Corteo

Last night my wife and I went to see Corteo by Cirque du Soleil on Randall's Island in New York City. Neither of us had ever been to one of these shows before, so we weren't 100% sure what to expect. It is a circus show, but it's more of a sophisticated circus act than say... Ringling Brother's.
Corteo is the story of an Italian Clown who has recently passed away. The parts of the show are supposed to be things seen through the dead clown's eyes. Are they memories or things actually going on in the world that he is watching? We don't know. According to Cirque du Soleil, it is "a grand procession and festive parade imagined by a clown. ...situated in a mysterious space between heaven and earth. Corteo reveals the strength and fragility of a clown, as well as his wisdom and kindness, to illustrate the portion of humanity that is within each of us."
I've got to tell you that this show was a lot of fun. The actors/performers were amazing. The acrobatics were incredible, with people leaping, flipping and tumbling all over the stage. They were juggling and tossing everything from bowling pins to each other. For me, the highlights included a scene where the acrobats jumped from bed to bed across the stage and when the female acrobats spun and swung high above the stage on some chandeliers. There was also a part where The Clowness (a female little person) was floating above the crowd suspended only by helium balloons. She would slowly float down until someone from the crowd could give her a push back upwards towards the top of the big top. That was a lot of fun for everyone. (The kids in the crowd seemed to get a big kick out of it.) I also thought the music throughout the show was terrific. It ranged from haunting to exciting to fun.
Another nice plus was that Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream was there giving out free samples to everyone. They didn't care how many you took - they had so many samples to give out. We were able to get our refreshments for free.
Now, a comment on getting to and from the show: We did not have a difficult time getting there by car. The drive is very straight forward over the Triboro Bridge onto Randall's Island - and parking was easy (although it does cost $10.00). However, getting home was a nightmare. Everyone trying to get to the Triboro back towards the Bronx/Manhattan/New Jersey was crazy (there's only one lane which then opens up at the Tolls). After waiting for a bit, we decided to go over to Queens and then drive to the 59th Street Bridge back to Manhattan. You may want to consider the public transportation options if you plan on going.
The show runs through July 2nd, 2006. If you want to get tickets, you can go here. After NYC, it moves on to Chicago, Boston and Washington DC.

The Cirque du Soleil website is here.
The Corteo website is here.

NP: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker, The Ramones