Moscow Cats troupe exudes whiskery charm

The Moscow Cats Theatre is most definitely not the slick, high-tech, Eurochic-meets-the-new-Las Vegas sort of circus that Cirque du Soleil audiences have come to expect. Rather, it is in the old-fashioned tradition of the tattered touring troupe, replete with sequences of beach balls and hotdog balloons volleyed into the crowd, a couple of female assistants dressed in kitschy, gaily colored costumes, and one droller-than-droll male clown with s-l-o-w reactions.

Here's the meow on the Moscow Cats Theatre, the decidedly nutty, happily threadbare troupe of 30 felines, two dogs and six clowns, all led by Yuri Kuklachev, a Ukrainian-born clown with yellow-blond hair, a ping-pong-ball nose and broad smile (think Bill Clinton in fancy rags), who, 30 years ago, decided he could train a stray cat. Kuklachev has demonstrated that even those most willful creatures -- from puffy white furball variety to sleek black racer -- can be made to follow orders.