Then Cirque du Soleil came around. Circus with a huge dose of cabaret and avant garde theater added to it. Great music, fantastic costumes. And in a small enough environment that you could not only see everthing that's going on (a must for the acrobats and contortionists), but even feel apart of it. Caught their Alegria show a couple years ago and was really blown away.
We're going to see the currently-touring Cirque du Soleil show, Quidam, tomorrow night. Can't wait.