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T h e U n o f f i c i a l
C i r q u e d u S o l e i l N e w s l e t t e r
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http://www.CirqueFascination.com
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VOLUME 16, NUMBER 5 May 2016 ISSUE #148
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Welcome to the latest edition of Fascination, the Unofficial Cirque
du Soleil Newsletter.
The creative juggernaut that is Cirque du Soleil continues full steam
ahead with the premieres of both PARAMOUR in New York City and LUZIA
in Montreal since we last spoke. One of which (Paramour) we take
quite a look at in our Features section this month with a fantastic
review of the show by longtime friend Douglas Metzger, who, along
with a number of fellow Passionates, took in the first preview of the
Broadway show. And since PARAMOUR was in the press quite a bit over
the past few weeks you'll also find "The Press Peeks at Paramour" -
a Special Collection of Articles from the Press in our FEATURES this
month as well. We'll tackle LUZIA next month as my friend José Pérez
(TheChapiteau) and I will be heading to Montreal at the end of May to
see this new spectacle for ourselves... and no doubt talk about it on
an upcoming episode of CirqueCast. But in the meantime, check out
these reviews: http://goo.gl/nnbB8D and http://goo.gl/gcvl0p. The show
looks fantastic. We can't wait!
Via its 45 DEGREES subsidiary, the company also opened its aquatic
fairytale "La Forge aux étoiles" at Futuroscope, as well as announced
this year's version of SCALADA - to be titled VISION. And in amidst all
the new shows and events Cirque du Soleil is opening, it also closed
two this past month as well - BELIEVE and ZARKANA, both in Las Vegas.
Yeah, it's been a busy month! [We talked a fair bit about this on the
third episode of CirqueCast this month, which you can find on YouTube
here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPLlBbrjJew. Check us out!]
It's also been an interesting month for show cancellations too. On
April 15th, Cirque du Soleil announced that it would cancel all of its
shows due to perform in North Carolina over the state's "bathroom
bill", which among other things, requires transgender people to use
the bathroom based on the gender listed on their birth certificates.
Critics also say it eliminates basic protections for members of the
LGBTQ community in areas like employment and housing. Cirque's
announcement on the matter:
Cirque du Soleil strongly believes in diversity and equality for
every individual and is opposed to discrimination in any form.
The new HB2 legislation passed in North Carolina is an important
regression to ensuring human rights for all. We therefore choose
to cancel our scheduled performances of OVO in Greensboro (April
20-24) and our scheduled performances in Charlotte (July 6-10)
and our scheduled performances of TORUK Avatar in Raleigh
(June 22-26).
Cirque du Soleil believes in equality for all. It is a principle
that guides us with both our employees and our customers. We
behave as change agents to reach our ultimate goal of making a
better world with our actions and our productions.
We sincerely hope that the customers that have purchased tickets
for our performances in North Carolina will understand our
motivation and we look forward to performing in North Carolina
when this issue is addressed. On-line and phone ticket purchases
will be automatically reimbursed and in-person purchases must
return to point of purchase for refunds. Customer service can be
reached at 1-877-924-7783.
But perhaps paradoxically the Cirque is still intent on expansion
into Russia and China... countries that aren't well known for their
friendly attitudes toward the LGBTQ community and its peoples. We
hear there's been quite a debate on this particular topic throughout
the social media sphere too, with fans falling on both sides, so it
is certainly a hot topic. We'll keep you updated.
Although we've known for quite some time about the new resident show
slated to debut in Hangzhou, China in 2018, CBC News got quite the
scoop in the last few days of the month when vice-chairman of
Cirque's operations in Russia (CDS Rus) - Craig Cohon - announced
that Cirque du Soleil Russia had just finalized a deal for a new
$50-million theater to open in 2019 in Moscow to house not only
Cirque shows, but other entertainment as well. CBC News released
a video clip along with their announcement (which you can find here:
http://goo.gl/T1BRbO) - take note of the theater rendering... it's
quite huge! (I wonder what's going to go in there!)
