Cirque du Soleil - La Nouba
Spectacle-makers Cirque du Soleil push the sheer abundance of eye-candy to  the maximum inLa Nouba. While some astonishing physical feat is  underway, a host of colorful clown characters dart in and out at the  fringes of the stage. For some viewers, this will only enhance the  experience--others will find them an annoying distraction, particularly  the lackluster quartet of white-faced clowns who almost never go away.  This, combined with some overly busy camerawork, threatens to undermine  the show; but the acrobatics are topnotch as ever. The German Wheel,  phenomenal bicyclists, trapeze acts, flying straps, tightrope walkers  (including a sequence in which a woman does a hand-stand on top of a  tightrope walker's head), chair-balancing, and a particularly impressive  extended trampoline routine will makeLa Noubasatisfying.--Bret Fetzer