“THE ILLUSIONISTS—MAGIC OF THE HOLIDAYS’:(left to right) Colin Cloud, Chloe Crawford, Adam Trent, Darcy Oake & Shin Lim. Photo: Joan Marcus

THE ILLUSIONISTS—MAGIC OF THE HOLIDAYS
By Various Performers
Directed & choreographed by Neil Doward
Through December 30, 2018
Marquis Theatre
1535 Broadway
(877-250-2929), www.TheIllusionistsLive.com

By Scott Harrah

The Illusionists has arrived on Broadway for the fourth time since 2014 with their latest installment, Magic of the Holidays. This seasonal “magic” show is a cross between a Las Vegas-style spectacle and reality TV (since one of the stars, card-trick master Shin Lim, is the 2018 “America’s Got Talent” winner), featuring international performers from England, Scotland, Canada, the U.S. and Light Balance, a delightful hip-hop dance troupe from the Ukraine.

Like previous iterations of The Illusionists, this is a glitzy repackaging of yesteryear’s “magic,” from appearing and disappearing dove acts and card tricks to a “mentalist” extracting personal information from audience members in an attempt to appear clairvoyant. If you are old enough to remember “The Ed Sullivan Show” or have seen the “Magic Secrets Explained” TV documentaries, exposing the tricks of David Copperfield, David Blaine, Criss Angel and Penn and Teller, you know everything here is nothing new and truly more “illusion” and gimmickry than “magic.”

Five headlining performers are featured in the two-act show. “The Futurist,” Adam Trent, originally seen in the first 2014 show, returns, this time as the host and emcee. Mr. Trent is best known for his hit Netflix series “The Road Trick,” and his moniker “The Future” has nothing to do with ESP. He’s best at doing “futuristic” illusions by dancing with morphed, multiplied images of himself on a projected screen; he did the same thing four years ago on the Marquis stage. Fans of the late Michael Jackson might contend that Mr. Trent ripped off this high-tech trick from one of the Gloved One’s classic MTV videos, but it’s a visual treat nonetheless. One of the most fun segments with Mr. Trent involves him asking everyone to turn on their smartphones for some performer-crowd participation, and this was a big hit with the iPhone-obsessed millennial audience members.

The best-known performer is Shin Lim, the 2018 “America’s Got Talent” winner. He’s handsome, charming and strikes lots of elegant poses while doing “sleight of hand” card tricks. With the help of a cameraman onstage, we see many close-ups of his card tricks on various projections screens. This is lots of fun if one enjoys card tricks, and everything is seamlessly choreographed by director Neil Doward, but wears thin after awhile.

Equally winsome is Colin Cloud, “The Deductionist” from Scotland. With his lilting brogue, the Scottish sensation practices “mentalism” and invites folks onstage to extract personal details about them and guess their favorite celebrity. Due to audience participation and the lack of understanding his directions—perhaps this is part of the act—these foibles and stage snafus are often funnier than his purported mental telepathy.

The two most Vegas-style performers include Canadian Darcy Oake (“The Grand Illusionist”) and Englishwoman Chloe Crawford (“The Sorceress”).

Mr. Oake is a muscular, tattooed guy with a shaved head, and his pretty-boy looks soften his imposing presence. He appears and disappears a lot, and also does some magic-show standard tricks with doves.

“The Sorceress” Ms. Crawford, with her tight dress, stiletto heels, blonde-bombshell showgirl appearance, posh British accent and bubbly personality, looks and sounds remarkably like she could be Australian singer Kylie Minogue’s English cousin. However, Ms. Crawford is perhaps the least impressive of the acts. She asks a male to come onstage as her “dinner date” and devours razor blades and then pulls them out on a string. Her second feat is appearing to push a piece of what looks like dental floss into her neck. This is a trick some may remember from the 2014 show, when Dan Sperry, a Goth-punk “illusionist,” did a similar endeavor with a string to retrieve a Lifesaver candy from his throat.

One of the show’s highlights is Light Balance, a Ukrainian dance troupe. Grooving in sync in the dark to the funky sounds of Bruno Mars and other neo-funk artists, the dancers wear neon and Day-Glo suits with lights, creating two spectacular segments in both the first and second act. Like Mr. Trent’s “futuristic” video dances, Light Balance’s act also looks like something we may have seen before in a 1980s music video, but it is still visually appealing.

The Illusionists shows have never been exactly original, but they have mass appeal for tourists during the holidays and obviously have enough of an audience to keep returning to Broadway each December. The evening is simply mindless, entertaining fun and amusing enough to satisfy anyone hungry for seasonal family fare.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published December 2, 2018
Reviewed at November 29, 2018 press performance.

“THE ILLUSIONISTS—MAGIC OF THE HOLIDAYS’: Light Balance. Photo: Joan Marcus

“THE ILLUSIONISTS—MAGIC OF THE HOLIDAYS’: Colin Cloud. Photo: Joan Marcus.

“THE ILLUSIONISTS—MAGIC OF THE HOLIDAYS’: Darcy Oake. Photo: Joan Marcus

“THE ILLUSIONISTS—MAGIC OF THE HOLIDAYS’: Chloe Crawford. Photo: Joan Marcus

“THE ILLUSIONISTS—MAGIC OF THE HOLIDAYS’: Light Balance. Photo: The Illusionists

The post ‘The Illusionists—Magic of the Holidays’ appeared first on StageZine.

