Cirque du Soleil Wintuk

Wintuk, Cirque du Soleil's holiday show here in NYC, opened last year, although word was it was just "a kid's show".  So, I didn't see it, although I did set up a backstage tour for my students. But this year, in typical Cirque fashion, they re-worked the show, and I went to see it yesterday and it was a lot of fun!

In comparison to Believe, Love, and Ka (about all of which I have written extensively, click the links for more), Wintuk gets back to Cirque's, uh, circus roots and has some really great acts worked into a simple holiday story: a boy who goes looking for snow since there isn't any in his town (global warming?). As a friend on the show crew said to me, "It works if you don't ask why such and such is happening and just enjoy it!" (Advice which could apply to many Cirque shows).

The beautiful projections were by Francis Laporte, who I interviewed for Love and again a couple months ago for Believe (that article is still in the works, should be out in February), and sound by my old friend Jonathan Deans was great as always.  The snow effects were done in collaboration with Gregory Meeh of J&M Special Effects, a great guy who I have known since I worked for a competing FX company back in in the 1980's. 

Afterwards, Cirque's technical director Matt Stoody graciously gave about 20 of my students a talk and a backstage tour.