BACK TO THE BIG TOP; STEP RIGHT UP TO THE SENSORY SPLENDOR OF KALEIDOSCAPE.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Daily News Staff Writer

The first thing that hits you are the smells - the sweet scent of cotton candy and caramel, the fresh popcorn and hand-rolled pretzels, the roasted beef and bratwurst, and the Wolfgang Puck pizzas and squeezed lemonade. And you're kicking yourself because you ate a late lunch, although that doesn't seem to be stopping your 7-year-old, who has already consumed four courses of hyperactivity-inducing sugar and is running, as we speak, back to the cotton candy stand for more . . . more . . . more.

This, the outer tent of Barnum's Kaleidoscape, is the earliest clue you have that this particular circus will be unlike any other Ringling Bros. event you've ever attended. This is not a hot-dog-and-soda circus. For their first trip away from arenas and back to the big top tent in more than 40 years, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey have pulled out all the stops to deliver a designer circus that's distinct from other specialty spectacles winding their way across the country.

``Those other people don't even call their shows a circus,'' sniffs Kenneth Feld, president of Feld Entertainment, the driving force behind Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey as well as Siegfried and Roy's act in Las Vegas and a host of traveling ice shows.

Those ``other people,'' of course, are the clowns, jugglers and acrobats of Cirque du Soleil, the Canadian group that has morphed into a multimillion-dollar entertainment giant during the past decade. The Cirquers emphasize theatricality in their shows. No smelly animals for them. Their clowns are artistes, their shows a wistful look at humanity.

Ringling Bros., having abandoned tents for the more profitable arenas in 1956, took notice of all the upscale suburbanites flocking to the Cirque and began planning their own one-ring show. (They're not alone in that regard. The high-tech Cirque Ingenieux, conceived in 1995, tours North America and is staging its circus-style musical show at the Pantages Theatre.)

Feld stops short of saying he was influenced by those ``other people'' while creating the Kaleidoscape show. He's more intent on differentiating this edition from bygone big tops and Ringling Bros.' arena shows. However, his star performer, a remarkably expressive clown named David Larible, can't resist poking fun at the Cirque.

``Their shows seem to have some kind of philosophical end they want to impart,'' Larible says. ``We just want you to have fun.''

With Kaleidoscape, the fun starts an hour before show time. In the outer tent, amid the wafting sweet smells of good grub, a New Orleans-style jazz band plays rousing renditions of ``Sweet Georgia Brown'' and ``Yes, We Have No Bananas.'' One by one, the circus performers enter and greet guests, pose for pictures and carry off scaled-down versions of some of the stunts they will execute later in the evening. Acrobats do handstands. Jugglers toss plates. A midget eats a steak while standing on his head.

The kids love it (as do the adults, but they just don't show it as much) and seize the chance to twirl hula hoops and watch the jugglers and acrobats at close range. Mom and Dad, meanwhile, gorge themselves on fancy Puck pizzas and crab cakes and wash down their meals with a Heineken or a Diedrich's cappuccino.

When everyone is ready to go inside the main tent, the action doesn't miss a beat. Larible acts as an usher, escorting you to your seats in the silliest manner possible. And what seats they are. Each chair is cushioned with red velvet upholstery, and there are even a couple of dozen divans mixed in for variety. No seat is more than 50 feet from the ring, affording excellent, intimate views of the performers.

It's a far cry from the usual arena sightlines we're accustomed to when watching a Ringling Bros. show, which is precisely the point, Feld says.

``We wanted to make this an entirely different experience,'' Feld says. ``From the quality of the food to the comfort of the seating to the fact that we don't have port-a-potties but actual bathrooms with flowers . . . this is our idea of a dream circus.''

Once the two-hour, 15-minute show begins, we learn that Larible isn't an usher - he's the star. And he's entirely worthy of the billing.

As the puckish lead clown, Larible ties together the show's many acts while artfully involving the audience through eye contact and participation.

When he selects ``volunteers'' for routines involving plate throwing and the staging of an Italian opera, Larible reveals a generous spirit and wonderful spontaneity that distinguishes Kaleidoscape from Cirque du Soleil's scripted choreography.

``I want to make the audience feel like they're seeing everything as if it's happening for the first time,'' Larible says. ``And in many ways, they are. That's why a lot of people often come back to see our show again. It's never the same.''

The show itself combines the usual feats of derring-do - acrobats leaping off of impossibly high platforms, gymnasts walking tightropes and balancing incredibly large objects on their chins and foreheads - with some singular achievements like a 16-crossbow ricochet sequence. And there are still a couple of animal acts, perhaps Feld's defiant way of stamping this production as a distinctly Ringling Bros. type of experience.

``It's one of the things we do best,'' Feld says.

It's hard to argue with that after watching Sylvia Zerbini and her stable of white Arabian horses whirl around the circus ring, which looks suddenly small when filled with these great animals. Zerbini has the horses gallop and then stop on a dime and reverse course, bow to the crowd and walk on their hind legs from one end of the ring to the other.

The audience's proximity to these magnificent horses makes their feats all the more memorable as you can practically feel the breath from their nostrils as they race around the ring.

That same wonderful feeling of intimacy is felt again and again during the evening. When juggler Picasso spits ping-pong ball after ping-pong ball from his mouth, each one going higher and higher into the air, and he somehow manages to keep them all aloft, you can hear each sharp intake of his breath and feel the force of each ball - pwaah! as it's launched impossibly into the sky.

Or when crossbow marksman Guy Tell zings an arrow toward an apple sitting precariously on the head of his lovely assistant, you can follow its flight and almost taste the juice as the Red Delicious splits in two. It's a feast for the senses.

``We live in such a two-dimensional world today with television, movies and the Internet that people have a hard time believing anything is real,'' Feld says. ``With this show, we want to show human beings doing almost superhuman feats and have people be so close to the action that they have no choice but to believe it.''

It's reality, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey style. And that makes for a pretty exquisite escape.

THE FACTS

What: Barnum's ``Kaleidoscape.''

Where: Corner of Constellation Boulevard and Century Park West, Century City.

When: Today through May 23. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 5 p.m. Sunday.

How much: $22.50 to $48. Available at Ticketmaster locations or by calling [phone].

CAPTION(S):

4 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) CIRQUE DU BARNUM

KALEIDOSCAPE a chic departure from traditional three-ring circus 

(2) Sylvia Zerbini performs on a single trapeze under the tent of Barnum's Kaleidoscape in Century City.

(3) no caption (Barnum's Kaleidoscape)

(4) Clowns Pipo, right, and David Larible do what the do best - clown around - to the accompaniment of a cellist before the audience.