BROADCASTS.com

Cirque du Soleil \u201cVOLTA\u201d is, on the surface, a circus; a big top amalgam of a number of circus-type acts and feats. But it seems reductive to leave the description there.

I was given deep, \u201cin the trenches\u201d access to \u201cVOLTA\u201d earlier this week, which theoretically made it easier for me to summarize the show. Instead, the more I thought about it, the harder it became to explain. As I walked around the compound and backstage areas, the word \u201ceverything\u201d kept bouncing in my head. The production, from what happens behind the scenes to what you see on stage, includes everything:

• It\u2019s multi-generational. All the performances long-time Cirque attendees would expect (acrobatics, hoop-jumping) are there, making it a comfortable experience for the proverbial upper demos. On the other hand, \u201cVOLTA\u201d crescendos in a gravity-defying, dizzying BMX performance that feels more representative of a generation that can\u2019t yet legally drink.
• The Cirque performers and crew are multi-continental. There\u2019s an almost otherworldliness to the Cirque experience, as the vision and perspectives aren\u2019t told through one distinct cultural filter. I spent most of my night in close proximity to band leader/drummer Ben Todd, who\u2019s from Australia, and guitarist Will Lawrence, who\u2019s British. Along the way, I also met singer/violinist Camilla B\xe4ckman (the first Finnish musician in Cirque du Soleil). If Cirque isn\u2019t a metaphor for the citizens of Planet Earth coming together under a shared vision, I don\u2019t know what is.
• The on-stage performances straddle every corner of the performing arts. I saw ballet, dance, comedy, vaudeville, singing, acting and sports (BMX is sports, right?).
• The score isn\u2019t content to lock into one groove. My preconceived notion of Cirque du Soleil\u2019s music was \u201ctheatrical Enya.\u201d And while a new age haze is always on the horizon in \u201cVOLTA,\u201d I was pulled in by prog rock moments (\u201cLike Kids\u201d), pop smarts (\u201cDancing Ants\u201d) and synthy elevations (\u201cModern Jungle\u201d).

When Cirque du Soleil lands in a city, they create their own city inside it. The various tents and trailers that populate the parking lot are a sustaining infrastructure, including costume design, bike repair, gear repair, showers and bathrooms, a cafeteria with world-class (and healthy) food, and practice/workout spaces. Speaking of which, you wouldn\u2019t be wrong to have tired legs just from watching this pre-show warmup from the rope skippers:

And here\u2019s the ceiling of that same practice space:

My plan for the night was to embed with the band during the show. Before the show, I sat down with band leader/drummer Ben Todd to talk about his career and his Cirque observations, which you can hear in this podcast.

\xa0

Minutes before showtime, Ben and Will Lawrence spirited me away into one of the two \u201cband pits." The pits are essentially musician bunkers that are beneath, but still visible, on the stage.\xa0

Here\u2019s the view from the band pit, Will Lawrence included.

I was perched in the corner of Will\u2019s space, watching him transition from guitar-to-keyboard-to-different-guitar-to-onstage-performer with a stressless grace (and a fairly constant smile throughout).

To my immediate right was Ben\u2019s drum room, where he balanced the performance aspect of the gig with providing in-the-moment direction to the band as the performance shifted, changed and twisted in some unexpected ways. How close was I to the drums, you ask? THIS CLOSE.

I was wired into the stage directions and Ben\u2019s directions via IFB device and headphones, so I could hear everything going on behind the scenes. For those of us who can\u2019t walk and chew gum at the same time, hearing Ben direct the band while playing drums and monitoring the show comes off as a multitasking achievement.

In my interview with Ben, we talked about how unforeseen circumstances can lead to him making decisions and adjustments on the fly, making each performance unique. It must have been foreshadowing, because that\u2019s exactly what happened on the night I was there.\xa0

Because this has been the worst weather summer ever in Chicago (right?), what started as a beautiful night went south for about an hour as storms rolled through. Lightning was detected near the downtown area, and \u201cVOLTA\u201d had to be paused twice for safety precautions. I heard the notices come through my IFB, something along the lines of, \u201cwe\u2019re stopping the show\u201d (which sounded super ominous without the context of what was happening outside). Ben directed the band to kill the music as stage activity was brought to a halt for 15 minutes each time.\xa0

To oversimplify show business moments like that, shit happens. And when they happen, the incident is never as important as the recovery from it. And the recovery was seamless.\xa0

The two unplanned breaks meant songs needed to be sacrificed as the show was realigned. Will and Ben showed no perceptible shift in attitude or energy as they stole the momentum back from the weather-dictated down times.

As multi-continental as the \u201cVOLTA\u201d cast is, it\u2019s cool to know that the Chicago area has representation in \u201cVOLTA.\u201d Kevin Beverly is a hoop-diver and a back-up for lead character Waz. We snuck in a quick picture as a sign of local solidarity:

Cirque du Soleil \u201cVOLTA\u201d runs through July 6 in the South Parking Lot of Soldier Field.

\xa0

Car Con Carne is presented by the Autobarn Mazda of Evanston