Ringling Circus rivals TV virtual reality

NEW YORK, March 31 (UPI) -- The 133rd edition of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is one of its best shows in years, hitting a new high in visual beauty and fast-paced entertainment, including real death-defying feats that top any of the virtual reality thrills offered by TV.

From the opening parade -- featuring giant articulated jungle beasts made of colorful chiffons in the best "Lion King" tradition -- to the final Oriental style procession of fluttering banners and silken three-tiered royal umbrellas in brilliant hues, the show is a real winner, much more entertaining than last year's curiously sanitized, overly sleek presentation.

Ringling exhibits a determination to fuse old-fashioned showmanship with high-tech efficiency aimed at keeping the American circus tradition alive in its third century. The company has two troupes continually touring the nation, the red and the blue units. The one playing Madison Square Garden through April 13 is the Red Unit, which last visited New York in 2001.

It is the one featuring the circus' top clown, Bello Nock, a performer of many talents, star animal trainer Mark Oliver Gabel, a human cannonball act billed as Bailey's Comet, and the Torres family team of six motorcyclists who orbit inside a steel sphere known as The Globe of Death.

The feats performed by the motorcyclists from Uruguay within the small space of the see-through globe are part of Ringling's increased emphasis on dare-deviltry demanded by audiences used to the thrills of reality TV and video games.

The motorcycle act, which started with two riders some years ago and was increased to five last year, had a sixth man added for the first time for the show at the Garden.

When Kenneth Feld, Ringling's producer and chief executive, was asked whether the sixth man would increase the possibility of a fatal accident in the globe, he admitted that "real people could really get hurt.

"It's not like TV shows like 'The Fear Factor,' where everything is set up and carefully controlled and edited," he said in an interview. "In the circus, audiences aren't seeing special effects. It's the real thing. But our performers are so practiced that it's a controlled risk."

The new show's promotional material promises to be "the most earth-shaking, eyeball-blistering, jaw-dropping, mind-blowing, memory-searing occurrence" in the history of Ringling, the world's largest circus that carries on the tradition of 19th century American showman P.T. Barnum.

Living up to that hyperbole is the largest aerial act in memory, 13 Russian trapeze artists known as The Sky Surfers who work from what seems to be a mile-high platform large enough to accommodate a trampoline, and a five-aerialist South African team called The Survivors. They are performing simultaneous triple somersaults for the first time ever and twirl in space within six silver spheres.

Just as breathtaking is the show's Bailey's Comet act, which sends Brian Miser streaking across the full length of the arena like a ball of flame from the mouth of a rocket launcher. Miser has to be washed down with firefighting foam on completing his act, but he takes his bows without any signs of even having been singed. It's not a new act, but it used to be done without fire.

The show also offers such relaxed and enchanting interludes as the Chinese imperial lion act performed by the men and women of the Hibei Troupe. The lions are two men in gold-masked, red-and-yellow fur costumes who are able to support a rider and balance themselves atop balls. Other troupers spin inside metal wheels like human gyroscopes and balance poles topped with multi-colored flags.

Just as delightful to watch are the antics of 10 Bengal tigers under the complete control of Mark Gebel, the dancing Lipizanner stallions trained by Cristina Gebel, Mark's wife, the performing zebras and Friesian horses put through their paces by Sacha and Karin Houke, the amazing dog act created by Luciano Anastini.

Ringling's splendid herd of performing elephants, the largest outside Asia, round out the non-pareil circus menagerie.

There are plenty of clown acts, more imaginative this year than in the past several seasons, and the incomparable Bello, the world's most honored clown. He is a sixth-generation acrobat and aerialist able to perform the most demanding feats with high-wire master Alberto Aguilar, including riding a miniature bicycle, as well as a slapstick clown with a trademark coiffeur of pumpkin-hued hair standing fright-upright.

Keeping all this action moving at a tremendous pace is ringmaster Johnathan Lee Iverson, a giant of a man with a stentorian speaking and singing voice, and the urgent music of an exciting nine-man band directed by David Killinger.

The brilliantly designed sets and costumes are the work of Steve Bass and Frank Krenz respectively, and Leroy Bennett created the fantastically dramatic lighting that is augmented by fireworks, exploding gold and silver glitter, and sparklers.

Choreographic kudos go to Tony Stevens, who has 16 Broadway shows to his credit. In charge of overall direction is Philip W. McKinley, who has directed musical productions worldwide.