Cirque goes beyond the saturation point

In its relentless campaign to achieve total world domination of the spectacle market, Cirque du Soleil has just added a new touring show to its arsenal of a dozen other traveling and sit-down productions.

Yet judging from the maiden voyage of the new audiovisual extravaganza "Delirium," which came to KeyArena for a two-night run this week, the hugely successful Montreal-based company shouldn't bet the tent on this one.

Cirque's first offering to be tailored specifically for the super-size-arena market has all the techno-wizardry and seamless packaging one expects from this operation. But somehow it boils down to roughly 90 minutes of bombastic sensory overkill.

Yes, there are some glorious mixed-media visual effects here, achieved via state-of-the-art amalgams of film and live video playing on giant, IMAX-on-steroids screens.

Among the most stunning are the multimedia collages achieved in the "Bridge of Sorrow" number. With the aid of a thin white curtain, a tsunami appears to sweep across the broad stage and the screens, and to submerge them underwater. In this phantasmagorical sea, arms wave up from the briny deep, while up, up high, (live) aerialists hang by their feet from silky cocoons.

"Delirium" also boasts eye-popping costumes, including a white dress with an epic skirt that serves as another projection screen. And the 44-member cast includes some world-class acrobatic and aerial performers, whose gorgeous bodies and physical feats (with silver hula hoops, hand-balancing routines and trapeze maneuvers) are breathtaking.

But in line with the arena surroundings, music is meant to be the major focal point of "Delirium." The production covers 20 songs from previous, big-top Cirque shows in "musical tableaux," where rampaging dancers and limber acrobats are often upstaged by over-amped music and psychedelic screen imagery. And where a New Agey man floating around via helium balloon triggers pretentious voice-overs about space, time and consciousness.

Review

Tuesday, KeyArena, Seattle Center. Closed Wednesday.

One gets worn down by the nonstop, blaring sonic assault of thumping electric bass, strident vocals and inexorable percussion during such repetitious power ballads as "Too High" and "Time Flies."

By contrast, in Cirque's circus shows staged in big-top tents (such as this year's "Varekai" at Redmond's Marymoor Park), the platitudinous ballads tend to alternate with quieter, more playful music. And they are woven into a more varied and whimsical tapestry of skill acts, comic routines and decorous ensemble numbers.

Stacked back to back in "Delirium," the sameness of many of these songs (albeit penned by several different composers) and the aural uniformity of the shrieky "world bleat" vocalizing, is all too apparent.

Occasional respite can be found in some rootsy African-style numbers featuring a pair of Senegalese singer-drummers, and in a sleek, accordion-driven tango passage.

But even when the projected images — replete with whirling smoke rings, blood cells, huge human faces and starry galaxies — are most captivating, "Delirium" can feel sludgy and overwrought. In its quest for ever more venues and audiences, Cirque du Soleil would be wise not to surrender its whimsical soul.

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com