“Every single act is just one ‘wow’ after another” in Cirque Christmas
Therese Curatolo almost couldn’t handle watching her fellow performers in “A Magical Cirque Christmas.”
The singer, in her second year of the holiday production – which comes to Century II on Wednesday for a performance in the Broadway in Wichita series – recalls watching a high-wire balancing act in rehearsals.
“I’d never seen a Cirque show before, much less anything this up close and personal,” she said from a tour stop in Evansville, Ind. “I had a hard time watching it because it stressed me out so much. All I could think of was, ‘Thank goodness I’m not singing through this,’ because I’m literally holding my breath, anxious watching all this.”
But then she realized some people might think she has a scary role.
“I have to stop and remind myself that the same way I am comfortable in 5-inch heels and a dress, singing in front of audiences, these artists, these performers, are comfortable and they’re in their element balancing or hanging from a trapeze or aerial hoop – that’s their comfort zone,” Curatolo said.
“That brought me some peace, knowing while I was singing on stage with these acts, instead of being afraid for them, they are completely in control,” she added. “They know what they’re doing, the same way I know what I’m doing when I’m singing.”
A Reno, Nev., native now living in Los Angeles, Curatolo works as a session singer as well as sitting in with bands Postmodern Jukebox, which makes Roaring Twenties-era arrangements of current popular songs; Scary Pockets, which turns all genres of music into funk; and her own solo work, which she describes as “if Joni Mitchell and Doris Day had a love child, it would be myself.”
The songs she performs are traditional, including “O Tannenbaum,” “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire).”
“We try to cover all the bases,” Curatolo said. “The genres of music are very broad as well. We range in everything from classical to jazz to kind of a David Foster-esque diva moment, if you will.”
While she was one of two singers last year, for this tour she’s a soloist. She works with the musical arranger on a number of styles.
“It became kind of a collaboration as far as different arrangements,” she said. “I’m a little bit more in control of what I’m singing.”
Produced by the team behind the Broadway hit “The Illusionists,” “A Magical Cirque Christmas” includes several alumni of “America’s Got Talent” and “Britain’s Got Talent,” Curatolo said. The host is John Archer, a comedian-magician who made it to the semi-finals in the English edition of the TV talent hunt earlier this year.
And a featured act is Yusaku “Mochi” Mochizuki, a juggler who advanced to the quarterfinal round of “AGT” last year.
“He does this incredible juggling act that’s synchronized to a screen behind him. It’s mesmerizing,” Curatolo said. “Every single act is just one ‘wow’ after another.”
The performances themselves are not in a holiday theme, she said, but are framed that way.
“There’s nothing Christmas about the acts per se, but the banter and the décor and the Christmas music make it a holiday spectacular,” she said.
While this year’s tour has the “Magical Cirque Christmas” in six different cities, six nights a week, Curatolo said she enjoys being around her castmates – she’s one of only two American-born performers in the production – and the camaraderie they provide.
“The circus family gets close very quickly. And that’s ultimately what the circus is,” she said. “When people say they ‘ran away with the circus,’ what they mean is they ran away with a foster family.”
‘A MAGICAL CIRQUE CHRISTMAS’
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 18
Where: Century II concert hall, 225 W. Douglas
Tickets: $64.50-$130.50, by calling 316-303-8100, or wichitatix.com or the Century II box office
This story was originally published December 15, 2019 at 7:00 AM.