‘DERREN BROWN: SECRET’: Derren Brown. Photo: Matthew Murphy

DERREN BROWN: SECRET
Written by Andy Nyman, Derren Brown & Andrew O’Connor
Directed by Andrew O’Connor & Andy Nyman
Through January 4, 2020
Cort Theatre
138 West 48th Street
212-239-6200; www.derrenbrownsecret.com

By David NouNou

At the beginning of Derren Brown: Secret, an announcement is made that photography is prohibited and to kindly refrain from discussing or reviewing the show online as it would spoil it for future viewers. When you are dealing with illusion⁠—or in this case, mentalism or the power of suggestion⁠—it is best not to reveal any information, because the main purpose of a show like this is to leave the audience in awe, and Derren Brown leaves the audience completely stumped and enthralled.

Unlike shows like the various incarnations of The Illusionists (with multiple acts and a few better than others, those are more family holiday-oriented shows), Mr. Brown’s Secret is a clever one-man extravaganza that has witty repartee with the audience. He’s well known in the U.K. (he has won two Olivier Awards) and in the U.S. has shows streaming on Netflix, “The Push” and “Sacrifice.” For his Broadway debut, of course the audience is his source of material/entertainment; they are chosen randomly and the rest of us are amazed at the feats that are performed. Sorry, I can’t reveal any of the mysterious acts presented.

What makes this show so enjoyable is Mr. Brown’s affability. He is a charming host with refined British dry humor that makes this sort of show go down smoothly. If mental telepathy, or mind shows and trickery are not your cup of tea, it would be best to skip this one. There are times when Secret seems over indulgent, but Mr. Brown is a superb showman, and the rapport he has with his audience keeps the show afloat.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published September 19, 2019
Reviewed at September 18, 2019 press performance.

‘DERREN BROWN; SECRET’: Derren Brown performs a trick with an audience member. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘DERREN BROWN: SECRET’: Derren Brown & audience member. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘DERREN BROWN: SECRET’: Derren Brown. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘DERREN BROWN: SECRET’: Derren Brown with audience members as part of his act. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘DERREN BROWN: SECRET’: Derren Brown. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘DERREN BROWN: SECRET’: Derren Brown. Photo: Matthew Murphy

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“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

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‘THE ILLUSIONISTS-TURN OF THE CENTURY’: Justo Thaus Jin (The Great Carlini, not pictured, operating puppet). Photo: Used With Permission, The Illusionists

THE ILLUSIONISTS—TURN OF THE CENTURY
By Various Performers
Directed by Neil Dorward
Through January 1, 2017
Palace Theatre
1564 7th Avenue & West 47th Street
(800-714-8452), http://www.theillusionistslive.com/turnofthecentury

By Scott Harrah

Tourists and New Yorkers alike with a penchant for all things vintage and retro may find The Illusionists—Turn of the Century a tonic for troubled times this holiday season. Part of the mega-successful The Illusionists franchise that’s been on Broadway this festive time of year since 2014, this latest incarnation goes way back to the glory days of “magic” and illusionists.  While The Illusionists—Witness the Impossible that debuted two years ago was mostly a Las Vegas-style spectacle with lots of hokey special effects, Turn of the Century is a more sincere paean to an art form that is almost forgotten in this high-tech digital era. It pays tribute to the type of show popular in late Victorian England and early 20^th century New York and is noteworthy for its historical value if nothing else.

This is essentially what used to be called a “magic show,” in the far more innocent era before the Internet, YouTube and digital effects. Anyone old enough to remember TV’s “The Ed Sullivan Show” has seen this “magic” before, from card tricks to disappearing doves to “clairvoyants.”  If you watched 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 how many of the tricks and illusions work. However, there is enough entertaining “wizardry” here to make even the biggest skeptic wonder, “How’d they do that?”

The acts are hit and miss. Although Baby Boomers, Generation X and anyone over 45 may have seen most of this before, keep in mind the point of the show: Providing a forum for the type of entertainment popular more than a century ago.

We have Charlie Frye, “The Eccentric,” a man who does juggling and acrobatics. Generic stuff that isn’t so “eccentric.”

There is also Jinger Leigh, known as “The Conjuress.” She plays with a suspended “Okito” ball that’s at times visually appealing, but we’ve seen the same thing in countless Cirque du Soleil acts. She teams up with Mark Kalin, “The Showman,” for the “lady sawed in half” stunt (another familiar sight).