Though Russia and China may be in Cirque's future, Mexico is on the
company's immediate radar. In a move to promote Mexico's culture,
history and music, the Mexican government has agreed to fund the live
performance company's latest show, LUZIA, to the sum of $47.7 million
dollars over the next five years. Mexico's secretary of tourism,
Enrique de la Madrid, says the show is expected to cover 450 cities
around the world over the next 7 years. [Editors Note: 450 cities in
7 years sounds a bit much, unless the show will convert to its arena
tour earlier than expected... but that's what he said.] According to
the Tourism Ministry, LUZIA is a result of an agreement signed by
the Tourism Board of Mexico (CPTM) with Cirque du Soleil to create a
marketing platform that positions the image of Mexico in international
markets. "This type of event is another way of promoting Mexico,
focused on tourism segments that we want to impact and serve," Enrique
de la Madrid said. Also in Mexico, The Celebrate Project in Puerto
Vallarta continues making headway, with much of the land needed for
its two resorts and exclusive amenities cleared off. For now the
project is still on schedule to open - at least phase one - in 2018.
We'll keep on it because there've been some interesting new renderings
posted to Goddard Group's Facebook page recently!
And speaking of money... PARAMOUR, the first made-for-Broadway venture
from Cirque du Soleil, got off to a rousing start in the Street's
biggest house, the Ambassador Theatre Group's Lyric Theatre, selling
out all 1,896 seats and taking in a hair's breadth shy of full
potential for its first preview. The tally was $190,774, at an average
ticket price of $100.57. And continued that success throughout the
next three weeks of previews. Check out the chart below (courtesy of
The Broadway League via Playbill):
Week This Week Potential Difference Seats % Cap
Ending Gross Grosses in Dollars Sold
---------------------------------------------------------------------
17-Apr $190,773.60 $191,599.00 $0.00 1,897 100.05%
24-Apr $1,018,941.65 $1,149,594.00 $828,165.05 10,623 93.38%
1-May $1,065,771.30 $1,172,274.00 $46,829.65 11,043 97.07%
8-May $1,074,995.70 $1,367,653.00 $9,224.00 11,443 86.22%
Don't forget! On Tuesday, June 7th here in the United States, Fathom
Events and Cirque du Soleil will bring One Night for One Drop to
select cinemas nationwide for a one-night only special event. Each
year, this beautiful and uniquely custom show wows a super limited
audience that pays thousands of dollars per ticket. Now, for one
night, audiences across the US can view this breathtaking and truly
exclusive, larger-than-life event on the big screen without breaking
the bank. Don't miss your chance to see the magic of Cirque du Soleil
performers combined for one special event! The fun starts at 7:30pm
local time and will last approximately 2 hours. Check out the links
below for tickets and more information about the event:
o) TICKETS: http://goo.gl/C8MnCk
o) MORE INFO: http://goo.gl/yL65UI
Oh, and, if you were expecting to see Criss Angel's replacement for
BELIEVE on Wednesday, May 11th I've got some news for you: it's been
delayed. "As the first-of-its-kind show and because of the size, scope
and dangers from the vast number of death-defying illusions, Clark
County fire and engineering officials are still pouring over the Luxor
stage to ensure that all safety measures are in place before they
issue permits to allow insurance coverage in place. Cirque du Soleil
hopes that it will receive a sign-off this week to announce the new
start of previews. Jerry Nadal, Cirque's senior vice president of
resident shows, said: 'The decision to delay the Mindfreak Live!'
previews is based on the cutting-edge technology in the show and the
demands to ensure that our crew and artists are fully trained and
versed in them. With substantial technological elements that have
never been used before, we have asked Criss to take additional time
to ensure a seamless integration.'"
Okay, okay, I'll shut up now. So, let's get started!
/----------------------------------------------------\
| |
| Join us on the web at: |
| < www.cirquefascination.com > |
| |
| At CirqueCast: |
| < http://www.cirquecast.com/ > |
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| Realy Simple Syndication (RSS) Feed (News Only): |
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\----------------------------------------------------/
- Ricky "Richasi" Russo
===========
CONTENTS
===========
o) Cirque Buzz -- News, Rumours & Sightings
* La Presse -- General News for the Month
* Q&A - Quick Chats & Press Interviews
* Special Engagement - More In-depth Articles
o) Itinéraire -- Tour/Show Information
* BigTop Shows -- Under the Grand Chapiteau
* Arena Shows -- In Stadium-like venues
* Resident Shows -- Performed en Le Théâtre
o) Outreach -- Updates from Cirque's Social Widgets
* Webseries -- Official Online Featurettes
* Fotos -- Images From Cirque & Other Photographs
* Videos -- Official Peeks & Noted Fan Finds
o) Fascination! Features
* "The Press Peeks at Paramour"
A Special Collection of Articles from the Press
* "Passionates Preview Paramour"
By: Douglas Metzger - Long Island, New York (USA)
* "JOYA, A Night in the Mayan Jungle"
A Special to the Fascination! Newsletter
o) Subscription Information
o) Copyright & Disclaimer
=======================================================================
CIRQUE BUZZ -- NEWS, RUMOURS & SIGHTINGS
=======================================================================
---------------------------------------------------
LA PRESSE General News for the Month
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Cirque Hopes Paramour Will Launch Global Expansion
{Apr.04.2016}
-------------------------------------------------------
Cirque du Soleil generated more than half its $850 million in
revenue last year from eight acrobatically inclined shows, all
of them in Las Vegas. The other half came from markets that did
not include New York. Now the Montreal-based company is
returning to New York not only to launch its first Broadway
production but to try to transform the way it does business.
