The proof is there: it is possible to transform a cold hotel conference room into a warm and luminous setting, populated by acrobats and a singer who shines with a thousand lights.
Posted at 12:46 p.m.
Cirque Éloize has moved to the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth for the next three months to present its brand new cabaret Celestial. More than just a circus show, it’s an experience full of sensuality that director Benoit Landry and his acolytes have created.
Walls on which thousands of stars sparkle, sofas to curl up in, mysterious characters who haunt the place as soon as we arrive: we feel it when crossing the threshold of the room, with Celestial, Cirque Éloize wants to wrap us in a languorous atmosphere. An impression that is confirmed as soon as the brightest star of the evening takes the stage: the singer Coral Egan.
Wrapped in a dress of sequins, she is the voice and the soul of Celestial. With her warm voice, she takes up classic songs to which she adds a jazzy tone (Susanna by Cohen, Old fashioned pleasures of Aznavour, Fly me to the moon of Sinatra…). You have to see her dance, with an almost amorous abandon, to understand — if we had forgotten — what a formidable performer she is. And how lucky is the public to be able to spend an evening by his side.
In front of Coral Egan and her musician (Daniel Thouin), the acrobats parade with perfect precision. The performers are so close to the audience that the latter miss nothing of their effort or the distinctness of each performance. Poetry and languor for the rotating mast number performed by Nadine Louis and Catherine Girard, good-natured jubilation for the unicyclist Émile Mathieu, darkness for the juggling performed (with clay!) by Jimmy Gonzalez (one of our favorite numbers of the evening )…
However, some performances come to break the cozy atmosphere of the evening. This is particularly the case for the number of break dancing where the beatbox vocal contrasts with the rest of the vocal interpretations. The creators of Celestial chose a cabaret formula to be able to modify the show at will, add numbers or remove some. It may take a while for a certain unity to settle. In the meantime, the eclecticism of the performances allows everyone to find their account.
PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, THE PRESS
Matthew Richardson is the master of ceremonies for this evening spent under the sign of sensuality.
A word in closing on the master of ceremonies, Matthew Richardson, who sprinkles the evening with just enough salacious jokes (mostly in English), perched on his high heels and draped in sometimes improbable dresses. He is with Coral Egan the other key element of this show. It is he who opens the acrobatic ball with a very spectacular Cyr wheel number, where the black of her bustier and her garter stockings twirl in a hypnotizing ballet.
No doubt, Celestial is a show of assumed sensuality, imagined first and foremost for the pleasure of adults. When the hotel bar reopens, we can bet that spectators will want to prolong the evening in this magnificent room, a drink in hand. This is what the creators of Celestialwho want to give downtown a place where Montrealers and passing tourists can gather.
Which, it must be admitted, will be good for everyone after two years of living cloistered…
Celestial
At the Fairmont Queen ElizabethUntil June 4, 2022