Cirque du Soleil is known internationally for the mesmerizing aerialists and world-class specialty acts that make its show audience favorites.
“‘Auana,” the Hawaii-themed Cirque show that officially opened Tuesday at the Outrigger Waikiki Beachcomber Hotel, checks off both of those boxes in impressive style. The show’s speciality acts could play any Cirque production anywhere in the world.
There’s a juggler doing his thing with balls, juggling-clubs and rings. Each of his routines seems more complicated than the one before it. Were those occasional dropped items accidents, or are they part of the act?
There’s a clown who sticks his head into a giant balloon and is gradually sucked inside it. His clothes are tossed out one piece at a time until he is apparently naked inside, but he emerges wearing a different costume. A gratuitous bit of toilet humor involving the clown’s underpants is a needless bad idea in an otherwise impressive bit of theater.
A balance-boarder displays superb physicality as he teeters atop a platform, then increases the height of the platform, teeters atop the higher platform, increases the height again, teeters atop it and repeats.
A showstopper certainly is the artist who opens with stellar acrobatics and then goes aquatic with seductive underwater choreography performed in a giant bowl of water. She switches between “air” and water, splashes dramatically without wetting the audience and is exquisite throughout.
For thrills of the “death-defying” type, enjoy the work of a rollerskating duo who skillfully take their act within an inch of disaster.
Closing the show in magnificent style are two men in shiny black-and-red costumes who perform in a giant rotating apparatus — imagine a Ferris wheel with two rotating wheels. Each man has a rotating wheel he performs in — and then climbs out of and performs on — as the larger apparatus is rotating. (These guys are spectacular! Kids, don’t try doing anything like this at home!)
Sal Salangsang, a star of a pre-opening media presentation Dec. 4, is a recurring presence. He turns up first paddling an imaginary canoe across an ocean, returns as the clown in the balloon sketch, and again as a mute participant in other segments. Salangsang is also the engaging emcee of audience participation experience when four audience members are brought up on stage and, after some warm-up exercises, become the components of the “Hawaii Five-O” sketch.
The four men who participated Tuesday were all good sports and energetic performers.
People who are fluent in Hawaiian and familiar with the nuances of Hawaiian culture will certainly be able to distill additional substance from “‘Auana’s” hula-inspired choreography, costuming, singing and chant. Those who are not will be left to admire the physicality of the performances and guess as best they can what the deeper meanings may be.
There’s “Hina,” a beautiful blending of hula and aerial artistry. And there’s a large canoe that becomes the launch site for impressively athletic cast members who are hurled up and out into a net. It is another impressive piece of stagecraft.
Hawaii residents for whom a family night in Waikiki can be a significant investment should take note that the show is staged and performed for viewers in the center section of the 784-seat, semicircular theater. Sight lines degrade in the sections closer to the side walls; ticket-buyers on the edges have no view of whatever may be going on toward the back of the stage. To see the show as it should be seen, invest in tickets for categories “C” and higher.
‘‘AUANA’ BY CIRQUE DU SOLEIL
>> Where: Outrigger Waikiki Beachcomber Hotel, 2300 Kalakaua Ave.
>> When: 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday
>> Tickets: $69-$179 Wednesday- Thursday and Sunday; $77-$195 Friday-Saturday. Kamaaina and military discounts available for some categories.
>> Info: cirquedu soleil.com/hawaii or 877-773-6470