Unlike its Vegas productions, Paramour will use character-driven
storytelling with a beginning, middle and end, in addition to
its signature acrobatics. The show, which begins preview
performances April 16, will also mark Cirque's first scalable
and replicable show in the company's 32-year history, meaning
that a hit in New York could be taken on the road and exported
around the world.
"We managed to have eight shows in Las Vegas," said Cirque's
president and chief executive officer Daniel Lamarre. "But while
we were doing that, we weren't paying enough attention to the
New York market, which is the most important market in the live-
entertainment world."
In the last three decades, Cirque has created 37 one-off
productions, including several off-Broadway shows in New York
that were meant to compete commercially with Broadway
productions. Most succeeded: Zarkana sold one million tickets
over the course of its two-summer run. One flopped: Shpeel, a
$20 million dollar vaudeville-inspired show, ended its 2010 run
at the Beacon Theatre less than six weeks after opening. None of
them, however, could be duplicated in more than one venue at a
time.
"For the first 30 years the company existed, every single show
that Cirque did was singular," said Scott Zeiger, president and
managing director of Cirque du Soleil Theatrical, which launched
in 2014. "If we are successful with what we are doing on
Broadway, we will be able to replicate Paramour in London or
Germany or Tokyo or Melbourne, and take that DNA we are
investing real money and real time in creating to enjoy the
potential global exploitation simultaneously."
Cirque is already a global phenomenon drawing 160 million
spectators to shows in more than 400 cities, 60 countries and
six continents. So why encroach on an industry that's
consistently unreliable and in which only 20% of shows ever
recoup their costs? Because when a show works, the potential
profits can be in the billions.
The Lion King has grossed $1.25 billion on Broadway since its
New York stage premiere in November 1997, making it the highest
grossing show on the Great White Way. Success in New York led to
offshoot productions around the globe that have grossed more
than $6.2 billion, making it the most profitable stage musical
and piece of entertainment in any medium. It's been seen by more
than 85 million people in 100 cities in 20 countries on every
continent except Antarctica and translated into eight different
languages.
Wicked, meanwhile, recently crossed the $1 billion mark at the
Broadway box office and has garnered $4 billion worldwide.
"We understand the Broadway statistics, and we don't want to get
ahead of ourselves. The focus is making New York City a hit,"
Zeiger said. "But we do have this fantastically loyal built-in
base of Cirque du Soleil fans who will come to experience the
show. We hope that we will also deliver for the Broadway ticket
buyer an experience that they feel is worthy of their ticket
dollars. And if we can crack that nut and create the merger of
the Broadway fan and the Cirque fan into this production, there
is clearly a very large audience potential."
The company is well on its way. More than 50,000 advance tickets
for Paramour have been sold for roughly $5 million.
The challenge will be meeting expectations on opening night,
June 2. To make things harder, that opening date makes them
ineligible for this year's Tony Awards, a cutoff most producers
try to make in order to improve their chances at the box office.
"They realize that there is an incredible potential not only in
profit but in spreading and increasing the size of their brand
with a successful production in New York," said Ken Davenport, a
Broadway producer behind Kinky Boots and Godspell. "So the Tonys
are really not going to be part of the equation."
That puts more pressure on Cirque to get Paramour right from the
start. Cirque shows can be tweaked long after opening night. But
Broadway is different. Zeiger acknowledged that it's expensive
to rework the production after official press previews, in part
because reviewers will not come back to give it a second look.
"So we would do a cost-benefit analysis after the show is frozen
and open to see if we believe that further investment should be
made to tweak the show," he said.
In the meantime, Zeiger is focused on the previews starting this
month. "Yeah, we are nervous," he said. "Just like everyone
opening a musical on Broadway is nervous."
