THE BALLOON MAN

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Rodent in a Roadster and Other Spectacles in a One-Ring Realm

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Barry Lubin as the clown Grandma in the Big Apple Circus, which runs through Jan. 8 at Lincoln Center.

By LAUREL GRAEBER

from: The New York Times

Published: November 4, 2011

Any circus with a capybara riding in a car impresses me. Any circus with a capybara, period.

This South American creature looks like a streamlined woodchuck. It can grow to more than four feet long and weigh over 100 pounds, making it the world’s largest rodent. Bob, a member of that illustrious species, is now appearing in the Big Apple Circus, along with Percy, a crested porcupine, the biggest rodent in Africa.
I thought that perhaps this one-ring circus, which has never had lions or tigers, was laying its own claim to exotic wildlife. Or maybe Bob and Percy relate to this year’s theme, “Dream Big.” If you can’t offer big cats, why not go with really big rodents?
Whatever prompted these animals’ debut, they add welcome surprise to the delightful “Dream Big,” which recently opened at Lincoln Center under Guillaume Dufresnoy’s artistic direction, with Renaud Doucet as stage director and choreographer. “Dream Big” does have big elements, among them the voice of Jenna Robinson, its Ethel Merman-esque ringmistress. She portrays a wacky professor, with a massive machine that brings fantasies to life. (André Barbe designed the steampunk-style set and costumes.)
Some of those dreams evoke outsize awe and suspense. The members of the Shandong Acrobatic Troupe may miss an occasional landing, but they achieve so much else — like jumping rope while in the form of a human pyramid — that it hardly matters. The magicians Scott Nelson and Muriel Brugman present some well-worn comedy but compensate with a few astounding illusions. And the Flying Cortes, a returning trapeze troupe, made me grateful for the net beneath them; their nerves didn’t require it, but mine did.
Yet “Dream Big” retains Big Apple’s signature intimacy. Children grow wide-eyed as the beautiful Arabian horses in “Galloping Graces,” an act led by the trainer Jenny Vidbel, lean over the ring’s edge and breathe gently on their upturned faces. And some performers go into the crowd, like Barry Lubin, who, in his final season as the clown Grandma, selects an adult for comic lessons in swigging and spewing water.

The juggler Dmitry Chernov in “Dream Big.”
Young audience members get turns in the spotlight too, though it isn’t hard to guess that one is a plant. I won’t reveal her performance, except to say that it’s extraordinary. She’s 10 and tiny, but clearly she’s been dreaming big.
The Big Apple Circus runs through Jan. 8 at Damrosch Park, 62nd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues, Lincoln Center; (888) 541-3750, bigapplecircus.org.