Emilio Madrid
Why is that ring seemingly suspended in air? How did those people get from there to there? To watch Antonio Díaz perform many of his illusions in El Mago Pop on Broadway (Ethel Barrymore Theatre, to Aug 27) is thrilling in places. His magic has apparently been seen by almost 3 million people. Having already bought one theater in Spain, Díaz—the youngest illusionist to step into a Broadway theater, his Playbill says—has just bought another in Branson, Missouri, which will be his U.S. headquarters.
You may have seen a version of his most famous trick on the Today show recently, when—right in front of viewers’ eyes—he seemed to transport a group of people through thin air, from one see-through box to another. Dramatically bamboozling, it must have left thousands of spoons clattering into cereal bowls across the country.
Díaz repeats a variation of this on Broadway as a suitably gasp-worthy finale. Unless he has magically frozen time, or somehow there is an invisible screen between the audience and the stage and something fantastical happening with projections, how those people get from box to box is a mystery. He does say to the participants that if they feel something, not to move. And behind a piece of cloth we see some shaking as the supposed teleportation takes place. Whatever, it’s fabulous.