{ SOURCE: Crain's New York Business | http://goo.gl/8rL9ol }
Changes Coming to TORUK?
{Apr.09.2016}
-------------------------------------------------------
When Cirque du Soleil soared back into Oklahoma City with
Avatar'-inspired show Toruk The First Flight', NewsOK's
Brandy McDonnell was on the scene to review the show locally. In
a brief interview with Michelle Wuthrich, one of TORUK's
acrobats, Wuthrich mentioned that the show might be up for some
changes shortly:
In her alien makeup and costume complete with tail Michelle
Wuthrich, 25, is virtually unrecognizable Wednesday night as the
Australian acrobatic performer who casually scaled up and
suspended from a forest of towering poles at that afternoon's
rehearsals. "We paint ourselves blue every night and put on our
blue costumes
and it's great," she said with a grin. "Kids
love it.
We're getting a lot of great feedback. It's really
colorful. We still have plans to improve the show, as it is new.
So, we're looking forward to all those changes, but for now, the
response has been fantastic."
# # #
The interview can be read here - http://goo.gl/pkXSM0 - but
since this blurb was published, an Aerial Straps act and a
Contortion/Handbalancing act have been added to the show. The
contortionist is Baaska Enkhbaatar of Quidam, Michael Jackson
Immortal, and Alegria fame; her act appears during the Anurai
Clan scene whereby the clan performs a ritual for their totemic
animal, the Thantor, by building an intricate structure with
parts of the creature's skeleton.
{ SOURCE: NewsOK }
Dramatic Changes Continue at The Beatles Love'
{Apr.12.2016}
-------------------------------------------------------
Dramatic changes are continuing in Cirque du Soleil's "The
Beatles Love" at the Mirage in advance of the now-set 10th
anniversary celebration July 14 with Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo
Starr and widows Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison.
The first wave of new acts, costumes, choreography, technology
and music designed to bring the vibrant and culture-shifting
sounds and settings of The Beatles' musical revolution to a
renewed life are now in place, but the show will continue to
evolve until the final unveiling at the anniversary show this
summer.
"We are preparing many gifts to add to the vibrancy of this
colorful, immersive rock and roll poem," said Dominic Champagne,
writer, director and original concept creator of "Love."
"People love The Beatles' virtual presence in the show, and
they'll get more, along with more acrobatics, more visuals, more
special effects and more love!"
The Grammy Award-winning soundtrack to "Love" has grown to
include the fan favorite "Twist and Shout."
With a reinvigorated pulse of sound led by musical director
Giles Martin, son of the late legendary The Beatles producer Sir
George Martin, the show's listening experience has been
heightened with a remixed soundtrack thanks to today's
technological advances.
Audiences will see stunning new acts and vibrant choreography,
pushing the artistic and acrobatic content to new heights.
NappyTabs, the Emmy Award-winning choreographers of "So You
Think You Can Dance" fame, have been brought in to update
sequences with fresh steps for the talented cast of 77 artists.
Engaging new imagery created by Dandypunk is drawn by hand,
instead of a computer, a painstakingly long but effective
process. The additions are played through 20 new projectors,
using the stage floor as a new projection surface.
{ SOURCE: Robin Leach, The Las Vegas Sun | http://goo.gl/7KeXFq }
ROGA | C:LAB by Cirque du Soleil
{Apr.14.2016}
-------------------------------------------------------
As part of the LED talks, Steven Openheart has been invited to
present the ROGA. This is a type of yoga that he developed
specifically to diminish the stress & sense of exclusion robots
can feel when exercising. In this demonstrations, Steven is
accompanied by his two humanoid assistants Jennie & Peter.
Namaste!
Check out the video here:
LINK /// < https://youtu.be/lRr53tK9NeE >
{ SOURCE: Cirque du Soleil }
Sustainable Fashion Challenge Swarovski & Cirque
{Apr.15.2016}
-------------------------------------------------------
The École supérieure de mode de l'ESG UQAM, Cirque du Soleil and
Swarovski have announced the winners of the debut Cirque du
Soleil and Swarovski sustainable fashion challenge.
Pursuing the same goal of acting responsibly as a business,
Cirque du Soleil and Swarovski gave Fashion Business students at
École supérieure de mode (ESM), part of l'École des sciences de
la gestion de l'Université du Québec à Montréal (ESG UQAM), the
opportunity to reimagine Swarovski crystal-embellished costumes
that have previously appeared in some world famous shows from
Cirque du Soleil. The two companies worked together with the
fashion school to connect young talent with these incredible
materials and to engage their skills in a sustainable fashion
challenge.
