Imagine two aspects of Cirque du Soleil — lyrical acrobatic dancing and twisty aerial work — set against evocative, colorful costumes, lighting, and projections and telling the semi-beloved story of The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s durable fable of an ingenuous alien boy learning the ways of mankind. With that vision in mind, you instantly get the charms and fatal flaws Anne Tournié adaptation of Prince, now playing at Broadway’s Broadway Theater: the first half hour is kind of magical, the next hour is samey-samey, and the last 30 minutes is a mind-numbing test of patience.
It’s a credit to lithe, blonde Lionel Zalachas that we never tire of watching his dance work, particularly his duet with equally graceful Laurisse Sulty (as a flower come to life). Since the “plot” of Prince consists of the alien visiting numerous planets and cataloguing their foibles, the evening lacks forward momentum, and any attempted poignance between the boy and an aviator fixing his crashed plane in the Sahara feels troweled on because the two have zero contact between their first meeting and final farewell.
At an intermissionless 75 minutes, and perhaps in a less cavernous venue, this balletic spectacle would likely hold its delicate spell. Over two hours, including a 20-minute intermission and post-curtain call extra scene, the current production slides inexorably from grandeur to languor, and, in so doing, turns The Little Prince into a royal bore.
