O.C. STAGE REVIEW : Cirque du Soleil Opens With Bang at S. Coast Plaza

Lightning and hail crowned the opening of Cirque du Soleil at South Coast Plaza on Saturday night, and though nature put on a fabulous show, this circus is well-nigh impossible to eclipse.

To experience it is to know what is meant by “the greatest show on earth.”

The big top is a colorful cocoon where magic incubates in this incandescent, exquisitely playful paean to an urbane future that defies gravity and personifies grace, in which even that old standard, the bathroom joke, is fancifully, hilariously reinterpreted with an edge of elastic optimism.

For those who have never participated in a Cirque du Soleil extravaganza, this is a circus of two-legged animals who fly, slither, leap, tumble and tickle the funny bone as few other menageries can. Though children may wonder when the lions will be coming on, the adults will recognize the kings and queens of beasts, disguised as acrobats, gymnasts, trapeze artists, wire-walkers and clowns.

The leonine Marco and Paulo Lorador’s feats of unbelievable strength and balance had the audience roaring.

The Steben twins, Karyne and Sarah, flip around a bar 20 feet in the air and catch each other with their ankles. Nikolai Tchelnokov does backward flips and gainers down a rope, from handhold to handhold. Sun Hongli walks not one, but two tightropes, bouncing from one to the other as if she were on a trampoline. So who needs monkeys? For anyone who has lived within the mortal coil long enough to have an awareness of its limitations, Cirque du Soleil is a revelation. The human body is a temple in which miracles can happen.

Cirque du Soleil deifies not only the physical being but the imaginative, emotional being as well.

As in past productions, the performance is rounded within a mystical story, not a plot, but a sensibility. Urbanity is the inspirational theme for Saltimbanco, as this show is called, in which the creative collaborators present a vision of our citified future exploding with diversity and questing for perfection.

Saltimbanco is a 16th-Century word for “street performer” or “showman.” The corps of the company, the comic acrobats, are like a gang of the future, with their fantastic punk outfits and hip-hop routines.

Master of ceremonies Rene Bazinet clowns with the sophisticated wit and ease of a late-night TV megameister. His unique sound-effects language is at once reminiscent of the good old days of radio, and suggestive of a not-too-distant time when words will be obsolete.

With the delicacy and strength of a spider’s web, Saltimbanco straddles time and place and captures the imagination as only truly great theater can do. It is to kineticism what Shakespeare is to the English language, and the words of the bard are apt to describe the feeling that Saltimbanco kindles: “We are such stuff as dreams are made on . . .”

The production design is as sumptuous as a Medici festival and as witty as modern technology allows. The live band rocks and rolls through the all new score, which includes the soaring vocals of Francine Poitras, whose singing is the incantation for Cirque du Soleil’s transformative, magical spell.

And never fear that you won’t know when to applaud. Applaud all the way through. And don’t forget to roar.

Cirque du Soleil Presents Saltimbanco

Director of Creation: Gilles Ste-Croix

Director: Franco Dragone

Costume design: Dominique Lemieux

Set design: Michel Crete

Composer: Rene Dupere

Choreographer: Debra Brown

Lighting design: Luc Lafortune

Sound design: Jonathan Deans

With Miguel Arias, Dimitrii Arnaoutov, Rene Bazinet, Alain Berge, Pawel Biegaj , Witek Biegaj, Martin Boisvert, Jean-Paul Boun, Jenny Clement, Andrea Conway, Vincent Cotnoir, Nicolas Dupere, Joscelyn Drainville, Alain Gauthier, Nui Guishan, Sun Hongli, Miguel Herrera, Galina Karableva, Guy Kaye, Brigitt Larochelle, Isabelle Larose, Jean-Francois Lemieux, Marco Lorador, Paulo Lorador, Daniel Olivier, Francine Poitras, Mathieu Roy, Karyne Steben, Sarah Steben, Sonia St-Martin, Zhang Shengli, Anton Tchelnokov, Nikolai Tchelnokov, Neomi Tamelio, Guennadi Tchijov, Huang Zhen.

Playing at South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa. Tuesday-Thursday at 8 p.m.; Friday at 6 and 9:30 p.m.; Saturday at 4:30 and 8:30 p.m.; Sunday at 1 and 5 p.m. through March 7. Tickets: $13.50-$35.50 for adults, $6.50-$23.50 children. Box office: (714) 549-9497, Ticketmaster: (714) 740-2000. Running time: about 2 hours and 45 minutes.