Did anyone check out the preview of Wintouk ?

[joe5]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 8:09am

[rabymon10]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 8:50am

It's 'Wintuk', and (in future) you may want to elaborate more on what the show is for most to understand; Cirque seems to be laying low at advertising this one for now. Hopefully a great word of mouth will carry it.

For those that don't know, 'Wintuk' is Cirque du Soleil's first venture for a show in New York outside of the Big Top. Here's some filler from a press release:

'A young boy lives in a city where the arrival of winter has brought long shadows and intense cold – but no snow!

He interacts with an extraordinary cast of high-energy urban street characters, including skaters, dancers and talking marionettes. But when the snow doesn't arrive, he embarks on a quest with companions to find the snow and bring it back where it belongs.

The adventurers journey to an imaginary Arctic – a world without sunlight – where they encounter the rich culture of the People of the North and extraordinary giant characters made of ice. When at last the sun returns, they fly home on the wings of a giant crane and unleash an epic snowstorm.

The show is playful and full of the exuberance of youth. Above all, it's funny. A cast of 50 artists blend thrilling circus arts, breathtaking theatrical effects, and memorable songs, weaving them into a seasonal, meaningful story that resonates with the whole family.

Cirque du Soleil will present a new creation in the Theater at the Madison Square Garden. The show will run for ten weeks, each winter, beginning in 2007 for the next four years.

Previews for the 2007 season will be presented from November 1 to 4. The official season will run from November 6 2007 to January 6 2008.'

From the videos I've seen so far detailing behind the scenes of this show, it will be nothing short of amazing. It has some amazing puppetry, and some of Cirque's best found artists have come back for this show, including Elena Lev; probably one of the best hoop artists in the world... she's simply awe inspiring.

Lovely little website for it here:

http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/CirqueDuSoleil/en/showstickets/wintuk/intro/intro

[BrianIdol]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 9:06am

Rabymon - Actually, Delirium was Cirque's first venture in the city out of the big-top. So maybe you should check your sources before you "elaborate more".

[rabymon10]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 9:17am

My mistake, I had meant first permanent show.

[Rotel1026]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 9:59am

Delirium was not unique to the city, it toured the country and is now in Europe somewhere, Wintuk is playing exclusively in New York for the foreseeable future.

[WickedBoy2]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 10:18am

'Dellirium' is indeed in Europe but has gatherd some pretty luke warm reviews from most of the press.
'Wintuk' looks brilliant on the website and i hope i can catch it when im over in 4 weeks time. You lucky people.

Posted: 11/2/07 at 10:59am

I saw the first preview and while much of it is stunning, it really doesn't have any "edge"- its VERY g- rated. The puppet "Dogs" are amazing but you tire of them after about 10 minutes. However, the talented acrobats alone make it worth the price of admission.

[joe5]

Posted: 11/2/07 at 1:21pm

Thanks Deena, Stunning is what always comes to mind with Cirque. G rated is what they said the show would be. Sorry for the mis-spelling, seeing it next Saturday and can't wait!

[logan0215]

Posted: 11/5/07 at 8:58pm

bump

[Testing1232]

Posted: 11/5/07 at 9:38pm

A co-worker of mine saw it Saturday, and was extremely disappointed with it. She said it didnt seem like "Cirque" at all !

[chad2]

Posted: 11/5/07 at 9:41pm

Are the cheap seats any good for the show? I have no idea about MSG

[winston89]

Posted: 11/6/07 at 4:03am

It isn't at the garden itself it's at the theatre at madsion square garden. Different venue.



I have never seen Cirqu du solie before. I really never had any desire to. Thier shows never really appealed to me. However, Wintuk looks interesting. I may want to check that one out. I get the impression that most of thier shows are based around a central theme whereas this one actually has a story behind it.

I am not suprised to hear that this one is very G rated. I mean most of thier shows are in Vegas and that is a place that is full of stuff that is for adults. They intended to make a family focused show and it looks like that is what they did for the first time. They wanted it to be yet another holiday show in NYC and they accomplished that.

[logan0215]

Posted: 11/7/07 at 2:10am

Actually, every Cirque du Soleil show is appropriate for all ages (regardless of location) except Zumanity which is their 18+ show in Vegas.

This is just the first show they've dumbed down enough to be called a "family show."

[logan0215]

Posted: 11/7/07 at 2:15am

My friend Wayne's review from the Cirque Tribune. This is obviously from the viewpoint of a Cirque diehard like myself, most likely at the same calibre as many consider themselves to Broadway on this board.:

---------------------------------------------------------------

"My thoughts on Wintuk . . . 'Something's Missing'"


"Something's Missing" is the first track title on the Wintuk soundtrack and it's a perfect tagline for the show.

