Is there such a thing as a somber circus? That description may be a bit of a stretch, but this year’s version of the 45-year-old Big Apple Circus – each season is cooked up fresh – seems a bit more serious than some in recent years. In any case, most of us looking to dazzle young ones are deliriously grateful that it’s now, post-Covid, returning on the regular.
The format this season, subtitled “Dream Big,” is semi-formal: Each act is prefaced by a video interview with the performer, discussing the inspiration, training, and dedication that got them into the big top. Elli Huber, for instance, who kicks off the proceedings with an impressive pop song before – and while — ascending into the rafters via swing, says that she caught the bug as a teenager: “That would be a really cool job,” she thought. Your young companions may well agree.
Some performers, like 3’10” ringmaster Alan Silva, were born into the circus: a sixth-generationer, he started performing at age six. It’s sobering to learn that even in this diverse milieu, he was teased as a child – made to feel inferior. Silva not only handles his MC duties with aplomb, embodying the proud posture of a danseur noble, he’s a glorious, untrammeled bird in flight once he gets hold of the silks. It’s an impressive sight, and a useful take-home lesson for any incipient young bullies looking on.
A couple of the acts should perhaps come prefaced with a “Don’t’ try this at home, kids” warning. For TanBA’s number, you might even want to cover your toddler’s eyes (and double-check your safety gates the minute you get home). A magician from Japan, he ingests, to start, a six-foot-long balloon – he even briefly feints at retrieving it at the other end (kids adore a grossout). That balloon proves a mere hors-d’oeuvre: he then proceeds to swallow a string of old-fashioned straight-edge razor blades, having presented them to audience members at random to demonstrate their ability to slice paper. TanBA eats the paper itself, for dessert. And then it all comes back up again. How this feat is managed, one hesitates to imagine.
Squeaky-voiced and mohawk-coiffed, Johnny Rocket provides comic relief at regular intervals – “comic,” being a relative, age-dependent term. His shtick is that he wants to become a circus performer at all costs, so – having perused Circus for Dummies — he’ll often come on and botch an imitation of the previous act. For example, after “Amazing Veranica” puts her “Incredible Friends” – six acrobatic dogs, incrementally sized like measuring spoons – through their paces. Rocket brings on a sad-looking little creature with droopy eyebrow-tufts like Peggy Lee’s in Lady in the Tramp. Prodded to perform, Rocket’s pet promptly “pees” in a high arc right over the premium seats. Again, where the younger set is concerned, gross kills.
Gravitas returns with the closing act, featuring the Flying Wallendas, who – according to current company leader Nik Wallenda – have been wowing crowds since the 1780s. They’ve walked on plenty of wires far more challenging than the modest span erected here: the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, an active volcano, to list just a few (we get to see eagle’s-eye video clips). That doesn’t mean that your heart won’t rise right up in your throat when they perform the multitiered, multigenerational “chair pyramid.”
Sobersided as this year’s framing may be (relatively speaking), it doesn’t detract in the least from the atmosphere of awe and joy. The varied acts coalesce into a lively paean to human potential — at once breathtaking and inspirational.
Big Apple Circus: Dream Big! opened November 25, 2022, at the Big Top at Lincoln Center and runs through January 1, 2023. Tickets and information: bigapplecircus.com
