A blend of cabaret acts, burlesque exhibitionism, bawdy audience participation skits and Cirque-style acrobatics, Zumanity is the lone production inside the custom-made Zumanity Theatre.
Certainly, with its double-sized rooms and satisfied murmur, it perfectly invokes the Upper East Side: not your parents' Le Cirque-style U.E.S. of boastful big money but the new, ripened U.E.S., where everyone has been locked in place now for a long time and all know, wistfully, that the really cool places are far, far away, across the East River.
There's always some Cirque-style business mixed with various scenes, like the stunning high-wire act from the Atherton twins.
Enjoy a Cirque-style aerialist performance by Q de Soleil; sushi served on partially clothed women rather than plates; an edible food wall; an interactive molecular gastronomy station; a noodle and dumpling rickshaw; liquid nitrogen ice cream; and much more.
In recent years, ACT has helped create the Ravelijn open-air arena at Efteling theme park in the Netherlands, the Arthur and the Minimoys roller coaster/dark-ride combo at Germany's Europa Park and the Le Reve cirque-style show at the Wynn hotel and casino in Las Vegas.
Le Cirque practices a style of service that many people now regard as stiff and fussy.
Wilson has a lot more to do in the sequel, which begins with her front and center, hanging Cirque du Soleil style from the ceiling during a performance with her college a cappella group, the Barden Bellas.
Billed as an "intimate theatrical experience," Joya will call a custom-designed theater home in Mexico's Riviera Maya where audience members will be entranced by the signature Cirque du Soleil style while dining on perfectly executed meals.
That has included, at one cavernous party space in New York, Cirque de Soleil-style performers suspended from the ceiling.
