Jim Haysom | This Is Your Life an internet professional in digital advertising

Review of Varekai Cirque du Soleil at London’s Royal Albert Hall

Tonight I've had the pleasure to be a VIP guest at the Cirque du Soleil performance, Varekai, at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The short review, without the spoiler is, go and see it as soon as you can. Simply put, it was amazing, breathtaking with touches of comedy that made everyone laugh, a night to remember.

Now for the spoiler. If you've seen the movie Ocean's Eleven, you'll have some idea of what Cirque du Soleil is. It's a musical and theatrical performance with stunning acrobatics and choreography. Without opening the complimentary programme, it's basically a love story. There's plenty of grease men if you know what I mean, but the performers were everything from small children to the most agile athletes I've seen.

After a lovely meal on the 6th floor we made our way down the Gallery level and into our private box. Behind the curtains sat an array of drinks and a bag with the programme and what appears to be a CD. We were sat up in the tiers overlooking the centre stage, and as the music started you could feel the antipication from other guests. This is going to be quite unlike any other show.

Speeding past each act, highlights included an Andy Murray lookalike get wrapped up in a fishermans net, some tiny blue kids throw some rope and cups into the air (and onto the floor, bless), the yellow dragonlike girl scurry around the floor, blokes in muscle sprayed lycra jump about a bit and throwing each other over in circles and a really wierd topless tramp wandering the stage in his grass topped trousers mumbling to himself.

The interval passes, the bloke on crutches impress us all, as does the juggler, whilst we still laugh at the comedy duo who performed earlier in the show a sketch which was much better than Tommy Cooper, but not as good as Paul Daniels. Painfully funny to watch. 

Anyway, a bit more jumping about by the red suited guys, plenty of hoolahoop spinning and flying about by the girls on a trapeze and blokes getting tangled up and almost having a smooch. Topped off by the red and gold men showing all dads in the audience how to make trips to the park so much more fun if they've got some swings.

I might not be selling it to you with this drivell, but the purpose is not to tell you every detail. Trust me, it might be a bit of a mash up of Avatar and Alice in Wonderland (as someone quoted) and on speed, but its such an aural and visual spectical that I wouldn't want to spoil it. The two singers throughout add to the atmosphere of randomness and fantasy.

As I write this on my journey home, I'm happy to say that I will now start to work on my abs. Talk about a show that gives you a guilt trip on our levels of fitness. I may have clenched the abs once or twice during the show, but it does demonstrate these performers are incredibly talented.

Highly recommended and it's worth seeing Cirque du Soleil whilst it is still running at the Royal Albert Hall in London during 2010, a perfect venue for this. I've been told that if you're in Las Vegas, then this is an absolute must see, so search for Cirque du Soleil tickets now, and treat your loved one on Valentine's day.