Varekai Cirque du Soleil's production of Varekai, with all its dizzying circus acts, is shaped around a loosely constructed story that happens in a fantastically imagined world. Enter the canvas flaps and be amazed. Wondrous beings appear and wander through designer Stphane Roy's mazelike set, against a backdrop of slender cane rods. Along with composer Violaine Corradi's otherwordly music, the sounds of birds and insects flitting and singing around the tent add depth. Nol van Genuchten's lighting infuses the stage with the dappled glow of morning, and the whole place becomes some forgotten fairy-land grove. Dressed in Eiko Ishioka's fantastic costumes, the performers create a menagerie of beings, the sort that might come from the most fabulous childhood dream. One of the most astonishing acts is also the one most integrated into the story of the show. According to press materials, varekai means " 'wherever' in the Romany language of the gypsies." And so this show is a sort of homage to the wanderer, who appears in the shape of an Icarus-like being who falls from the sky dressed in angel-white and long wings. Once he lands, he loses his wings, and in an act called "The Flight of Icarus," he must work his way out of a creamy-white net that holds him captive. Performer Anton Chelnokov is breathtaking to watch. Other acts -- such as "Water Meteors" and "Icarian Games" -- amaze simply because they look so impossibly difficult and dangerous. As with all of the Canadian company's productions, this circus provides a story with characters that infuse the acrobats and jugglers with an almost mystical energy. The show takes us to another world that anyone with an imagination would love to inhabit, if only for one night. Through February 13 in the parking lot of Reliant Park, 1-800-678-5440.
Wiener Day at the Rollercade Okay, so who's the biggest wiener in Dumpster, Texas, now that the tiny town's favorite holiday is here? Is it Mildred, who's made her family's sacrosanct meal on the eve of wiener time: Vienna sausage roll-ups? Is it her husband, Ned, the town's former preacher, who seems to have lost his mind? Is it their daughter, Justicena, come all this way from Bangor, Maine -- without her husband because she wants to be assured of having a good time -- just to be "hurled" from the festival's tower? Is it loser son Lou, who's trying to invent a cheaper heart medicine using ordinary household chemicals? Is it their other son, dim and lovable Earl, who's raising a rabbit that's as "odd" as he is? Is it Uncle Al, still mourning the death of his beloved wife and bruised from a mammogram he received as a gift? Is it flittery, none-too-closeted Sheriff Benton, who loves roller-skating and wearing women's clothes? Maybe it's Bridgette, Lou's "slutty" wife, who's having an affair with singer Country Wayne Conway, or Doc Moore, whose gibberish conversations are Dumpster's own version of the Tower of Babel, or Gwenda, Dumpster's stogie-chomping postmistress, who lusts after Uncle Al even when he's wearing his dead wife's housedress. Maybe it's all of them, especially when they all make painful public confessions thinking the town is about to be destroyed (don't ask, but it has something to do with Lou smashing his car into the rollercade's generator after he's been beaten to a pulp by town bully Braxton Hix, lately out of prison, who attacks him every Wiener Day). Certainly, though, the wieners are not the mad trio responsible for this Fertle Family funfest: Steve Farrell, Vicki Farrell and Rich Mills. This live-action cartoon from Radio Music Theatre is the funniest show in town. If you don't go see it, the biggest wiener will be you. Through May 7. 2623 Colquitt, 713-522-7722.
