Well, I finally saw Delirium (4-29-06, Charlotte) and I had great seats on the floor six rows back.
Let me start with a disclaimer that I love Cirque Du Soliel. I’ve seen:
Ka (3x Vegas)
Allegria (3x, 2xBiloxi, Miami)
Mystere (2x Vegas)
O (1x Vegas)
Verekai (1x Miami)
Drallion (1x Miami)
Quidam (1x London)
Journey of Man (film, 1x)
La Nouba (2x Orlando)
And, I enjoyed them all to varying degrees and if I didn’t like them, I loved them. It’s a love-love relationship between Cirque and myself. So, it was with great excitement I got tickets to Delirium. I was going to see it in Sunrise, but nobody here wanted to go with me due to the cost (Philistines, the lot). So I went and saw it in Charlotte with my friend Maury. Somehow, seeing Cirque alone would be depressing.
Turns out the Philistines here were smarter than I was — they saved about $100. A show I was excited about had none of Cirque’s magic, none of its joy, none of its fun — in short, I was bored off my arse along with everyone else near me. People were getting up, leaving, and not coming back — in droves. The applause was tepid, like you’d hear at a golf match.
Worse, anyone who sees this as their first Cirque experience, will never go again. It was a shame that Cirque’s management let this show out of the gate as is. We were told it was a musical experience, but it wasn’t even that. Cirque’s own site says:
The DELIRIUM TOUR is a multifaceted event of unprecedented proportion featuring Cirque du Soleil music remixed. Driven by this urban tribal beat and awe-inspiring visuals, musicians, singers, and dancers transform the arena into joyous frenzy.
Further, we were stuck with a ‘concert’ by a vocalist before the show started. Although she was fine, it wasn’t my kind of music, it wasn’t Cirque’s kind of music, and the audience was obviously bored and disinterested judging by the amount of conversation taking place during that part. It was, happily, only 25 minutes long and followed by a “20-minute intermission” which was actually nearly 40.
I am not knocking the performances in the show itself because the performers were all fine — music and what pitiful little acrobatics there were. Each one did their assigned task wonderfully. But there was nothing behind it. There was no magic at all and despite their release, there was no “joyous frenzy” — it was a random collection of unrelated, unenjoyable things. Even the Grande Finale, “Allegria” was set to a techno beat and lost any magic it had.
And my opinions aren’t alone: witness this review. I’d write more but it’s just too depressing.