The magic of circus and the holiday season come together in ’Twas the Night Before… by Cirque du Soleil, the ooh-and-aah-inspiring show now playing at the Fox Theatre.

The show’s title comes from the first line of “A Visit from Saint Nicholas,” the much-loved poem by Clement Clarke Moore. Reading this classic together has been a Christmas Eve tradition for the show’s main characters, Isabella and her father. This year, however, smartphones and social media have become all-consuming passions for Isabella. Her father’s gift, a bicycle, leaves her cold.

Isabella and her father are split up when a winter storm and Santa Claus arrive. Father and daughter go off on separate adventures where they encounter the wonders of Cirque du Soleil. Lines from “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” lead into the circus acts, which include:

• An aerial duo performing amazing feats of strength
• A juggler who spins clubs at a preposterous speeds and balances one spinning ball on top of another spinning ball that is balanced on top of a stick
• Comical acrobatics on the bed where visions of sugar-plums dance in the children’s heads
• A snowball fight that spills out into the audience
• A roller-skating duo who can do acrobatics while spinning at astonishing speeds on a platform only 6 feet in diameter
• An aerialist who does acrobatics while suspended by her hair
• A hotel luggage cart that become trapeze for an acrobat who can twist her body in extraordinary ways
• Four young men who perform mind-boggling tricks with up to eight glowing diabolos—two-headed tops that are tossed and caught with a cord suspended between two rods

My favorite moments are part of the diabolo act. Two performers venture about a dozen rows into the audience and execute perfect tosses to their partners on stage. Two members of the audience are then brought onto the stage and incorporated into the show.

When Isabella and her father are finally reunited, her priorities are back in order. She performs wondrous balancing acts on the bicycle she spurned before.

Artificial snow falls on the stage in enormous amounts for some of the acts. When the snow must be removed before the next scene, the performers make the cleanup fun to watch, wielding their leaf blowers and push brooms with panache.

No program is distributed at the theater, so I can’t mention any names. I can, however, give anonymous praise to:

• All the splendid performers
• The energy of the direction and choreography
• The lively music
• The multitude of showy costumes, especially the ones for the reindeer
• The sparkle of the set and lighting
• The concave wall at the rear of the stage, which members of the troupe often slide down and scamper up

The one-act, 90-minute show continues through December 10 at the Fox Theatre, 527 North Grand Boulevard.

—Gerry Kowarsky

Photo by Michael Last