Alaster McCauley (the NY Times) And so to Cirque du Soleil's "Banana Shpeel" (at the Beacon Theater, and not technically eligible). Most of this is tiresome in the extreme. The clowning is drearily unfunny. Some acts - notably the three female Mongolian contortionists - are the wrong kind of bizarre. There's some good tap-dancing, but Jared Grimes's choreography (admirable in other contexts, and my reason for going) never seriously takes wing. A Canadian acrobatic couple do impressive stunts. But I kept cringing: why was I even watching such a farrago? Not likely to be around very long |
Sunday, June 06, 2010
From Anonymous
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3 comments:
Didn't know the word so I looked
it up in the dictionary
Farrago - jumble - hodgepodge
a confused mixture of things
Great word
The review quoted is by the New York Times' dance critic, Alastair Macaulay, in his tour of Tony-nominated and other New York show choreography. He also wrote “[but] how do I admit that I adored its male pole-dancing Pierrot? ... [Dmitry Bulkin] alone transcends “Banana Shpeel”: he is the one person here who turns his act into art.... His nondance is the single most enchanting new choreography around Broadway.” That’s great praise for a circus performer and his act! New York Times theatre critic Neil Genzlinger wrote the official NYT review (printed May 25), stating Banana Shpeel “is not as entertaining as something that lasts almost two and a half hours ought to be.” Like other reviewers who also disliked much of the show, he did like some of the “polished routines Cirque fans have come to expect at the troupe’s ever-growing collection of shows: impressive physical feats performed in cool costumes (by Dominique Lemieux) and bathed in arresting lighting (Bruno Rafie).” Another helpful review with some comparative background appears in the most recent New Yorker and can be seen online at http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/dancing/2010/06/07/100607crda_dancing_acocella
Dick Flint
Baltimore
Never been a fan of the Canuckian
sun worshipping Peta friendly
well corporate and government
supported style of these things
But that's just my opinion
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