Review: Is Cirque du Soleil — which is here now with ‘OVO’ — in need of fresh ideas?
As soon as you pass through the curtains into the heart of Bojangles’ Coliseum, and you see an egg larger than the nose of a 747 on the stage, and you hear the sound of crickets chirping and bees buzzing, it seems quite likely that things are about to get weird.
That suspicion is confirmed — for anyone taking in Cirque du Soleil’s “OVO” over the next several days — when human beings costumed and made up to look like spiders and grasshoppers and beekeepers emerge, one by one, to mingle with the patrons closest to the stage during what’s basically a “soft” start to the show.
From there, it gets even more odd. (For more reasons than one, on opening night — more on that in a minute.)
But at the same time, the whole thing can come off as strikingly by-the-numbers, and occasionally, it can even be a bit of a bore.
This is the seventh Cirque show Charlotte has hosted in the past decade, with “OVO” following “Totem” and “Alegría” in 2011, “Michael Jackson: The Immortal” in 2012 and 2014, “Quidam” in 2013, “Corteo” in 2018 and “Crystal” in 2019.
(“OVO” — which has been on tour for almost 11 years now — was originally supposed to play here in 2016, but Cirque du Soleil pulled it in protest of North Carolina’s House Bill 2, the at-the-time-new law that was met with controversy because it limited legal protections for LGBT individuals.)
And if you’ve been around the block with these Cirque shows through the years, you know the routine by now: They take a motif (in this case, yes, it’s entomological) and turn it up to 11; they dream up acrobatic stunts that defy gravity and the typical limitations of the human body; they use clown acts that are sometimes quite amusing but often overlong to bridge gaps between these stunts as stagehands set the table for what’s coming next; and they tie it all together with a “story” that makes less and less sense the more you try to ponder it.
In “OVO” — which translates to “egg” in Portuguese — that story begins when a community of insects going about normal business is interrupted by the arrival of a huffing-and-puffing stranger with an egg the size of a small refrigerator strapped to his back.
I’ll say no more (about the story) not for fear of spoiling surprises, but because it honestly doesn’t really matter, does it? Not a single person comes to these things for the plot.
No, what has traditionally dazzled and dizzied us about Cirque du Soleil are the tumbling, spinning, leaping, flying, flipping, floating, upside-down-hanging performers and the stupefying ease with which they seem to pull it all off. It’s cool that they’re dressed like something you might see in a Broadway version of “The Shape of Water” or “A Bug’s Life,” sure — but in all honesty, they could be wearing sweatpants and a tank top and we’d be equally entertained.
“OVO” starts impressively, with performers in pink bodysuits (pretty sure they’re supposed to be ants, but...) juggling large objects done up to look like thick slices of kiwi fruit with their feet while lying on their backs. What this act lacks in danger, it makes up for in the precision of its synchronization; you feel like someone is going to bobble ... but they never do.
Then the show falters, at least in my mind, with a hand-balancing act done by an individual in a dragonfly costume done up in Charlotte Hornets colors.
It’s just that — while his strength and control is clearly exponentially greater than mine — the leaning handstands no longer seem to generate the oohs and ahhs that they used to. And this, quite possibly, is due to what I’d call the “America’s Got Talent” effect, which has made it so we can now see acrobats do something at least reasonably similar on every season of the NBC talent show.
Same goes for the acts that involved aerialists on silks or ropes, along with an act featuring two men and one woman that climaxed when one man stood on the other’s shoulders and then she did a handstand on top of his.
I mean, they’re certainly talented folks, and 10 years ago — when “OVO” was still new and YouTube wasn’t full of acrobats — these more-traditional Cirque acts were probably much more satisfying to hardcore and casual fans alike; in 2020, though, they do feel dated, like we’ve seen them too many times before.
And so true wonderment will probably strike only sporadically during this particular show.
Perhaps when the performer with the Chinese diabolo (similar to a yo-yo, except the “cups” that get flung around aren’t attached to the string) launches them so high that they soar up above the lights and rigging more than 50 feet above the stage. Or perhaps when four men and five women perch above a net and do a trapeze-style act — without an actual trapeze.
Or definitely in the closing minutes of the show, as performers use trampolines, a massive climbing wall and ledges 20 feet up to create a vertiginous, gravity-defying dance.
Those are the moments that should elicit the heartiest reactions. Yet — and this goes along with what I was saying at the top, about things getting weird — hearty reactions were almost nonexistent at Wednesday’s opening-night performance in Charlotte.
There was some loud guffawing during a few of the clown interludes, primarily during one where an audience member was brought on stage and made instantly desirable to that egg-lugging newcomer when outfitted with a ladybug cap and ladybug wings. There were a few loud whistles and the occasional “woooooooooo!” But mostly, the performers were met with appreciative golf claps.
Aside from the performers, the room lacked a genuine feeling of energy or excitement. It also lacked fans. By my estimate, there are roughly 4,500 seats available with the way “OVO” is configured inside the coliseum. It seemed like nearly half were empty.
Maybe it’s because it was a school night — the show runs 2 hours and 10 minutes (including a 20-minute intermission that they would do well to get rid of), so it ended past 9:30.
But it does beg a couple of questions.
One, is Cirque du Soleil in need of some fresh inspiration?
And two: As its fans, are we?
Cirque du Soleil ‘OVO’
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 4 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; and 1:30 and 5 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Bojangles’ Coliseum, 2700 E. Independence Blvd.
Tickets: $45 and up.
Details: 800-745-3000; www.boplex.com.
