I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: July 12, 2025] Cirque du Soleil: Ovo

My family loves going to Cirques.  We have gone to many and we’ve enjoyed them all.

But my daughter recently said that she really wanted to see a Cirque du Soleil production.  And I swear about five days later, they announced this show at the Wells Fargo Center.  And I was able to get 3PM tickets which means we would be home during the day!

On the way down, we learned that 95 was under construction and it was down to one lane in parts.  Google Maps said the wait was 20 minutes, so we left extra early.  By the time we reached the slowdown, people were literally backing up in the breakdown lane to get to the previous exit.

And they were smart because we sat in traffic for over an hour.  We missed at least 30, possibly 45 minutes of the show.  We walked in with two acts to go before the intermission.  Damn.

We still saw some amazing moments.  But I hated not seeing the opening, which is usually really fun.  In fact I considered buying tickets for the evening show and staying just until intermission.  But there were no cheap tickets, so we didn’t bother.

Looking at someone else‘s review here’s what we missed

The show begins with a little audience interaction, as selected bugs and beekeepers wander the floor and first tier, checking for friends in people’s hair and chattering animatedly with one another about their findings.

At the start of the performance, that giant egg watches from the main stage. Then, suddenly, the grasshoppers hop onto these massive stretchy poles, and Ovo is off with a bounding start!

And FrontMezzJunkies says:

The show starts with a gigantic Egg on stage, huge and obscuring much of the performance space from view. The mysterious object from the outside world is an inexplicable enigma in the eyes of the insects (and a nod to the monolith from the Kubrick film 2001) that disappears in a flash, wowing the child within and those around me.

and we missed the butterfly part

Cocoons unveil majestic butterflies, and scarabs fling themselves through the air.

I totally agreed with their sentiment about the “story” between exciting events

And even as it played up some pretty heteronormative acts of courtship and attraction between some goofy creatures and a large leg, the clowning seemed cute and harmless, albeit a tad pedestrian. Part of me wanted something more fascinating than a sassy simplistic ladybird playing hard to get, but it was hypnotizing these kids all around me, as it was intended.

It was cute, but nothing like what I was expecting from Cirque du Soleil.

The acts that we did see were pretty great though.  We arrived to see some “bugs” flinging themselves between three vertical poles.  Then sliding down and catching themselves with their thighs.  We’ve seen this sort of thing before, but they took it to great lengths with multiple performers interacting while on the poles.

There was a guy on a slackline on what looked like one of those pirate ship rides that goes back and forth.  There was the (creepy) contortionist.  Two highlights were the trapeze act in which women were flung through the air and caught in ways that were really quite remarkable–especially the one who flew over the head of the guy who was facing backwards–and he still caught her!

And by far our favorite was the trampoline act.  These bugs jumped off the walls and I assumed they were jumping into a net but then they bounced back up!  They proceeded to bounce off the walls, sometimes seeming to hang on the wall defying gravity until it was time to fall again.  It was quite spectacular.

I’m guessing that most Cirques do roughly the same things.  But I think Cirque du Soleil is just bigger–which doesn’t necessarily mean better, but certainly means exciting.

Word has it that this is people’s least favorite Cirque du Soleil show.  If so, I’d love to see a bigger one!