The little man is jumping out of his chair!
I am thrilled.
The reviews of KOOZA are starting to come in and it looks like it's across the board RAVES! it's not everyday that the opening paragraph of a theatre review gives you chills:
Cirque du Soleil's breathtaking and heart-stopping 'Kooza'
Robert Hurwitt, Chronicle Theater Critic
The man running in place atop a rapidly spinning metal wheel high in the air is breathtaking. He stumbles. Hearts stop. Somehow he manages to regain his footing fast enough to keep up with the merciless spinning of the round metal cage, propelled by his partner running inside its twin wheel at the other end of a rotating shaft. Then the man leaps - not once but several times, higher and higher, his body floating weightless for an instant before he plummets to barely catch that wheel and keep running as before.
That's just the opening of the second act of "Kooza," the new Cirque du Soleil spectacle that opened its U.S. tour Friday in the company's trademark yellow-and-gold Grand Chapiteau outside AT&T Park. By then, hearts have been stopped so many times and breaths held so long - by daredevil high-wire, trapeze and unicycle acts and anatomy-defying contortionists - it's a wonder we still have the capacity to be thrilled. We do, and are. "Kooza" is the Cirque at the top of its form, without the self-conscious artiness that has marred some of its outings.
It's still sumptuously beautiful, with sleek, athletic young bodies arrayed in Marie-Chantale Vaillancourt's shiny, multicolored, form-fitting and fanciful costumes, artfully displayed by Clarence Ford's fluid choreography. The voluminous drapes of Stéphane Roy's set open to reveal a fantastical two-story bandstand of wrought iron, fabric and lanterns, with circus acts tumbling forth from the story below the band. Martin Labrecque's colorful shafts and washes of light heighten the drama and fantasy alike.
But this is a Cirque fully focused on its superb circus skills and clowns, and every act repays attention. Conceived, written and directed by master clown David Shiner - of the Cirque's "Nouvelle Experience" and ( with Bill Irwin) "Fool Moon" fame - "Kooza" concentrates on the artists rather than the spectacle.
Many other directorial hands have been involved, to be sure, including the Cirque mainstays, artistic "guide" Guy Laliberté, Artistic Director Luc Tremblay and "Director of Creation" Serge Roy. But the endlessly productive Cirque is big enough to accommodate many artistic visions. Shiner's is a showcase of circus skills within a loose narrative carried by clown characters who are actually funny.
The sylph-like contortionists Julie Bergez, Natasha Patterson and Dasha Sovik (the Mystic Pixies of the San Francisco School of Circus Arts) gracefully twist their preternaturally flexible bodies into impossible shapes as they balance on each others' shoulders or hips. A statuesque Darya Vintilova - striking attitudes midway between a dominatrix and a femme fatale - soars, flips and catches herself by ankles or calves on the high-flying trapeze. The Russian duo, Diana Aleshchenko and Yury Shavro, execute impressive balletic maneuvers on a fleet unicycle.
From Spain comes the astonishing two-tiered high-wire act of Angel Quiros Dominguez, Vicente Quiros Dominguez, Angel Villarejo Dominguez and Flouber Sanchez, working without safety wires and at first without a net as they dance and leapfrog across the wires to Spanish tunes. Fortunately, a net was rigged up by the time one of them slipped and just managed to catch himself by a hand.
Jean-François Côté's eclectic, propulsive score references the artists' many nationalities in a dynamic mix of American and French pop, jazz, funk, Bollywood and traditional Indian melodies, brightly executed by a sharp band led by keyboardist Seth Stachowski. The warm tones of vocalist Tara Baswani glide sinuously through Côté's melodies.
The thin framework features Stéphan Landry as a guileless Innocent introduced to the circus world by Jason Berrent's candy-striped, serpentine Trickster - with some "Sorcerer's Apprentice" repercussions that unleash a comic dance of skeletons and creepy long cape made up of scampering rats. Gordon White's cluelessly bossy King, Christian Fitzharris, Joshua Zehner and deft pickpocket Michael Halvarson capably fill the other clown roles, with a great deal of Shiner's trademark audience participation (some will get wet; many will be covered in confetti; one person's chair may have a mind of its own).
There's also magic, Zhang Gongli's wondrous chair balancing, Anthony Gatto's eye-blurring juggling and that gripping Wheel of Death act by Jimmy Ibarra Zapata and Carlos Enrique Marin Loaiza. It's almost too much. Friday's show ran close to three hours, counting the half-hour intermission. But it's not such a bad thing when one's main criticism is that a show is generous to a fault.
E-mail Robert Hurwitt at rhurwitt@sfchronicle.com.