Cirque Dreams: Jungle Fantasy at the Broadway Theater, created and directed by Neil Goldberg, is a beautifully staged, world-class, fully satisfying audience pleaser. Comparisons with Cirque du Soleil are inevitable, but neither one is better than the other. They're only different. Cirque Dreams' dramatic lighting, its brilliant multifarious costumes ostriches, leopards, unicorns, parrots, giraffes and hundreds more - and the charm, agility and winning personalities of the performers - all make for a precisely woven tapestry suggestive at times of Julie Taymor's Lion King, Rudolph Nureyev dancing Don Quixote, and the best Ringling Brothers acrobatic acts.
The "contorting lizards" from Mongolia do things with the human body that don't seem possible, and Vladimir Dovgan and Anatoliy Yeniy seem to stop every heart in the audience with the death-defying Snake Roller act. Although the story-line is a bit difficult to follow, it doesn't really matter. The evening has color, sweep, vibrancy, beauty and fun.
Jill Winters' music and lyrics (sung mostly by Jill Diane) fill the hall with emotions of majesty and hopefulness. And there are more than enough cute gags to tickle already awe-inspired audience members both young and old.
