JPJ Arena now open

There could hardly have been a more fitting show to establish expectations for the John Paul Jones Arena, nor to highlight all of what can happen in that vast space, than Cirque du Soleil, which opened UVA’s new arena on Wednesday night, August 1 with a double-jointed rumination on the stages of man known as “Delirium.” The acrobatic troupe ushered in the new era of collegiate sports and entertainment programming with a display that featured, not in order, rock guitars, Broadway show-style singing, hula-hoop virtuosity, men in vaguely Edwardian dress, lasers, projected video, stilt-walking, trapeze work, enormous white balloons, half-naked women, and yes, a red rubber ball—in this case a schoolyard bouncy ball, but you get the idea.

    Though the extravagant set dictated that about one-third of the John’s 15,000 seats were closed off, the rest of the house was packed. The much-vaunted intimacy of the space, now realized, actually left one feeling that only a couple dozen people were witnessing the spectacle with you. Out in the lobby, however, where “glistening” described the state of the granite-like countertops and grayish heavy-duty carpeting, and “helpful” described the blue polo-shirted event staff, the size of the crowd was more apparent.

    Its collective wallet, too. With tickets going for something in the $100 neighborhood, it should have come as no surprise to see the $20 bills flying across the merch table to purchase such mementos as a pink girls’ t-shirt with “emotion” silk-screened on it twice ($30) or a vivid handbag ($60) that, in its colorful display, was to the pyschadelica it hoped to evoke what mini golf is to Augusta National.

    Never mind. Corey Croson, a self-described “ironic” 18-year-old high school student, had purchased a ruby-lipped mask that entirely covered his face because it was “hilarious and scary at the same time.” An aficionado of Cirque du Soleil videos (as well as the music of The Smiths and Animal Collective, which he said exemplified his “pretentious” taste), Croson was eager before show time to see what he was certain would be an even more “interpretive and artsy-visual” performance than those Cirque had previously presented.

    But even the most self-examining teen can be caught off guard once in a while, and the arena had pulled that trick on him. “It has exceeded my expectations,” Croson said of The John. “The bathrooms are a lot nicer than U-Hall. For now, I’m not afraid to actually use the stalls.”