Somewhere, legendary promoter P.T. Barnum must be smiling at those billboards that have popped up around town that pitch, "The Greatest Show on Earth Just Got Greater!"
Greater than the greatest? Wow, that's elephant-sized audaciousness, even by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey standards.
But we won't judge Thursday night's opening night of an 11-show Philips Arena run, to be followed by eight performances at Gwinnett Arena, by that impossible yardstick.
Let's just say "Barnum's FUNundrum," which celebrates the bicentennial of its founder's birth, is pretty great fun in the way it mixes imagery and acts inspired by the circus's fabled history with up-to-the-minute staging and production. It's a beguiling blend of throwback (sans big top and sawdust floor) and showcase of arena-scaled circusing, circa 2011.
Ringling works hard to make cavernous Philips more intimate, curtaining off one end of the arena entirely, and dropping down screens on which antique circus imagery, signs and so forth are projected. Below them, the action, as has been this company's style for 140 years, never ceases, except for the intermission that divides the two, jampacked, roughly hourlong acts.
The growling tigers "walking" on their rear haunches or rolling over don't wow you? No problem, here come the clowns riffing on the bearded ladies, Siamese twins, half-man-half-woman, Wild Man of Borneo and sundry sideshow freaks of yore. Not your thing? OK, here's three acts at one time doing insane acts of dexterity that no body should allow ...
Ringmaster Johnathan Lee Iverson, a former Boys Choir of Harlem lead singer who with his resonant pipes enjoyably stretches every act's name and pronouncement out to about 65 syllables, moves things along with air-traffic-controller precision.
On opening night, the acts that commanded the most applause, "Wows" and "Whoas" were motorcycle daredevils the Torres Family, who crisscrossed dangerously (and at dangerously high speeds) in the Globe of Steel; Asadullin Troupe, a teeterboard and Russian bar act that sent acrobats on towering stilts flipping through the air; and the Flying Caceres (including Sandy Springs' own Colby Balch), who attempted the rare quadruple somersault.
The fact that these stunning trapeze artists didn't nail that virtually impossible feat didn't seem to disappoint the crowd a bit; if anything, it brought some human scale to the superheroic proceedings. Plus, there were 18 more metro shows in which the Flying Caceres could try, try again.
Somewhere, P.T. Barnum is smiling about that, too.
Circus review
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's "Barnum's FUNundrum"
Though Monday at Philips Arena, 1 Philips Drive N.W., Atlanta; Thursday to Feb. 27 at Gwinnett Arena, 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway, Duluth. Philips show times: 11 a.m., 3 and 7 p.m. Saturday; 11 a.m., 3 and 7 p.m. Sunday; 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday. Gwinnett: 7:30 p.m. Thursday; 10:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m., 3 and 7 p.m. Feb. 26; noon and 4 p.m. Feb. 27. Tickets, $14-$35, at www.ringling.com, ticketmaster.com or the arena box offices ($35 tickets, Philips only), with limited VIP seats at higher prices.
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