Ring mastered

Canada’s Cirque du Soleil (Circus of the Sun) includes five touring troupes that perform different shows in North America and Europe, as well as two productions-in-residence in Las Vegas and one at Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

Its current offering, Alegria, is a magical, mythical voyage through the realms of the human imagination and the thirst for freedom of spirit.

The joy and wonder of Cirque du Soleil is that it offers a unique series of acts and way of seeing a circus. Alegria is the Spanish word for "jubilation," and this production features an international cast of 56 performers and musicians from 13 countries.

The company that began as a gang of French-Canadian hippies in 1984 has grown into a multinational entertainment brand that has reinvented the circus format. Alegria is a seamless blend of music, design and performance that still celebrates, at heart, the beauty and power of the human form.

The Parisian decadence of the accordion-heavy score, played live by the onstage band, is echoed in the grotesquely baroque costumes of the numerous characters. The three clowns perform starkly expressionistic routines. And the masochistic antics of the strongman and a twisting Mongolian contortionist hark back to the freak-show aspect of the traditional circus. It is to the credit of Alegria‘s conceiver and director, Franco Dragone, that so many diverse, delightful and potentially disturbing elements have been forged together into a show that entrances both young and old.

To understand what a Cirque du Soleil show is like, you first have to forget every childhood memory of ringmasters, clown cars and lion tamers.

Cirque is one of those rare companies that redefines its industry. It takes the circus’ raw materials and combines them with surreal costumes, nonstop New Age music and dazzling stagecraft, and ties it all together with a vaguely profound theme.

The result is a spectacle that leaves audiences cheering and reaching for metaphors.

"It’s like a tour of Dante’s Inferno designed by Federico Fellini," someone once said.

Alegria features several ringmasters, including the hunchback, beak-nosed Fleur (Evgueni Ivanov), who wears a red velvet coachman’s jacket, black brimmed hat and jeweled vest that barely covers his protruding belly. This man is jealous, petty and angry, but also can turn on the charm. He parades around with a gaggle of bizarre bird people called "The Old Birds."

Bird songs, whistles and chirps play over the sound system. A mechanical bird on a wire descends from the darkness. The Old Birds are twisted, deformed and ugly, with weird hats and flamboyant costumes in rich tones of mauve, green and gold covered with lace, jewels and embroidery. They represent the old aristocracy, who still think they have power and beauty but are only empty shells of their former selves. They are envious of the young beautiful artists performing great athletic feats.

These brilliantly costumed humans fly through the air like so many exotic birds that draw the oohs and aahs from the crowd for spectacular numbers such as "Fast Track," "Russian Bars" and "Aerial High Bar."

Cirque’s trademark is its sophisticated theatrical presentation of acrobatics, but one of Alegria‘s most successful acts is pure theater.

In a number called "Storm," a clown (Yuri Medvedev) with a suitcase mimes a tale to bluesy trumpet music that includes clever business with a coat and hat on a hanger, imagery of trains and a blizzard of scrap paper.

The show has three red-nosed clowns whose tomfoolery combines inspiration and tedium in equal measure. Their interaction with the audience is pure fun.

If Cirque du Soleil has any failings, it’s the thread of a plot clumsily woven throughout its productions that loosely attempts to connect disparate acts. The anemic story line is easy to disregard because you will be too consumed by the liquid acrobatics, the primal sophistication of the all-pervading music and the intricate boldness of the costumes to pay much heed to anything resembling a plot.

Cirque’s trademark blue-and-yellow big top is a state-of-the-art marvel. The intimacy of Cirque’s traveling big top remains a plus. A live band channels composer Rene Dupere’s variably propulsive and moody mix of world beat, soft rock and sync-pop. Based in part on the traditional music from Eastern Europe’s Romanesque culture, the warm music is created to suggest a complete lack of amplification and an acoustic ambiance. All songs have phonetic sentence strings instead of words in any particular language — a Cirque du Soleil trademark.

Managing the creative aspects — casts, sets, costumes, show facilities and touring arms of Cirque du Soleil — is a feat in itself. In 1984, Cirque had 73 employees and one Grand Chapiteau (big top). Today, Cirque has nine shows with 2,700 employees representing 40 nationalities and speaking 25 languages. For 20 years, the company has provided productions of such breathtaking beauty and awe-inspiring talent that Cirque is bound to continue to redefine live entertainment and sell out venues around the world.

Cirque du Soleil: Alegria
Broad Street and Washington Avenue
Through Aug. 8
Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8 p.m.; Thursdays-Saturdays, 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Tickets $45-$70
800-678-5440
www.cirquedusoleil.com