CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Review: Cirque du Soleil's Drawn to Life at Walt Disney World

www.themeparkinsider.com: Typically, people don't come to Cirque du Soleil productions for the storytelling. Cirque provides an amazing visual experience, capturing your imagination with its unbelievable physical displays. Acrobats, aerials, tumblers, and other stunt artists command your attention then reward it with performances that have made Cirque synonymous with people whose bodies know no limits from tension nor gravity.

2 comments:

Marion Mongello said...

I saw Drawn to Life when it first opened last year in Orlando, and I remember it so vividly. Never before have I seen such a technologically advanced and captivating show. The storytelling arc, characters, lighting, sound, costume, scenic, sound, projection and everything in between design, and acrobatic performances were nearly flawless. Since then, I saw it over winter break, about a year after I saw it the first time. If I am being totally honest, it didn’t have the same effect as it did the first time I saw it, maybe partially because it didn’t have the “surprise, wow factor” as the first time, but I also think it omitted a few acts (for one reason or another that I don’t know,) and some of the technical “aha” moments didn’t seem to be working. That being said, I still thought it was a masterpiece of a show that brought a very Broadway level of production to Disney Springs. The space itself is gorgeous, and since I live so close, I would like to go back and watch it again sometime.

Ava Notarangelo said...

This was super cool to read about. I absolutely love when theatrical artists do things that the audience would have never expected. I remember watching a dance show in 2019, where the group always did an annual show with contemporary pieces only. Halfway through the show, I remember watching a rope come down from the tension grid, and my ballet teacher beginning to climb up the rope with her freshly shaved head. This was something I was not expecting at all, not only because of her new hair, but also because she was showing off her new talent to the audience after none of us had even known about or expected this about her. It was definitely something I had never felt before while watching a show, and I’m sure audience members felt similarly after seeing a cirque du soleil show that had a storyline, something that had never been seen before.