DALLASNEWS.com

Circus puts everything on one stage.

Forget the three-ring circus. You won't miss it.

With its new show, Circus of Dreams, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, the last bastion of busy-is-better, has reinvented itself as a single-stage Cirque du Soleil for the kiddie channel, complete with a giant circular high-definition screen suspended so audiences can alternately see close-ups of the action, pre-filmed skits including backstage mayhem and elephant commentary on "those cute little humans." And the appreciative crowd of light-twirling kids liked what they saw on opening night at American Arlines Center. After the preshow, in which the audience was invited to come onstage and get "CircusFit" with the cast, former American Idol contestant Jennifer Fuentes got the proceedings off to an all-American start singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" in a glittering red-white-and-blue dress.

Then she asked the audience if a family would like to join the circus. Many hands went up, but the seemingly ordinary "chosen" family turned out to be Broadway star Chuck Wagner, who finds his calling as the ringleader, while his "wife" becomes a dazzling aerialist, and his "daughter" a dancer. Then there's a young "son" named Dan, who doesn't know what he wants to do.

Not until near the end of the second act, when the Shenzhen Troupe acrobats coax the family to join in, does this boy turn out to be capable of twirling, twisting and leaping with the best of them.

Cirque may still rule for adults who prefer a darker, more cerebral twist to their circus delights. But for young families, this hits the G-rated spot. Even the souvenirs seemed more on target than in previous years: a blinking red clown nose that came with the souvenir program, a clown hat that came with the cotton candy and quickly went on lots of little heads.

Little surprise that the production team is heavy with Nickelodeon and Disney Channel talent. Fans of those channels will even pick up little touches, like the instrumental for Hannah Montana's "I Got Nerve" playing while Vicenta Pages did her tiger act.

Ah, those tigers. Even that traditionally scary act seemed to go more kid-friendly here. There was none of that taunting of the giant cats, or tempting them by putting the trainer's head in a tiger's mouth. Instead Ms. Pages talked soothingly, petted and praised frequently as the tigers stood upright.

There were clowns, acrobats and high-flying thrills: the Yunnan Swing by China's Yunnan Flyers, with acrobats spinning nearly 50 feet in the air through hoops before being caught upside down; and the remarkable Torres family, with seven motorcycles racing inside a sphere at once at nearly 50 miles per hour. (The kids were especially tickled when the family took off their helmets and revealed that one rider is a woman).

But, as befits such a kid-friendly production, some of the biggest applause went to Zantova's dogs and the Panfilov family's housecat act. And while the dogs were incredibly cute, it was those hoop-jumping cats who really let the cat out of the bag, debunking all those theories that cats cannot be persuaded to do much besides eat, sleep and sun themselves.

"Don't try this at home," the ringmaster said after death-defying acts such as shooting a cannonball at cast member Joszef Pakucza, portraying Herkules. A lot of cats may wish he had said the same after watching these cats climb and jump from great heights.