Cirque du Soleil Puts a New Twist on Vaudeville

I have always wanted to see a Cirque du Soleil show; the craziness, how everything is over the top, exciting and radical just really appeals to me and makes me want to be able to experience that first-hand. However, I live in The Middle of Nowhere, Pennsylvania and so I have never had the opportunity to attend a show. Cirque du Soleil is really stepping up their game, doing something completely different, but with the same essence of being crazy and over the top that theater-goers have come to expect from them. They have put a new twist on vaudeville and for the first time ever, have welcome stars from the Broadway stage to be a part of something truly spectacular and hilarious–It’s called Banana Shpeel.

Banana Shpeel blends comedy with dance stapes tap and hip hop and also eccentric dance, which coming from Cirque du Soleil can mean pretty much anything, and ties the entire thing together with huge amounts of slapstick comedy.

Check out a behind the scenes view of Cirque du Soleil’s Banana Shpeel (and how they came up with that name!):

The show centers around the world of a character named Shmelky, a cruel producer who wreaks havoc and terror on Emmett, a young and innocent actor who auditions for him. Emmett falls in love with Katie and meets a whole slew of absurd and flamboyant characters–including the strange and mysterious Banana Man.

I would so love to see this show, even more than I want to see an original Cirque du Soleil show. I love eclectic, wild and crazy adventures and I have always loved musical and variety-like shows, although Banana Shpeel is proving to be so much more than merely a circus-like, musical-like, variety show-like performance. Just the energy behind the costumes and the makeup and how they are really tipping their hats to classic comedy that has paved the way for so much more is amazing and really makes me excited about it, not to mention the word ‘flamboyant’ being used to describe the characters, which immediately reminded me of The Rocky Horror Picture Show–which I love!

For those of you who live in or around Chicago or New York, you are lucky, because Banana Shpeel is playing in Chicago on November 19th and in New York on February 4th. You should seriously check it out!