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| - I have no idea what to say. I'm still processing what I just witnessed. Am I traumatized? In a good way? What the hell are my standards and how do I judge this?
Well, it must be said. The last time I was in this theater it was to see The Phantom of the Opera, which was amazing and changed my life. Oh Erik. You are the soundtrack to my soul.
That aside, I'm giving 4 stars based on the sheer enthusiasm of the performers and my mom's reaction. I went in expected a train wreck but was pleasantly surprised with the level of talent packed into the show. I've seen a full fledged Chinese acrobatic show in Shanghai; the skill and prestige of the Panda! performers is up there with the legit stuff.
There were good moments and if Russell Crowe asked, yes I was entertained.
However, this show suffers from bad marketing and unrealistic audience expectations. First of all, the marketing is crap, going in you have no idea what the show is and any promo oversimplifies it with pandas. Pandas, pandas, pandas. Is it to get you through the door? Do people love pandas this freaking much? Perhaps children but sorry kiddos but this show is probably 20% Panda, if not less. Enough Panda for me because their costumes need some serious reworking.
As for the audience expectations, they really need to not ask people to clap after every trick. I got pretty tired of constantly clapping and then I felt bad when other people didn't clap because it seemed as if we were into it. So I clapped harder because the performers just really wanted some validation. The smattering of applause sounded as if people weren't enjoying the show, but I've never been to a performance outside of a grade school piano recital that asked for noise every 5 minutes. Maybe a concert. But anyways, not a Vegas show. It exhausted people so the final encore was a bit sad, and I really wished the performers were able to receive a proper enthusiastic response in one large exuberant display instead of many small ones. Or even after every act. Please! It'd make the energy so much more consistent and palpable.
But overall, would I recommend? I had a friend ('s dad) pay $120/person for tickets. I went to free. If you have kids, I'd definitely recommend. For adults right before a club outgoing? Probably not, KA is probably sexier than plush pandas rolling around on stage with monkeys. Probably. I can't assume where your tastes run. However, Panda! can be a happy medium of family outing, lighthearted kitschy fun with no expectation of serious.
Deck out the gift shop with more panda stuff! Missed opportunity! And take off that baby love brand shit and generic plush animal tags, it looks cheap.
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