Going Bananas

Cirque de Soleil always entertains me. With the exception of one show, I have enjoyed them – of course some more than others. On Friday night, ‘Banana Shpeel’ was the most recent Cirque that I saw.

It has been credited as looking at vaudeville and taking a step in that direction. It was fun to see what vaudeville might have been like after this brief glimpse. As usual I was awestruck by a number of the traditional cirque acts – the contortionists and jugglers. Cringing a bit at the way people’s bodies can bend and turn - reminders that my body can barely get out of bed in the morning.

However my favorite part of this performance was the clowns. There are always clowns at the circus and at Cirque. Somehow they touched me as sillier than usual perhaps because they played a bigger part in this show than others in the past. A couple of the lines made me actually cry from the laughter. Always a good sign!

In addition I thought the dance numbers were pretty cool especially one in the dark. Tap dance infused many of the dance performances and I couldn’t have been happier. Tap is probably my favorite form of dance so I felt like I was being catered to.

We sat in the first row and I was scared of being called on but luckily I made it out alive. I recommend this show if you want a laugh and to spend some time doing something different.