Sizzle Under the Big Top in ‘Absinthe’

For the last three Augusts, while much of Lower Manhattan succumbed to the ragtag and often risqué charms of the Fringe Festival, the dark-wood-and-glass big top known as the Spiegeltent has touched down from Belgium to offer a more refined flavor of decadence. “Absinthe,” a Cirque du Soleil-meets-“Moulin Rouge”-meets-Weimar Berlin-meets-“Borat” hodgepodge of airborne eye candy and earthy humor, has given New Yorkers a reason to set foot on the South Street Seaport. In fact, the title of the seaport’s other main attraction, “Bodies: The Exhibition,” would be equally applicable here.