NativeNYker's Rants, Thoughts & Merde

Zarkana at Radio City Music Hall curtain call – August, 2012.

If there is one thing Cirque du Soleil can always manage to do is catch you off guard and make you gasp!  If not with there staging then assuredly with the talent featured in their elaborate productions.  Zarkana contains a few of those OMG moments – the Wheel of Death and Trapeze acts – that leave you gasping for air!

And the standout of the night goes easily to body artist Anatoly Zalevskiy, who steals the spotlight with his fusion of contortionist and gymnastic and leaves you wanting for more.

Having said that, the grand production is lacking the personal feel of the tent and ring that solidified the French Canadian’s original spin on the classic circus show.

Sure, the general make-up has exponentially grown into with their popularity.  So much so that their leap to stage productions has been met with Vegas building them a permanent set-up to best feature the talent; but Radio City ain’t that the Vegas stage and, in the end, this leaves you feeling removed from whats transpiring on that huge ass stage.

But it is about the talent and the gasping, in the end and Zarkana manages to deliver on response from its audience – if only barely.

We are not of the group that is altogether pleased with the leap and hope they will return to what drew our devoted patronage from the start.

We give Zarkana a 3 out of 5 stars!

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CirqueDuSoleilZarkana

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