“When the Lights Go Out”

Before the lights went down, never mind out, at the Lobero Theatre on Friday, October 21, the noir-ish atmosphere of this innovative cabaret was well established. Performers circulated among the patrons, offering to share beverages, or in one case, to “get you anything you need.” The latter remark came from a fashionably shady fellow named Sebastian, who opened his jacket to reveal a thief’s cornucopia of glittering watches and other items, all pinned to the lining like something out of a gangster film. Although these touches and Jennifer Smithwick’s charming spoken introduction served to set the stage, what came afterward easily transcended even the most outrageous immersive strategies. With Brian Harwell acting as a kind of silent narrator, the night roared along, moving from one spectacular dance number to another —some on the floor, others in the air. Kerrilee Gore’s distinctive brand of contemporary dance has never looked better, and Autumn Phillips’s performance on the aerial silks was stunning, a breathtaking example of where the cutting edge of this art form is headed.