‘Kooza’ is something special under The Big Top

Cirque du Soleil show dresses up circus acts with some wild costumes in an extravagant production

Cirque du Soleil is back in town, this time with its show Kooza, taking place through Aug. 13 under the big top that’s been set up in the parking lot of the Ball Arena.

The numbers on this show are simply astounding: Since it opened in 2007, Kooza has had over eight million spectators with over 4,000 performances in 65 cities across 22 countries. While all of the Cirque du Soleil shows I’ve seen over the years have been exceptional, this one stood out to me for the very high quality of the costumes, the music from the live band and the lighting in an overall production that’s as slick as it is amazing.

“The Innocent” is a melancholy loner we meet at the top of the show. Dressed in what look like pajamas, he’s failing miserably at flying a kite. When a mysterious package arrives for him, he unwraps it and releases The Trickster — a ringmaster of sorts who encourages The Innocent to expand his horizons. The world he creates is Kooza — taken from a Sanskrit word for “box” or “treasure” — itself springing from the idea of the show as being a “circus in a box.”

From there, the acts progress in familiar Cirque du Soleil fashion, with contortionists, clowns, aerial straps, a high-wire act and pretty unique and impressive duo on a unicycle. After a 25-minute intermission, Act Two kicks off with a big dance number featuring some wild skeleton costumes, followed by the show’s most awe-inspiring act, the “Wheel of Death”: Two acrobats on a spinning pair of wheels who push physics to the limit.

What makes acts like this stand out even more are the costumes. In this one, the two acrobats are dressed as devil-like characters, complete with horns, that make them look like demons from Genghis Khan’s court. Marie Chantale Vaillancourt designed all of the costumes, and said she was inspired by the Mad Max films, Gustav Klimt paintings, tin soldier and marching band costumes as well as children’s books and Indian and Eastern European designs. The result is an ever-changing pastiche of color and highly inventive getups that are among the most creative costumes I’ve even seen on any stage.

The Trickster is particularly well-clothed, with a number of different costumes, each one featuring a wild headpiece or mask combined with a strikingly patterned suit of various colors.

Other acts include some high-risk teeterboards, chair balancing, hula hoops and some pretty funny clown bits that make good use of the trap doors on the stage and a variety of characters that include a bad dog, an obnoxious tourist, a King of Fools perpetually looking for his crown, and some cops out of the Keystone Kops playbook.

From start to finish, Kooza is a ton of fun to watch and features a heady mix of athleticism, comedy, music and special effects. There’s also a blurred line between the audience and the performers, with a good deal of interaction with the crowd and some opportunities to see some of the cast up close as they run through the aisles.

Appropriate for all ages, this is one not to miss while it’s here in Denver.