Show Title: Zing Zang Zoom
Tour: Red Tour, 2010
Performance Date: August 08, 2010
Ringmaster: Alex Ramon
I haven’t been to the circus in ages. And quite frankly, I’m not exactly the target age anymore. Nevertheless, I was excited to go again. I mean, c’mon. It’s the circus. Who doesn’t like the circus?
Unfortunately, I had mixed feelings about the show, which I always hate to say about live performances of any kind. I know how much work goes into it and it sucks to say I was unsatisfied in any way. But it must be said.
There were two things specifically that bugged me about the show: the lack of a clear theme, and the music.
I suppose the theme was supposed to be magic (kinda redundant for a circus show, don’t you think?) and defying gravity. The "antagonist" is a clown character called Mr. Gravity who, of course, is trying to bring everything down (oh, horray for bad puns). He periodically pops up to interfere with the show, but the ringmaster never seems particularly bothered by his presence and Mr. Gravity never really one-ups him either. What’s the point of having a villain if he never poses any kind of threat? A bad guy has to win at least once for him to really be a bad guy. Otherwise, he’s just a nuisance. Since he’s not really that harmful, joining the circus and working with everyone in the end is not really dramatic in anyway. I know it’s mostly a kids show, but either have a real storyline or don’t. Otherwise, why bother?
The connection between the title and the show is lost on me too. "Zing Zang Zoom" are the magic words the ringmaster uses for magic to happen, but why "Zing Zang Zoom?" It’s like they pulled random words out of thin air. Why make that the title of the show? For obvious reasons, they couldn’t call the show "Defying Gravity" (yay Wicked!), but something similar would at least make sense. The magic of the circus part of the theme is overshadowed by the Mr. Gravity "plot," yet it’s presented as the main idea behind the show. I just find it all confusing.
Theme issues, however, I’m mostly willing to get over. I’m there for the tigers and stuff anyway. One thing I couldn’t ignore, however, was the music.
The music drove me insane.
It nearly killed the show for me right from the beginning. The opening song sounds like something out of High School Musical. But worse. I know, hard to imagine, but it’s true. Levititia’s (or however her name’s spelled; the female lead) voice is just grating in a way I can’t entirely explain. Combined with the pop tune her singing’s put to, it makes for an agonizing experience.
I thought I could live through one bad musical number. But in the middle of the show the most poorly written, teeth-gnashingly awful, agonizingly annoying song I’ve ever heard in my life severely tested my limits. I understand that they’re probably legally obligated to say "don’t do this at home!" when they saw a guy in half. But to do it three times in song is just overkill, especially when the song is so awful. Argh. Just... argh.
What made it particularly infuriating is that a lot of the other purely orchestral music was pretty good. There were some pretty rockin’ guitar parts in there and it really added to what the performers did in the ring. The pop music angle just rings of desperation to remain relevant (the cheerleader-types didn’t help much either). I don’t want the circus to go away either, but there are better ways to do it than trying to appeal pre-teens tastes... which they have none.
The performances themselves were great to watch. Even the clown stuff, which I usually don’t enjoy (clowns are freaky), impressed me because of how athletic they were. All the animal tricks were fun as well, though I got a little nervous for the tiger guy because one of those kitties didn’t really want to cooperate and they just kept... poking it. No one could pay me enough to poke an annoyed tiger, no matter how “trained” it’s supposed to be.
One word about seating: the higher up you sit, the less impressive everything looks. Also, there was an entire segment of the show I couldn’t see at all because it was on the opposite side of the ring and featured people upside down on the light fixtures. From where I sat, the lights almost entirely blocked my view.
And that was my trip to the circus. I remember it being more magical when I was young, but hey, I still got to see some guys nearly fall and break their necks in an effort to keep me entertained. That’s always fun.
P.S. I swear, during a segment in the second half all the performers were dressed like they were anime characters and struck anime-ish poses at the end. It was weird.
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