Désir

RING-A-DING Marawa Ibrahim puts a new spin on the circus.

Photograph: Joan Marcus

Seduction works only when you want to be seduced. So for those who have overindulged on Cirques of every stripe (and yawn whenever a hot body bends into another improbable shape), the latest Spiegeltent addition, Désir, will feel like one truffle too many. But for those with an insatiable appetite for the louche and loose-limbed, this intimately scaled circus-cum-follies spoons up a lip-smacking dessert.

The key to the show’s success is its scale: Désir snuggles its audience around a stage the size of a dining-room table—letting us ogle the performers like courses at a feast. Director Wayne Harrison styles the night as a backstage peep at a Moulin Rouge–type revue, where a sailor-suited little boy (played by rippling big boy Olaf Triebel) is pampered by feathered showgirls and a Hula Hoop–spinning Josephine Baker (Marawa Ibrahim) snatches a kiss from her stage-manager lover. Harrison and choreographer John O’Connell sprinkle retro references throughout: A flexible man goes by Joseph Pilates; a high-flyer arrives as a glittery Amelia Earhart. The best two acts—Marieve Hemond and Annie-Kim Dehry’s paired aerial act and a high-flying tower of Russian acrobats—don’t need the trimmings, however; they survive on virtuosity and gasp-inducing proximity alone. Eventually, though, even luxury taxes the palate. There are only so many variations on these themes, and by the time the Maharajah (Marco Noury) wants to show us his splits, the bloom has gone. Still, it’s the rare seduction that could last so long. That we’re still swooning at the hour mark makes Désir one hell of a tryst.