Spaniard Justo Thaus Jin, as “The Grand Carlini,” treats us to the long-gone art of puppetry, specifically marionettes. His act consists of manipulating a marionette “magician,” and how does the little guy do it? It’s nice to see puppetry, an archaic form of entertainment and storytelling.

Brit Jonathan Goodwin is “The Daredevil” and he treats us to such time-honored classics as inviting an audience member to lie on a bed of nails. He later removes all the nails except one and jabs himself on it to demonstrate his “pain tolerance.” At another point in the show, he pays homage to Harry Houdini by “escaping” from handcuffs while dangling from a rope that’s been set on fire.

Standouts of the show include Dana Daniels, “The Charlatan.” His “illusions” and tricks are fairly standard, from twisting balloons into wiener dogs to visual gags with doves, etc. It is the effervescent way he interacts with the audience–specifically when he invites people onstage–which sets him apart from the others. He also has plenty of witty one-liners to keep us amused.

Another audience favorite must be “The Clairvoyants,” the Austrian duo of Thommy Ten and Amélie van Tass. The two were runners-up on TV’s “America’s Got Talent” earlier this year and their appeal is understandable. Most of their act focuses on audience participation. The ultra-perky Amélie is blindfolded and sits on a swing while Thommy goes into the audience and asks people to open purses and wallets and pull out common objects like lip gloss, a dollar bill, and so on. Meanwhile, the blindfolded Amélie is able to describe the objects in detail. In Act II, Amélie is able to guess the flavors of jellybeans audience members are eating while she’s again blindfolded. Pay particular attention to Amélie sitting onstage writing a letter during intermission. The letter’s contents offer a surprise twist at the show’s end.

Thrown into the mix are a “levitating” woman and “The Immortal” Rick Thomas, a longtime veteran of Las Vegas “magic,” clad in full turn-of-the-20th-century garb and doing a variety of illusions.

Two things makes this iteration of The Illusionists appealing: First, the show stays true to the nostalgic intent by not overloading us with too many special effects, so one really gets the feeling of seeing a variety show circa 1903. Other than a circular overhead projection of the onstage happenings, lighting and sound, the performers mostly do the actual illusions seen a century ago. Finally, while other editions mostly featured male illusionists, we have wonderful female performers here, too. Ms. Leigh and Ms. van Tass hold their own against the guys. Is the show groundbreaking or original? Hardly. However, as a Broadway history lesson on outdated gimmickry, it never fails to entertain.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published December 4, 2016
Reviewed at press performance on December 1, 2016

‘THE ILLUSIONISTS-TURN OF THE CENTURY’: Mark Kalin (The Showman). Photo: Used With Permission, The Illusionists

‘THE ILLUSIONISTS-TURN OF THE CENTURY’: Rick Thomas (The Immortal). Photo: Used With Permission, The Illusionists

‘THE ILLUSIONISTS-TURN OF THE CENTURY’: Jonathan Goodwin (The Daredevil). Photo: Used With Permission, The Illusionists

‘THE ILLUSIONISTS-TURN OF THE CENTURY’: Jonathan Goodwin, ‘The Daredevil.’ Photo: Used With Permission, The Illusionists

‘THE ILLUSIONISTS-TURN OF THE CENTURY’: Rick Thomas, “The Immortal.’ Photo: Used with Permission, The Illusionists

‘THE ILLUSIONISTS-TURN OF THE CENTURY’: Dana Daniels, ‘The Charlatan.’ Photo: Used With Permission, The Illusionists

‘THE ILLUSIONISTS-TURN OF THE CENTURY’: Dana Daniels, ‘The Charlatan.’ Photo: Used With Permission, The Illusionists

‘THE ILLUSIONISTS-TURN OF THE CENTURY’: Charlie Frye, ‘The Eccentric.’ Photo: Used With Permission, The Illusionists

‘THE ILLUSIONISTS-TURN OF THE CENTURY’: Charlie Frye (The Eccentric). Photo: Used With Permission, The Illusionists

‘THE ILLUSIONISTS-TURN OF THE CENTURY’: Charlie Frye (The Eccentric). Photo: Used With Permission, The Illusionists

‘THE ILLUSIONISTS-TURN OF THE CENTURY’: Thommy Ten & Amélie van Tass, ‘The Clairvoyants.’ Photo: Used With Permission, The Illusionists

‘THE ILLUSIONISTS-TURN OF THE CENTURY’: Puppet Justo Thaus Jin (operated by The Grand Carlini). Photo: Used With Permission, The Illusionists

‘THE ILLUSIONISTS-TURN OF THE CENTURY’: The cast. Photo: Used With Permission, The Illusionists

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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

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