opera singing and trapeze acts relatable; it was like you were flying through the air with them. But it was relational beyond what I thought it even could be. There were progressive notes of Dream Theater, some quirky Zappa-esque movements, and some world music thrown in. Not only does a lot of world music relate back to my experiences in Burkina Faso, but this particular instance showcased a Kora, the mysterious 21-stringged, gourd-bodied harp instrument that I had brought back with me. And not only that, but the Kora was played in a traditional-western hybrid style that made it relational to the western music which it was accompanying.

So this was a concert and theatrical production in support of the overlying acrobatic themes. It made the music stylings come to life in vivid colors and movements. It is truly amazing what these people do. They will take something traditional like a tightrope, but mix in leaps, flips, and even jump-rope. These are believable stunts taken beyond what you know, to what you know to be impossible. And it’s all done choreographed to music; relatable music that makes you believe that maybe you could do something like them. But it is a showcase of the impossible?

You need to see it. I will be back for sure, presumably in the front row next time.

After the show, we walked around the city for a little bit. We stopped in at Magnolia’s Bakery, where they had a signature Zarkana cupcake. It was good, but who the heck puts glitter on a cupcake?