Circ Du Soleil

Theater review: "Cirque du Soleil: Zarkana"

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL: ZARKANA

At Radio City Music Hall, 1260 Sixth Ave., Manhattan.

Written and directed by Francois Girard.

Schedule: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets: $47 to $130.

866-858-0008 or ticketmaster.com.

The various editions of Cirque du SoleiI that I've seen over the years have blurred together, merged through their similar ingredients: lavish costumes and scenic designs, bland rock and New Age music, superb circus acts and run-of-the-mill clowns.

Each one has a distinctive story, or so the shows' publicity material tells us. In performance, the tales are impossible to decipher.

Take "Zarkana," which opened Wednesday night at Radio City Music Hall.

The official description: "The story follows Zark, a magician who has lost his powers — and the love of his life — in an abandoned theater populated by a motley collection of off-the-wall characters and incomparable acrobats."

What I saw was a sinister-looking fellow wandering around the stage, singing, mostly unintelligibly because of the fierce amplification. "I want your body" was a lyric that seemed to pop out, although I wouldn't swear to it. My story line was that he was auditioning for Broadway's next vampire musical.

So, forget the narrative.

It's just part of the clutter that surrounds and sometimes distracts from the wonder of the sublime acrobats, jugglers, balancers and other circus artists who perform feats that life experience tells us are impossible for the human body to achieve.

What's new about Zarkana is that, rather than being presented under the usual Cirque big top, it's housed at the majestic Music Hall for a run scheduled into October.

And writer-director Francois Girard has astutely incorporated the possibilities offered by the huge stage and, especially, the theater's vaulting height, into the show.

Rarely has the spectacle of the flying trapeze been more dazzling, as the flyers soar and spin across the proscenium arch high above us.

The thrill they provide is not of danger — there's a net beneath them — but of grace, balance, timing and visual beauty.

Unfortunately, their performance is accompanied by unnecessary business going on around them: clowns in a corner of the stage, other figures passing through, and, as a backdrop, performers perched in a giant web.

(What I assume to be the "Spider-Man" effect is also present at another point, when a clown glides slowly out over the audience. That moment was actually rather neat.

Cirque Du Soleil Hunk Plays Ball, Momentarily Squelches My Fear Of ...

, which I’d never seen before. In fact, I’d never watched any Cirque Du Soleil performances, but — to my surprise — it turned out that he was a big fan, having seen all of their performances each time they came through his hometown (not to mention here in New York, where he and I are both adults who pay our own way to the theater and concerts).

I, personally, insist that Cirque Du Soleil is majorly creepy, given that people dressed like celestial demonclowns pull their junk over their foreheads as Pure Moods a Cirque Jerk (my term) and a sports nut (I’m not), this video of one of the troupe’s performers — decked out in the appropriate “Sexy Na’vi Beast” gear — throwing out the first pitch at a Padres/Royals game would  make me very happy. Understandably, what he does is very cool, but I should point out that he’s not climbing vines with his feet as Enya screams at me. So, for what it’s worth, let’s be happy that this guy does a great job, but it’s on the pitcher’s mound instead of a smoky forest in which I would hate to get lost. This makes it better.