To cite resemblance between this production, Viaggio, and grand Cirque du Soleil productions in large on-land theaters is a hopeful but much-diminished attempt to retain the excellence of the latter on a moving cruise ship. The technical values are high, but the activity and the “actors” are amateurish and unworthy of the price of admission. The idea behind the Viaggio display of vivid colors in projections, costumes, and such props as umbrellas is “a poetic adventure into the world of color” by a painter journeying “into his imagination.” Though the colors are always in display except in the painter’s formal black suit, there’s not much adventure. There are circus “acts.” Two men, back to back, on a large tricycle pedal their way from a side rise to the circular stage. It doesn’t take much balancing skill, since they’re heavily wired. Jugglers dropped their batons twice in the performance I watched. The female acrobat had an interesting costume, but her acrobatics were of the fifth grade school level in the Circus Conservatory of junior high to high school students back in my Sarasota, Florida home. The best balancing act had a man climbing a steel ladder unattached to any wall but in the center of the stage. It was done briefly, but twice. The most different trick had a woman turning her large umbrella into a skirt that went upside down to turn into a vessel on which she could be whisked off stage. Many people stayed for a while after the show, wondering if the end was an intermission or really an end. That is probably why there was so little applause. Cruise ship musicals are usually not critics’ favorite shows, but at least they seem to be always accessible (not needing special reservations) and included in the price of the cruise fare.
