Review: 'The Illusionists,' much flash, few surprises

The Illusionists: Witness the Impossible, brings a motley Vegas-style assortment of magicians (and one escape artist) from a six-week residency on Broadway to the Academy of Music. They've got fireworks, lasers, indoor snow, interactive video screens, and dancer/assistants dressed in the ragged Victorian hooker/dandy style seen sauntering across many a steam-punk conference floor. But do they make the magic happen?

The answer is complicated. First, our cast of characters: Adam Trent, "The Futurist," possesses Ryan Seacrest's amiability, and a similarly bland set of tricks. His primary link to the future - those video screens - focus more on simple choreography than sleight of hand. Jeff Hobson, "The Trickster," has Liberace's hair, grin and affection for glitz (and a touch of Frank Gorshin's Riddler), with none of the need to closet his humor. His tricks aren't earth-shattering or new, but his sharp attitude might be the most refreshing part of this show.

At the other end of the magical spectrum, there's Dan Sperry's "Anti-Conjuror," who styles himself after Marilyn Manson, complete with black lipstick and white makeup resembling dripping pigeon effluvia. This is not a swipe; the man (who turns out to be fairly charming) also has a bird act, and since he favors gross-out bits such as pulling dental floss through his eye socket, it's probably intentional. Andrew Basso's Italian "Escapologist" unlocks himself from various underwater hindrances. Aaron Crow's Belgian "Warrior" performs a nerve-wracking weaponized audience-participation feat while clad in a silver brocade duster and quite possibly a codpiece. And South Korean Yu Ho-Jin's "Manipulator" brings the earnest, pained expression and fine-boned beauty of a K-pop balladeer to some gracefully performed card tricks.

Finally, it's a bit of a contradiction that Kevin James' "Inventor" has the best-staged tricks. He's soft-spoken, with the least stage presence, a portly, kind guy in Thomas Dolby glasses, who gets the full attention of all those dancers, saws a man in half, and carries him across the stage. Or the top of him, anyway.

There's plenty of entertainment to be had here - after all, these are seven performers bringing their A-games - and really, its carnies-on-tour hucksterism has a vaudevillian underdog quality that's a triumph in a house this size. But the production's Nine Inch Nails aesthetics and reliance on the tried and true give it a dated quality that traditionalists may appreciate but that might disappoint those raised to expect over-the-top shocks and thrills. Perhaps that says more about our culture than it does about them, but magic relies on the element of surprise, and the Illusionists offer only a few surprises.

The Illusionists: Witness the Impossible

Through Sunday at the Academy of Music, Broad and Locust Streets.

Tickets: $20-$105.50.

Information: 215-731-3333 or www.KimmelCenter.org/Broadway

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