THE GREAT ESCAPE: Andrew Basso in ‘The Illusionists–Witness The Impossible.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

THE MANIPULATOR: Yu Ho-Jin of ‘The Illusionists-Witness the Impossible.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

THE ILLUSIONISTS—WITNESS THE IMPOSSIBLE
By Various Performers
Directed & choreographed by Neil Doward
Through January 4, 2015
Marquis Theatre
1535 Broadway
(877-250-2929), www.TheIllusionistsLive.com

By Scott Harrah

At times, watching The Illusionists—Witness the Impossible feels like being trapped inside a “heavy metal” music video from the 1980s, complete with strobe lights, cheesy music, hokey fog, bad haircuts, silly makeup and preposterous costumes. However, this is what used to be called a “magic show,” in the far more innocent era before the Internet, YouTube and digital effects. What’s more, the show is actually on Broadway for the holiday season, for a six-week New York run before touring 30 U.S. cities.

Equal parts Las Vegas spectacle, reality TV show and the aforementioned metal video, The Illusionists features performers from around the world. Essentially, this is a glitzy, expensive rehashing of yesteryear’s “magic,” from disappearing doves and card tricks to a corny “escape” from a Houdini-style water tank. If you are old enough to remember “The Ed Sullivan Show” or a rich kid’s birthday party in the 1970s, you’ve seen this all before. If you ever watched any of the “Magic Secrets Explained” TV documentaries or surfed similar websites, exposing the tricks of David Copperfield, David Blaine, Criss Angel and Penn and Teller, you already know none of this is “impossible.”

Despite the unremarkable “magic,” everything is still consistently entertaining, particularly the hosts. Especially noteworthy is Jeff Hobson, “the Trickster,” a man who sports a sequined tuxedo and shoes and channels the late Liberace, Wayland Flowers and Paul Lynde with his campy humor and audience participation. Despite some raunchy innuendo that gets laughs from the adults, he’s harmless fun and family-friendly.

The show itself is hit and miss. We have Aaron Crow, introduced as “The Warrior” from Belgium, clad in what appears to be some Vivienne Westwood castoff costume from TV’s “Game of Thrones.” He doesn’t speak and poses a lot (as do many in the show), inviting a couple from the audience onstage to assist with some lame antics with an apple (don’t ask), and uses a crossbow.

In addition, there is “The Anti-Conjuror” Dan Sperry, a dude dressed mostly in black, looking like a goth-punk fusion of Ozzy Osbourne, Marilyn Manson and the Cure’s Robert Smith. His purported claim to fame is a 2010 appearance on “America’s Got Talent.” His first feat is rather disgusting: Using dental floss to retrieve a Lifesaver from his throat. He later invites an audience member onstage to play a game of Russian Roulette with a broken glass bottle.

One of the biggest—and silliest—acts is “The Escapologist,” Andrew Basso, introduced as “Italy’s star escape artist,” who has always idolized Harry Houdini. There are even projections of old Houdini photos and newspaper headlines, in case anyone doesn’t know who the man was. Mr. Basso does the “death-defying” escape from a “water torture cell,” complete with a ticky-tacky “countdown” clock on the stage, but haven’t we seen Criss Angel and countless others do this on so many Travel Channel specials about Las Vegas?

“The Inventor,” Kevin James, a jolly fellow who, like Mr. Crow, is also clad in ersatz “Game of Thrones” men’s wear, brings a surreal touch to the show with a midget, kooky women striking poses, and does the old sawing-a-man-in-half trick.

“The Futurist,” Adam Trent, has fun with a forgettable card trick with a young boy volunteer from the audience, and later does “futuristic” illusions by dancing with morphed, multiplied images of himself. Michael Jackson probably did something similar in an MTV video 30 years ago and it would have been “cool” back then, but this now just seems like old hat.

Finally, much fanfare is made about “The Manipulator” Yu Ho-Jin, a South Korean magician who strikes many elegant poses and does more card tricks, He was named 2014’s “Magician of the Year” by the Academy of Magical Arts, and he brings a sense of class to the show.

The show has sold out most of the English-speaking world already. It debuted in Australia at the Sydney Opera House in 2012 and went on to tour in New Zealand and later the United Kingdom. The Illusionists—Witness the Impossible is engaging and amusing enough to satisfy audiences hungry for holiday family fare because kids will love all the glossy visual and technical effects, and there is no doubt the show will be a crowd-pleasing hit when it tours the USA. However, anyone expecting new or innovative “illusions” might be disappointed because this is essentially that proverbial old-school magic with a colorful 21^st century makeover—retooled, revamped and digitized to sell to the masses.

STRIKE A POSE: Aaron Crow is The Warrior in ‘The Illusionists–Witness The Impossible.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

THE ESCAPOLOGIST: Andrew Basso ‘cheats death,’ Houdini-style, in ‘The Illusionists-Witness the Impossible.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

CHANNELING PAUL LYNDE & LIBERACE: Jeff Hobson in ‘The Illusionists–Witness the Impossible.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

THE FUTURIST: Adam Trent, doing what Michael Jackson did decades ago. Photo: Joan Marcus

THE INVENTOR: Kevin James (right) with a little friend. Photo: Joan Marcus

ON-STAGE MAGIC: A scene from ‘The Illusionists-Witness the Impossible.’ Photo: TheIllusionistsLive.com

ABRACADRABRA? Kevin James of ‘The Illusionists-Witness The Impossible.’ Photo: TheIllusionists.com

THE OLD SAWING-MAN-IN-HALF TRICK: Kevin James at work. Photo: Joan Marcus

THE ESCAPOLOGIST: Andrew Basso mimics Houdini in ‘The Illusionists-Witness The Impossible.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

‘THE ILLUSIONISTS-WITNESS THE IMPOSSIBLE’: The cast of the show. Photo: TheIllusionistsLive.com

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published December 4, 2014
Reviewed at press preview performance on December 2, 2014

The post ‘The Illusionists’: Rehashing Old-School ‘Magic’ appeared first on StageZine.