The pacing strangely slackens instead of building as the show approaches its climax, and the final number, featuring a team of acrobatic women who leap between two moving plank swings, delivers a female-empowerment message but lacks the pizazz of a larger-than-life, stage-filling showstopper. And the Disney musical cues in the score, appealing in short nostalgic bursts, have moments where they’re too prominent, pulling focus from the current story being told.Ī graceful hand-to-hand act, with additional theatrical tricks, creates a touching emotional sequence between a woman (Myriam Deraiche) and her late husband (Samuel Charlton) in “Drawn to Life” from Cirque du Soleil and Disney. And while Disney wrote the book on mining emotion from parental death - who wasn’t traumatized by “Bambi” as a child? - here Disney references creep in where they don’t always need to be.Ī sequence in which Julie’s mother magically dances with her late husband is powerful and moving - so it’s particularly jarring to see a cartoon mermaid appear as part of this display of adult love and loss. This creates a push and pull between Disney’s literal storytelling and Cirque’s evocative storytelling that doesn’t always gel. At the top of the show, young budding artist Julie reads a letter from her deceased father, a Disney animator, and then sets out on a quest that takes her into the world of animation and imagination. Unlike other thematic Cirque shows that leave room for individual interpretation, “Drawn to Life” has a very specific story line, written by Michel Laprise, who also directed. It’s there in scenic designer’s Stephane Roy’s towering animated backdrops that glide on and off the stage, and the grandeur comes through in Benoit Jutras’ cinematic score.īut things occasionally founder in the storytelling, when it’s noticeable two disparate forces are at work. There’s an epic feeling to much of “Drawn to Life,” grander than the more playful “La Nouba” that preceded it. A double-wheel act provides gasp-worthy moments as the performers keep the wheels in motion high above the stage of “Drawn to Life,” the new Cirque du Soleil-Disney show at Disney Springs.
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