Full disclosure: we got free tickets.
But, it is likely I would have gone anyway, and taken my offspring–even though the posters in the subway did nothing to endear me to this edition’s apparent theme of eggs and bugs.
OMG, can I tell you how cool it is to get free tickets to a Cirque du Soliel show just because I am part of some vast blogging mommy syndicate. It’s really cool. I mean free tickets to Corteo was a big incentive when, several years ago, I worked a Cirque du Soleil opening night party gig, as part of “Kendall Cornell’s Soon-to-be-world-famous Women’s Clown Troupe”.
It was a little odd that the swag offered by the representatives of Cirque du Soleil at the mommy blogger event was only ONE ticket. I mean, we’re blogging mommies, as in we blog because we need to communicate with the outside world and our lives are set up so that we can barely have a conversation with our spouses about bills and dental appointments. But, I was one of the lucky ones. Me and another Brooklyn mom got the vouchers from suburban and or Philly mom’s who wouldn’t be in town for the offered Wednesday or Thursday shows so we got to take our daughters, who got along amazingly well for a couple of fourth graders from different schools, who don’t really remember how they were such good friends in their morning preschool class for 3-year-olds.
It was a really good show! The images seemed stronger than those in the last Cirque du Soleil show The Husband and I took My Kid to. This one, while there was the “Bug’s Life” theme a bit, was really fun, in part, because they had six adorable Chinese acrobats dressed (as someone else said) like “Teletubbies”, who spun the standard apparatus in unison and the props looked like slices of kiwi and ears of corn. I don’t know why we liked that so much, but we did.
Michelle Matlock was one of the clowns, I don’t know her–but-less-than-six-degrees-of-separation: she did something with Amy G who was in a couple of the same shows I was in at Annex in Seattle. As the love-interest ladybug she was pretty one dimensional–not given enough to do as far as I’m concerned. Even her costume seemed to lack the detail and shading of the male clown bugs. (WTF???!!!) I imagine that to be the result of artistic choices imposed on her from above. But, kudos to her for getting to originate a role!
Anyway, we loved the trampoline/climbing wall spectacle at the end.
While I was watching the show, my thoughts did turn for a moment to Spencer Novich (who I met at a David Shiner workshop), who just graduated from NYU has been hired by Cirque du Soleil and is moving to Las Vegas for same. I hope they use him well. He’s very good.