No elephants, but a stunning 'cirque'

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By Bill Wundram | Friday, April 18, 2008 12:58 PM CDT | () comments

FOR years, I’ve been leery. For one thing, I could never pronounce Cirque du Soleil. More important, I am a circus purist, so I always avoided Cirque du Soleil. Shucks, a real circus is lions and tigers and sawdust and cotton candy. Cirque is what? I never understood.

But Cirque is in town at Moline’s i wireless Center, and I plopped myself down near the center ring, which is no center ring but an Alice in Wonderland stage of wires and rigging and lights that cover most of the floor.

I wondered if this would be circus or a spangling Las Vegas hybrid. I was suspect, because there was no one hawking snow cones or whirling light gadgets to tempt the kids. There was no circusy essence of elephant dung. No animals. No one was peddling that circus feast, hot roasted peanuts.

At Cirque, the clowns — richly costumed and made up — worked the audience before show time. They were great clowns, some with Pinocchio noses. One shtick broke me up. They ordered a dozen people in the front row to surrender their tickets and follow them. The clowns led the unwary to nowhere, then returned to take over their seats. They tore the tickets to bits and merrily tossed them into the air. Laughter! The patrons were escorted back to their seats before the show began.

The lights dimmed. I awaited a red-coated ringmaster and a thundering welcome, “Children of all ages …” The ringmaster, or mistress as was the case, was a petite young woman in a skin-tight white outfit. Her welcome was in French, so not many in the audience knew what she said. But then again, not many were in the audience.

This was midweek, Wednesday night, and Tom Getz of Moline and I agreed that this was the smallest audience we had ever seen for a performance of anything at i wireless Center. An attendant said the turnout 2,000 people, which made the 10,000-seat place look a hollow shell. It was about the same on opening night.

If this had been a truck pull, the place would have likely been packed, but this cirque was offbeat stuff for the Quad-Cities. Too bad. It is the most dazzling circus-spectacle I have ever sat through without peanuts … color and flash and action to give you goose pimples.

Cirque du Soleil — that’s French for “Circus of the Sun” — is rooted in ages-old circus tradition, but with splash and class and singing and costuming. This unit played in 74 cities on five continents, and is now touring 40 arenas in the U.S. and Canada. It is no rag-tag trailer outfit, but with performers that would make Ringling jealous.

Performers — there are 50 — are pampered. They are staying at the Isle of Capri in Bettendorf while here and similar places on tour. Three chefs prepare the food on site. Lots of protein, with a full-time dietitian.

To boost the turnout for the main floor seats, the price has now been cut in half. Instead of $92.50, it’s $47.50. It’s not being advertised, but ask. The same half-price for lower bowl seating, but you must ask at the boxoffice. There are performances at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. today before the show heads for Cedar Rapids.

Walking out of the arena. Dr. Dennis Miller of Davenport said: “Even without elephants, it’s an unbelievable show. Wonderful.”

It’s said that Cirque du Soleil would like to return to the Quad-Cities next year with a new unit.

Let’s hope so. I didn’t even miss the cotton candy.

Bill Wundram can be contacted at (563) 383-2249 or bwundram@qctimes.com. Comment on this column at qctimes.com.