VIDEO /// < https://youtu.be/eUJYnYyP9BI >
Nadja Swarovski, Member of the Swarovski Executive Board,
commented: "It was a pleasure to collaborate with Cirque du
Soleil to support these young fashion talents and to find new
ways to explore sustainability issues within their educational
and creative development."
Working in teams, students at ESM, were commissioned to
transform fantastic Cirque du Soleil costumes into new designs
using crystals and fabric, inspired by both brands' ongoing
commitment to supporting emerging talent and engaging with key
sustainability issues. In addition, Cirque du Soleil and
Swarovski also actively assisted the students with
sustainability and product lectures.
Marie-Ève Faust, Professor at l'École supérieure de mode (ESM)
de l'ESG UQAM mentioned: "It's an honor for us to collaborate
with internationally renowned businesses such as Cirque du
Soleil & Swarovski. Not only students are learning beyond usual
product development academic themes but they were able to reason
and conceptualize products according to XXI century features."
The judging panel, which included ambassadors from Cirque du
Soleil, Swarovski and ESM, were highly impressed by the effort
and innovation demonstrated by the students. Two teams were
equally recognized as winners.
Winners of KALÉI team transformed Swarovski crystal-embellished
costumes from Cirque du Soleil to create, a kaleidoscope with
crystals inside it, evoking memories of early childhood as well
as a cloth bag made of costume scraps for carrying the
kaleidoscope. The team members said: "We are really proud of
KAÉLI; the project meant everything to us. It was a team project
from beginning to end, and we put a lot of time and energy into
it."
Winners of BAR VIP team created a coaster with, on one side,
crystals and, on the other, recipes for a variety of cocktails
that could be matched with the characters from Cirque du Soleil
shows. The team members said: "It was great to be able to
benefit from the Cirque du SoleilSwarovski partnership in our
product development course. It was a fantastic opportunity for
us and all the other teams. We are thrilled to have won, and we
think our project has real development potential."
Benoit Mathieu, Vice-president of Costumes and Creative Spaces
at Cirque du Soleil said: "We were exited to collaborate with
Swarovski in order to support young local fashion talents in a
unique and creative way. This initiative enables us to combine
creativity and development sustainability, two values which are
dear to our core values. We were impressed to see the talent
discovered with this project."
{ SOURCE: YoutTube, CSRWire | http://goo.gl/j3bgf6 }
Cirque Losing Millions In Ticket Sales...
{Apr.21.2016}
-------------------------------------------------------
... But Says NC's Forced Its Hand!
Cirque du Soleil's traveling shows will lose millions in ticket
sales by killing 15 shows planned this year for North Carolina.
But Jerry Nadal, senior vice president for Cirque's resident
shows in Las Vegas, said the company felt it had no choice.
Nadal, who is also vice chairman of Nevada Public Radio's board
of directors, said the discrimination codified in North
Carolina's House Bill 2, signed into law recently, was an
affront to the company.
"For us, diversity is a big thing for Cirque," he said "We have
people from over 50 different countries working for us. We have
all nationalities, all religions, sexual orientation. This
resonates deeply within our own employee base as well as the
people we're going out to entertain."
Nadal said the company usually stays away from politics but in
this case it had to do something because the sweeping changes
the law brought were "so big and so grand" that everyone has
taken notice. "This went beyond politics to a truly
discriminatory issue and for us it goes beyond the transgender
bathroom issue," he said.
The bill, which passed the North Carolina State Legislature and
was signed into law by Gov. Pat McCrory earlier this month,
voids cities' anti-discrimination rules designed to protect
members of the LGBTQ community.
* * *
It was dubbed the bathroom bill' because, among other things,
it required transgender people to use the bathroom based on the
gender listed on their birth certificates. Critics also say it
eliminates basic protections for members of the LGBTQ community
in areas like employment and housing.
North Carolina's Gov. Pat McCrory issued an executive order to
change some parts of the law for state employees but not for
everyone. However with the current pressure from business and
entertainers that might change again, which is what Nadal and
Cirque is hoping for. "I think when we bind together to make
those kinds of commitments I think it helps to change the laws
and people's attitudes," he said.
