Review: Cirque du Soleil’s Wintuk

Photo courtesy of Cirque du Soleil

A Wintery Wonderland of Wow!

By Lauren Yarger
Mystifying, bending, talking lamp posts, snow monsters, aerial feats, skate boarding and tumbling acts combine with other circus delights and a terrific snowfall to create a wintery wonderland of “wow!” for young and old alike in Cirque de Soleil’s Wintuk running at Madison Square Garden through Jan. 4.

The hero, Jamie, (Darin Good, who seems a great deal older than the boy you see in the posters), sets out on a quest to the imaginary North called Wintuk to rescue his girlfriend and to find snow to bring to his city where it's cold and bleak, but not white. Along the way he encounters the characters mentioned above, guided by a shaman (Laure Fugere who sings Simon Carpentier’s music and Jim Corcoran’s lyrics in English) and a shy friend named Wimpy (Gaspar Gimenez Facundo). The colder it gets, the more the characters come together for comfort and warmth (confession: without program notes, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you all of that. Like most Cirque du Soleils, there’s a story, but I usually am unaware of it, sidetracked by all of the special acts and awe-inspiring effects.) A couple of green-striped robbers are pursued throughout by a cop on a bicycle for some comic effect. Choreography is by Catherine Archambault.

Wintuk, created exclusively for MSG’s WaMu Theater and directed by Fernand Rainville, is Cirque de Soleil’s first show geared toward family audiences. It doesn’t play like their other productions, geared toward more mature audiences, and instead is great entertainment for kids of elementary through middle school age. It is written by Richard Blackburn.

There’s an awesome backdrop from set designer Patricia Ruel with projected buildings and snowflake mountains that’s practically a character itself with its winking moons, wind-tossed buildings and floating stars. Puppet dogs and cranes from Tony and Emmy award-winning puppet designer Michael Curry (The Lion King and Cirque du Soleil’s KÀ and LOVE) and the lampposts and ice giants from René Charbonneau (cofounder of Théâtre de la Dame de Coeur, Quebec), are exciting – and very large. “Power Track,” is a tumbling number featuring multiple performers in a fast paced precision routine on a huge trampoline revealed when the stage floor opens.

Additional elements, costumes by Francois Barbeau, lighting by Yves Aucoin and Matthieu Larivee and sound by Jonathan Deans, all expertly complete the circus wonderland.

Wintuk is an hour and a half of non-stop action and fun for the whole family.