THE BALLOON MAN

Big Apple transforms hustle-bustle to razzle-dazzle

BERTRAND GUAY/BIG APPLE CIRCUS

The Dosov Troupe provides high-flying acrobatics.

from: bostongllbe.com

By James Sullivan-GLOBE CORRESPONDENT   

APRIL 01, 2014

New York’s Times Square has been famously transformed in recent years, resurrected from its seedy mid-century decline into a virtual, well-scrubbed outdoor mall. For the next six weeks, visitors to Boston’s City Hall Plaza will be treated to some of the Big Apple’s traditionally less savory features, including petty thievery, dangerous obstacles, and the sweet smell of manure.

It’s all family-friendly, of course: This is the return of the Big Apple Circus, for 29 years an annual fixture on the City Hall bricks. The nonprofit troupe’s current show, “Luminocity,” was conceived as a romp through the “life, vitality, and excitement” of Times Square, from its dazzling eye candy to its vivid, sometimes treacherous bustle of human traffic.

Pierre Ginet provides some of the comedy as a flimflam man, picking the pockets of a hapless volunteer. At the Saturday afternoon show, the dad who gamely took the stage was a good sport about having his watch, wallet, and cellphone repeatedly plucked, and he laughed when his host produced a brassiere from inside his jacket. But even if he was fleeced, parents should come away feeling they’ve gotten their money’s worth from this multifaceted, well-paced show.

read more:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/theater-art/2014/03/31/big-apple-circus-transforms-hustle-bustle-razzle-dazzle/WJ0aoFK5LUDPSdcAuAiGRM/story.html