The Illusionists—Magic of the Holidays

After taking a year off, the elaborate traveling magic show returns to Broadway for its fourth edition. This year's uneven lineup features America's Got Talent winner Shin Lim, Adam Trent, Darcy Oake, Colin Cloud, Chloé Crawford and the high-tech dance troupe Light Balance. Shin Lim's act is the best of the bunch: a deft and sometimes breathtaking combination of skill and careful design. The tattooed and muscled Oake delivers the largest-scale illusions capably, but Crawford, who has little stage time, does sideshow-level tricks that are drawfed by the scale of the show around her. Scottish mentalist Cloud relies largely on crowdwork, more or less charmingly; Trent, who has appeared in two previous versions, repeats a bit too much of material he has performed before.