Nadal doesn't think his company's decision by itself will change
the state's laws. "I don't think Cirque's move alone will do
that but I think Cirque's move in conjunction with every other
company that's doing that will have the ability to push them
towards that," he said.
Change could also come through the courts. A federal appeals
court ruled this week that a lower court should have ruled in
favor of a Virginia student in a similar bathroom-use case on
the basis that the school's policy violates federal Title IX
statutes. North Carolina lies within the jurisdiction of that
same appeals court.
Listen to the Podcast here:
LINK /// < http://goo.gl/0AFrBz >
{ SOURCE: Joe Schoenmann, KNPR | http://goo.gl/IJfLFj }
Things to know about ZARKANA Before It Ends Saturday
{Apr.28.2016}
-------------------------------------------------------
On Saturday, Cirque du Soleil will close the curtains on
"Zarkana" at Aria to make way for a $154 million convention
center expansion. With the performers taking their final bow,
here are a few things you may not know about the show described
as a "Rock-Opera Circus":
Here, there and everywhere
o) When "Zarkana" closes, the show will have had 2,053
performance. Of those shows, 381 were performed in New York
City, Madrid and Moscow, while 1,672 were at Aria in Las
Vegas.
o) When it was time for "Zarkana" to replace Aria's original
Cirque show, "Viva Elvis," transporting the shows elaborate
set from Manhattan's Radio City Music Hall to Las Vegas
required a fleet of 65 tractor-trailer trucks.
o) Additionally, the team of 77 performers of "Zarkana" is
comprised of 14 nationalities, coming from the U.S., Russia,
Lebanon, Switzerland and Kazakhstan. Of these artists, four
performers have never missed a single show.
"Zarkana" covers some ground
o) One of "Zarkana's" most beloved acts, the "wheel of death,"
will have traveled 780 miles in rotations by the time the
curtains close. Per show, the wheel generally spins 50-54
times.
o) When the "wheel of death" artists are outside of the wheel,
they're 30 feet up from the ground.
The art of "Zarkana"
o) To help actors achieve such dramatic, circus-like appearance
with their make-up, most of the looks require at least 20
different products.
o) As a result, the show runs through approximately 30 pairs of
false eyelashes per month. Since making its debut at Aria in
late 2012, about 1,260 pairs of false eyelashes will have
been used to outfit performers.
o) To maintain the more than 250 custom-made costumes that are
produced at Cirque's headquarters in Montreal, the wardrobe
team does 26 loads of laundry per day. That's more than
20,000 loads since opening at Aria.
o) In addition to custom-made costumes, every wig that is worn
in "Zarkana" 35 are worn in each show is made by hand to
specifically fit each performer.
o) With the process requiring a precise mold be made of each
actor, it takes 40-50 hours to build a single custom wig.
It's all in the details
o) The apprentice's coat, which is only seen on stage for 90
seconds, has 58 useable pockets.
o) There are 65 to 80 foam balls attached to the "Jovian"
costume with velcro.
o) It takes 7,200 square feet of fabric to create the red
"comets" seen flying across the stage during the finale.
o) The musicians' costumes, known as "the Litz," have 8-foot-
long tails on the coats.
o) To create the more than 150 feet of "snakes" on the "Zarkana"
arches, designers carved snakes out of styrofoam, then
covered the 8- to 12-foot sections in plaster that were then
covered with resin. To finish it off, each mold was hand-
painted.
o) Each "cyr wheel" weighs about 45 pounds and is custom-made
for the performer based on their height
{ SOURCE: Caitlin Lilly, LVRJ | http://goo.gl/Fb3mGP }
---------------------------------------------------
Q&A - Quick Chats & Press Interviews
---------------------------------------------------
Billboard: Behind Luzia's Mexican-Inspired
Electronic Infused Soundtrack
{Apr.18.2016}
-------------------------------------------------------
Cirque du Soleil's latest touring production, Luzia, opens April
21 in Montreal, coinciding with the release of an album of
studio versions of 10 songs that are performed live during the
show. It's the first time that Cirque has debuted a show and a
soundtrack recording simultaneously.
The album, which can be previewed now on Soundcloud, reflects
"Mexico's real sound," according to Cirque musical director
Alain Vinet.
He notes that the album tracks have more "Latin pop potential"
than the acoustic songs played live in the big top. That's
thanks to Bostich + Fussible of Tijuana's dance pioneers Nortec
Collective, the popular Latin alternative artists who Vinet and
show composer Simon Carpentier called into the studio to rework
the songs and shape the album's electronically enhanced sound.
