Part opera, part ballet, part musical, Shen Yun thinks more of itself than most equivalent productions.I must say that before they started advertising for the week of performances in San Francisco, I hadn't heard if it, despite the fact that according to that advertising, "over 1 million people have already marveled at it". Sounds like one of those old Joan Collins' jokes, but that's for a different audience.
I wasn't sure whether to expect a Yangtze Riverdance, Dancing with the Stars of Cirque du Soleil, or Nutcracker's Dance of the Sugar Plum Sauce Fairy. In my view - and Pavey and I disagreed on this - Shen Yun wasn't up to any of these.
The high points were the operatic and solo musical performances, while the dances were - again in my view - repetitive and nowhere near as acrobatic as the scenes carefully placed on YouTube.
I wondered which performances had been seen by those people whose gushing praise is so heavily featured in all the advertising. Then, as we left their marketing strategy was revealed: several people were stood at the exits thrusting digital recorders under everyone's noses, asking "did you enjoy the show?" I said "no" and carried on walking.
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