High-Flying Fun at Teatro ZinZanni

Frank Ferrante and Dreya Weber as Caesar and Cleopatra. 

Escape to the circus for a night with the madcap whirlwind performance of Teatro ZinZanni’s latest show, Hail Caesar! Housed beneath a hundred-year-old Austrian circus tent, the venue’s shadowy, candle-lit atmosphere hails more to a 20^th century Parisian café (complete with white linen, stained glass and mirrors) than a traditional Big Top.

The show begins when a young woman in a short dress and thigh-high stockings makes her way to the “stage” in the center of the tent (tables ring the entire area, making it a 360-degree stage) ringing a giant dinner bell. With this cue the show’s namesake, Chef Caesar (Frank Ferrante), emerges clad in the first of many, progressively more outrageous shiny brocade suits, and kicks off the evening with a loud greeting. 

The thin plot of the show (Cleopatra, played by the sultry Dreya Weber, is brought to the present day, and sets out on a quest to find her Caesar, but gets mixed up with the Chef instead) serves more as a vehicle for the spectacular performances than a strong point itself, but the kitschy characters and over-the-top glittery costumes (think Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra on overdrive), designed by Beaver Bauer, only positively add to the overall spectacle of the evening.

In the same vein as Cirque du Soleil, Hail Caesar is full of acrobatics, trapeze artists, jugglers and a beautiful hand-balancer, all of whom take their acts further and further into the realm of disbelief. Cleopatra performs a dexterous display of aerial art, twisting and spinning at a dizzying pace on two loops of braided rope, held up only by her own strength. The Ssens Duo (Genevieve Landry and Maxime Clabaut) perform a sensual duet on the trapeze, flipping themselves around with calm ease, Landry held up at times with merely one hand clasping onto a dangling Clabaut’s wrist, smiling provocatively at the audience the entire time.

Teatro ZinZanni is a dinner theatre, and throughout the night five gourmet courses (designed by Tom Douglas) were served in between acts. The creamy made-in-house asparagus soup was a standout, and there were three main course choices including prime beef tenderloin, macadamia nut encrusted scallops and vegetarian mushroom strata. The wait staff (who changed costumes with each course) were outgoing and friendly, and during one song when Caesar encouraged the entire room to get up and dance, our waiter pulled me out of the booth for a quick spin.

As the nexus of the evening’s entertainment Caesar was full of well-worn sexual puns (“There are times when even the greatest love affairs need a little…enhancement”) and quick-as-lightening jokes, and he kept pulling audience members out onto the stage to participate in his high jinks. Lady Moundsajoy (Juliana Rambaldi) and Sultan Mamluk Aboud (Victor Benedetti) both sang several selections, and Benedetti’s operatic skills were audibly strong, while Rambaldi’s soprano was a bit shrill.

Aside from the stiff seats of the booths, the evening is three hours of energetic, eye-catching fun. It’s not high theatre by any means, but it is a fantastic variety of cabaret, comedy and breath-taking performance of the type you won’t find anywhere else in town. Hail, Teatro ZinZanni! 

Hail Caesar runs through August 28. Tickets here. 

Image Courtesy of Teatro ZinZanni.