Bostich + Fussible (real names: Ramón Amezcua and Pepe Mogt)
will play the afterparty of Luzia's official premiere on May 4.
After the Cirque show's run in Montreal ends on July 17, it will
go to Toronto, and it's set for a U.S. premiere in San Francisco
later this year.
Cirque's Carpentier and Vinet took a break from rehearsals of
Luzia on a recent afternoon to talk to Billboard about the
show's Mexican inspiration, and finding the album's groove with
Bostich + Fussible.
Q. Luzia is a show that, in Cirque parlance, "will transport you
to an imaginary Mexico." Why Mexico?
Simon Carpentier: Cirque du Soleil produced a show called Joyá
in Mexico, and it was very well received. And because of that
they had the idea to go for a bigger show; a different show,
that could go on tour. That one stays in Mexico. This one will
travel all around the world.
Alain Vinet: Ovo, a big top touring show which premiered in
2009, was based on Brazilian music. Musically, it goes through
many different styles: it's a journey through the story of the
music of Brazil. So in this case, it's a little like Ovo but
with Mexican culture.
Q. How did you approach that challenge of representing Mexico
musically in the show?
Carpentier: The first big challenge was to make sure that we can
translate this amazing culture. At the beginning of this process
we decided to hire only Mexican musicians for the show, to make
sure that we have these performers to give that feeling of
authenticity. It's a huge culture you're talking about the
Aztecs, the Mayans, the cumbia, all the Latin American music,
the influence from Cuba, from everywhere. I wanted to go
further, not just scratch the surface and stay there.
We needed to find a way to achieve the sound, the romance, the
fun, the special humor that Mexican people have. You feel the
spirit of Mexico throughout the show, but it's not like you just
hear a mariachi; that's not what Cirque does. It's all about
peaks and valleys, and surprises. We experience that through
visuals, but through music as well.
Q. What led you to have Bostich + Fussible collaborate as
producers on the album?
Carpentier: Another thing we said was, why don't we find some
producers that we like who are in Mexico?' People who really
live their culture from the country, because we are Canadian, we
are from Quebec. I had been to Mexico a few times, and from the
research that I did, Alain and I agreed that Nortec Collective
carried the real sound, very current and also forward-thinking.
They play electro underground music, they have this spirit and
sound in the groove, and in the instruments. [Their music] is
modern, it's surprising, it's unusual, and all of the colors
from the sound of Mexico are there.
Vinet: Normally, the albums come out six months down the road,
or a year down the road [after the show opens], because when we
are in creation, the musicians are really, really busy; it's
impossible for us to take them out of the creation. But the
mandate was for us to have the CD for the opening of the show.
The only way we could achieve this was to outsource the
production of the CD, and that is why we went with Nortec. They
have a key component excellent Mexican musicians. They know
everyone in Mexico as far as musicians are concerned.
Q. How does the music on the album differ from what is heard in
the big top?
Carpentier: The music on the CD is quite different from the
music on the show, but it's the same composition, all of the
melodies are there. Some rhythm is different, because Nortec is
more dance oriented. In the show it is more lyrical and
acoustic, and we have to follow what is happening in the show.
In the beginning, I wrote melodies inspired by moments of the
show.
Vinet: For the album, we decided to concentrate on 10 themes
from the show that were really developed. The songs on the album
are different from the show in that the album has more pop
potential more Latin pop potential. First, we needed to have
two songs produced for marketing purposes. The guys from Nortec
were producing the first two singles, and it went so beautifully
that we decided to do the whole album with them.
{ SOURCE: Billboard | http://goo.gl/AeV0wr }
Q&A w/Paramour Producer Scott Zeiger
{Apr.22.2016}
-------------------------------------------------------
Scott Zeiger always knew he would work in entertainment
especially in live entertainment. Barely out of his teen years,
he was already booking rock concerts and other successful live
shows while at the University of Florida. Although he modestly
hesitates to admit it, he was a natural at spotting talent. In
1980, when one record company mailed him the debut vinyl album
from an unknown band, Zeiger, a sophomore, thought they sounded
great and booked them.
That debut album was Boy. The band was U2.
"They showed up in a van and my roommates unloaded their
equipment," says Zeiger, who has won five Tony Awards as a
producer. "We put the concert on stage at the Rathskeller at the
University of Florida beer hall back in the days when beer halls
on campuses were legal. I think we paid them $2,500."
