Review: Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy wildly entertaining

CEDAR RAPIDS - If you spent your Tuesday evening at the Paramount Theatre in Cedar Rapids, you may very well still be questioning your flexibility or lack thereof.

'Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy” - part of the Broadway at the Paramount Series - brought a whole host of acrobatically inclined entertainers to the stage who demonstrated their astounding flexibility, strength and balance to the pleasure of a nearly sold-out crowd.

The family friendly show had the audience in awe from start to finish. After Mother Nature greeted the audience with song, there was hardly a moment you could take your eyes off the stage for fear of missing part of the 'ooh- and ah-” inducing action.

There was swinging above the stage, slack line walking, crazy body contorting, juggling and flipping; and that was all in the first act. Throughout the show, the crowd was generous with applause, as they should have been. There were audible gasps and one could see audience members turning to each other and exclaiming, 'Did you see that?”

Notable performances included an act in which one performer somersaulted through, twisted around and hung from a large Hula-Hoop ring while suspended over the stage.

Other acts featured two performers working as a team. At one point, one man balanced on top of another man's head. At other times, they flipped each other through the air with their feet and in some cases they dangled from rings and ropes above the stage.

They made it all look effortless.

The cast - hailing from Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Mongolia, Romania, Ethiopia and the United States - brought a wildly unique experience to the stage. They took the idea of back bends and juggling, twirling and hula hooping to new levels. And the jungle theme and ultra-vibrant animal costumes for this show made it a truly inventive spectacle. There were roller skating zebras, colorful emus, contorting lizards and a giraffe that balanced on an unimaginably tall stack of cylinders.

It sounds cliché, but when it comes to 'Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy,” I'm not sure you'd believe it unless you saw it.

And even then, you'd still be amazed.