Review: Cirque du Soleil

On a rainy Friday night, I went in to downtown Boston with a group of friends to go see the latest flavor of Cirque du Soleil: KOOZA. Surprisingly (though maybe it shouldn't be), this circus is actually held in a tent - set up in the parking lot of the Bayside Expo Center.

The show has a very loose "story" line that I am just not cultured enough to understand. Something about a boy in striped pajamas who was flying a kite when all of a sudden an acrobat popped out of a box. Then there was something about a crown and a wand. There were lots of great songs and routines, then the boy gave up the crown and wand and all the performers went away.

Huh??

Besides the "story" line (or lack thereof), the show was quite enjoyable - everything you imagine Cirque to be, including crazy acrobats, tightrope walkers, trapeze artists, and a dude in a diaper climbing a stack of chairs 30 feet high (seriously!).

I commented to my sister on the way out that - as mean as this sounds - I saw more nets and safety wires than I had expected. Aren't these supposed to be the world's best acrobats? Can't they work without a net? Safety schmafety. (lol) Though I must admit, even with the safety nets, there were a few instances in the show where it looked like the performer almost lost it... again, surprising for the world's best acrobats... but certainly underlines the need for safety precautions.

Stacey's Rating: I give KOOZA four whole, unnibbled PORK Chops (on a scale of five). Definitely an entertaining evening, even if I didn't get the story part of it. I deducted one PORK Chop because of the poor location (even at 8:00 on a Friday, it took a long time to drive in), horrible parking situation (it took 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot), and high prices (we had "cheap seats" at the extreme left side of the U-shaped arena - some views obstructed with a pole - and it was still $45/ticket once convenience charges are added in).