One line summary; it was ****ing awful!!! A horrible joke of a show and a complete waste of time and money.

It's basically done in the same style as Solstrom, low brow, insipid and completely devoid of any artistic aspects. The show is aimed exclusively at kids and it is basically at the same level as Sesame Street Live. I mean it was painfully juvenile and stupid.

Just as Zumanity has a warning at the door that it was created exclusively for guests over the age of 18, Wintuk should have a similar warning that it was created for kids under the age of 10.

Going into the show Wintuk was a big question mark but I knew enough to not expect the regular Cirque fare. Being a seasonal "Winter" show Wintuk is poised more to compete with New York's perennial holiday offerings like "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" or the Radio City Rockettes' Christmas show and possibly even the triad of Disney musicals on Broadway (The Lion King, Mary Poppins and The Little Mermaid); all shows with light, familiar, rather insipid content and razzle dazzle spectacle but generally devoid of depth or any real substance. I was curious to see whether Wintuk would at least attempt to raise the bar on this genre. Instead the company has apparently found a basement under its all-time-low. The magic is dead and gone, the company officially sold off the last remaining shred of its soul and now is apparently incapable of producing anything than hackneyed commercial tripe like Wintuk.

The first clue that something is off is that Wintuk is being billed as Cirque's first "family" show . . . uh, La Nouba is smack in the middle of freakin' Disney World! How could Cirque not consider it a "family" show? I don't know how much they think they have to dumb a show down to consider it fit for families. I was also wary because the last time Cirque specifically used the dubious "family" label was Solstrom, indisputably the most inane and juvenile pile of garbage the company has ever produced. It seems "family" is Cirque code for "kiddy show" or "we don't have to try too hard". After all who criticizes the artistic merits of a kids' show? But that's ok, as it turns out Wintuk has no artistic merits; the show is a completely phoned-in, disparate collection of acts poorly strung together by a weak, insipid "story". There's no higher level concepts in the staging, music or choreography. What you see is what you get.

The venue is an awkward low-ceiling and entirely too wide boxing showroom at Madison Square Garden that resulted in an awkwardly staged show. The audience consisted 90% of parents and small children in fact I felt awkward being there without a small child.

The music is uninspired generic pop rock of the style you'd hear at any Sesame Street kids' show. Being a show in New York the home of Broadway, it's inconceivable that Cirque would skimp on something as essential as live music. I'm aware the MSG is not a Broadway venue and therefore not under the same contractual obligations as a Broadway house but for a company with the ample resources that Cirque has axing live musicians and singers in favour of tracks is possibly the most petty, shameful and pathetic move they could make. I couldn't help but laugh when the Russian Bar number missed one of the tricks and finished the act off the music (the canned track ran out before the act finished) it looked awful but that's what you get when you cheap out and use canned tracks.

Some of the costumes are pretty good; I especially liked the Tibetan/Himalayan inspired costumes of the northern tribe, you can definitely see François Barbeau's style, a lot of the costumes look like they're from Dralion.

I was curious to see if they could pull off the number of puppet characters that would purportedly be in the show; none of Cirque's previous attempts at puppets have been remotely successful (with the debatable exception of the Turtle in KÀ). The dog in Koozå was nothing more than an annoying gimmicky costume. So Cirque definitely doesn't have a good record of using puppets to create truly engaging characters. The dogs and lamp posts are kinda cute but really given all the discussion on the press release about creating "characters" for each dog, it wasn't apparent in the show. And why can't Cirque produce a single show nowadays without resorting to cheap dog pee jokes?

The acts are competently performed but the context in which they're placed in the show renders them ridiculous. I was bored by this show and at one point I actually started nodding off. The highlight, as might be expected, is Elena Lev's hoops act although it's pretty much the same act she's previously performed in Cirque it definitely didn't have the fire and passion as when I saw it the last time in Quidam back in 2002. There was a duo straps act that was ok. The rest of the show was just a string of unremarkable circus acts; rola-bola, juggling, freak-out contortion. There was nothing in Wintuk that hasn't been done a million times better in a previous Cirque show.

This show was an immense disappointment. I can't believe Cirque would actually want to put it's name on something so embarrassingly awful and in New York City of all places.

I suppose if you have kids to take and money to burn you might enjoy it. But put it this way, would you pay $100 per ticket to see Sesame Street Live or Dora the Explorer or something like that? If not then don't bother wasting your money on Wintuk it has none of the qualities of a worthwhile Cirque show I can't recommend it to anyone.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/7/07 at 10:35am

My wife & I decided to see the Christmas show at Radio City over this.

We love Cirque but this did not do it for us (the promos)