Kurioser and Kurioser

After more than a month here in Denver, Cirque du Soleil's newest touring show is leaving at the end of this week. Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities is one of the company's best shows in years; if you're able to catch it before it's gone, I highly recommend it. (And if you're near Chicago, start making plans for its next stop in August.)

With around three dozen different shows in its 30 year history, wholly new Cirque productions are quite rare. In this, Kurios is not truly an exception. But in the ways the show manages to present tried and true acts in clever new ways, while blending in a handful of new ideas and a clever setting, Kurios stands out.

Each Cirque show has a loose story and theme used to connect the different acrobatic performances. For Kurios, the protagonist is a mad inventor whose machine bends time and space -- all presented with a lavish steampunk vibe. Costumes, sets, musical style... everything suggests a 19th-century vision of technological future.

Where Kurios really shines is in presenting some of Cirque's most iconic acts with a surprising new twist. Instead of a trapeze performance, there's a Russian cradle duo that comes off more daring and difficult. The excellent juggler is accompanied on stage by a Stomp-like percussion performance, and doesn't miss a beat even when he's hoisted dozens of feet into the air! A balancing act took on seemingly impossible dimensions as a performer teetered on a tower of perpendicular cylinders.

My favorite act was a triumph not only of gymnastics, but of creative presentation. I've seen before a Cirque act in which a man builds a precarious-looking tower of chairs and climbs ever higher to perform feats of balance and strength. This version took place at a dinner party, and halfway through the act another dinner party was revealed in the rafters high above the stage, with a duplicate set of performers staging the same act upside-down to reach the original performers in the middle!

I found the show thrilling even though at least two of the acts were altered (probably due to performer injury or exhaustion). The descriptions of Kurios mention a group of four contortionists (where I saw only three) and a dual aerial straps performance (which was performed solo at my show). An Aerial Bike act also described online (and featured in a lot of the production's advertisements) was omitted entirely. Yet the show didn't feel compromised to me in any way.

Whether you've never seen a Cirque du Soleil performance before, or you've seen as many as I have, I can't recommend Kurios highly enough. It's a grade A night of entertainment. The clock is ticking (except in the world of Kurios' steampunk protagonist), so look for tickets now!