Big Apple Circus in "Luminocity," at Damrosch Park A circus that can keep a rambunctious toddler rapt for two hours deserves special praise. But an even greater test of quality is whether it can entertain a jaded grown-up for just as long. Emmanuel Dunand/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images Big Apple Circus Acro-Duo, in "Luminocity," the circus's new show, at Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center. A sortable calendar of noteworthy cultural events in the New York region, selected by Times critics. "Luminocity" succeeds on both counts. This latest edition of the Big Apple Circus has a story that unfolds in a neighborhood that's already a rip-roaring circus: Times Square. Directed by Michel Barette, the production assembles various New York types, and the fun is watching them transform into completely different humans, who then do something nearly superhuman. A hot dog vendor becomes a juggler - the 15-year-old virtuoso Ty Tojo - who operates with such furious speed that he appears to have four arms. Daniel Cyr, in the spattered clothes of a sign painter, becomes a one-man balancing act, his ladder a private jungle gym. Construction workers morph into Acro-Duo, whose moves include one man's doing a one-armed handstand on the other's head. And two women dressed as executives strip off the office garb to fly - not on a corporate jet but on a double trapeze, as the Mongolian Angels. Although Big Apple bills this as an "all-new show," "Luminocity" has elements of seasons past, like the dancing horses of Jenny Vidbel, who also performs with adorable dogs. And it incorporates audience participation. But on the night I attended, everyone selected, child or adult, was male. C'mon, Big Apple. You have women in the ring - why not give a girl in the crowd a chance? The circus's intimacy has other advantages. Big Apple may not be a three-ring extravaganza, but when you can observe the calculation in the faces of the members of the Dosov troupe, as they plot another feat of aerial acrobatics, or note the beads of sweat on the forehead of Werner Guerrero as he jumps rope on the high wire, you're more nervous, not less. My 22-month-old guest, as he watched Mr. Guerrero and his wife, Aura Cardinali, said anxiously, "Don't play up there." But playing up there is what the circus is all about. And "Luminocity" has clever on-the-ground moments, too, as when Pierre Ginet, as a pickpocket/magician, deposits an amiable rat - a live one - into a trash bin, only to have it seemingly emerge as a creature many times its original size. Big Apple fans will recognize this as a capybara, the world's largest rodent. And what could be a more appropriate place for the biggest rodent on the planet than a Dumpster in Times Square? "Luminocity" runs through Jan. 12 at Damrosch Park, 62nd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues, Lincoln Center; 800-922-3772, bigapplecircus.org.