The circus is coming to town and that means elephants, tigers and acrobats, right?
Right.
But “Bellobration,” the 137th Ringling Bros. and Barnum &Bailey’s Circus, coming Thursday through Sept. 9 to Comcast Arena at Everett Events Center, also will feature LED video screens, dazzling lights, contemporary music and a “Dancing with the Clowns” skit.
Considering that variety, the show’s staff is proving that it knows how to keep the interest of those who grew up seeing the more traditional acts, like the trapeze artists and the animals, and how to include modern twists, like the video screen and pop culture skits for those growing up in this technology-flooded age.
The story these effects will bring to life revolves around Bello, a comic daredevil with a 2-to-3-foot tower of hair. Bello dreams of a beautiful woman and spends the first act of the show pursuing her, enduring a series of physical stunts along the way. Many of the stunts are rooted in the fact that the lady represents Bello’s first love, and in the message that he’s a young man literally stumbling through his first attempts at impressing a girl.
One of these stunts has Bello using a jump rope when he’s on top of the spinning Wheel of Steel. Another involves a seven-story-high swaying pole.
“Our vision for ‘Bellobration’ was to create an unforgettable event that celebrates Bello, a bold comic-daredevil whose iconic tall orange hair and amazing acrobatic feats make him one of the most popular and recognizable personalities in the history of Ringling Brothers,” producer Kenneth Feld explained in press materials.
Between the stunts, Bello will refresh adult viewers’ memories of their own first loves, as he makes comical comments about what he’s experiencing. As he’s doing that, the other performers will be impressing the audience as they, and of course, the animals, lead the nonstop action in the performance space through color-morphing diamond “rings” and up near the top of the venue, along the high wire.
Toward that end, one particularly daring act involves the Aguilar Brothers on parallel high wires 25 feet above the ground.
This is no traditional high-wire act, as the performers complicate an already nerve-wracking feat in several different ways.
First, they will not simply be keeping themselves balanced as they move; they will have baskets attached to their feet, so they can’t see whether their feet are on target, so to speak.
Secondly, they won’t just be walking from one end to the other, but rather moving in a hip-hop dance style; again, despite the baskets on their feet.
Other attractions will be an opportunity to meet the performers and animals before show time, with an animal open house, followed by the CircusFit pre-show an hour before the circus, in which guests can try on costumes, get autographs, go onto the arena floor, and more.
“Bellobration”
What: Ringling Brothers and Barnum &Bailey Circus
When: Seven shows, Thursday through Sept. 9
Where: Comcast Arena at Everett Events Center, 2000 Hewitt Ave., Everett
Tickets: $14 to $76, at box office or 866-332-8499
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