While he insists he had "no crystal ball," Zeiger has had many
moments of great discoveries. Early in his career, he produced
shows for a little-known band called The Police. While still in
college, he produced a humongous pep rally the night before the
school's homecoming football game selling out their 90,000
seat stadium. Zeiger booked a rising star named Robin Williams
to host. "He was just on Mork & Mindy. The World According to
Garp was about to come out," recalls Zeiger, whose production
credits includes The Who's Tommy, The Producers, Billy Crystal's
700 Sundays, The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber and many more.
"I'm still in business with Robin's manager. Robin and I
maintained a friendship. When you're around long enough in this
business, you get exposed to a lot of very interesting, talented
people."
After graduate school, Zeiger's first job was in the marketing
department of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Then he
was brought on as a marketing director for Pace, which promoted
Broadway subscription series in cities across the country. Over
time, Pace, which was owned by the Becker family, grew and grew,
becoming enormous. "It was the precursor to what is called
Broadway Across America today," says Zeiger. "The company went
through a number of iterations. When we sold the company, to
[media giant] Bob Sillerman, it became part of SFX."
Zeiger took on the role of President of SFX Theatrical Group,
which he helped develop into one of the largest theatrical
companies in the world. Zeiger ultimately left and formed his
own company Base. Coming full circle, Zeiger co-founded Base
with Brian Becker whose family owned Pace.
Through Base, Zeiger got to know Cirque du Soleil very well, and
he fell in love with its masterful visual spectacle, acrobatics,
beauty and elegance. He and Becker produced several of their
shows, including Wintuk. Zeiger had also become close personal
friends with Cirque du Soleil CEO Daniel Lamarre. The duo formed
a partnership, and Zeiger launched the Theater Division for
Cirque du Soleil.
These days, Zeiger is producing a groundbreaking project
something Cirque du Soleil has never done before. His new show
Paramour, which just began previews, is the first Cirque du
Soleil show specifically created for Broadway. Paramour brings
together the classic how-do-they-do-that?, awe-inspiring magic
of Cirque du Soleil acrobatics with Broadway singing, dancing
and storytelling. "It transports you to a magical world where
musical theater and Cirque du Soleil make a miraculous love
child," says Ruby Lewis, who makes her Broadway debut as
Paramour's leading lady, Indigo James. "We're taking this
signature of Cirque: extraordinary feats of human virtuosity,
really exciting music, costumes, make-up, theatricality and
visuals and adding an overlay of story. It's the first time we
have ever done a show that is a complete linear narrative with
characters speaking and singing in English and it's a love
story," says Zeiger. "We want people to see Paramour and say,
It wasn't a Broadway show, it was much more. It wasn't a Cirque
du Soleil show, it was much more.'"
Zeiger, in the midst of rehearsals for Cirque du Soleil
Paramour, sat down with NewYork.com and shared the inside story
on bringing this epic show to life. Cirque du Soleil Paramour is
currently in previews, and opens on May 25, 2016.
Q. What is the most thrilling part about what you're doing now?
It's a rare thing when you work for a company and at its heart
and soul is pure, creative live production. Cirque du Soleil is
the largest producer of live theatrical attractions in the
world, from Big Top shows to arena shows to shows in Las Vegas,
Disney World, Japan and elsewhere. But never Broadway. It was
really exciting to get the invitation to join the company and
launch a theater division where I was able to tap the
extraordinary creative and production resources of this
incredible, groundbreaking brand. I was able to merge that with
my knowledge of the theatrical world.
Q. How will Paramour be different from other Cirque shows?
Cirque du Soleil primarily is about visual spectacle, beauty and
elegance. You take away an incredible feeling something almost
spiritual. It's whimsical. It's elegant. It's artistic. It's
also a little ethereal. My forte is story-driven theater.
Broadway show patrons expect a great set, great singing,
dancing, acting and a potent story: one that is emotional,
cathartic and uplifting. You want to care about the characters.
And we have a very unique way of being able to tell our story.
Normally you see Cirque du Soleil and someone asks, "How was O?"
and you say "It was awesome. It was beautiful. It was
incredible. I couldn't figure out how they did it. What amazing
athletes." Those are descriptors of a Cirque show. However,
after you see Kinky Boots, you might say, "It was a STORY about
a guy whose family is losing their factory. Cyndi Lauper's music
was great. Jerry Mitchell's choreography was incredible." The
first thing you would talk about is the story.
Q. So at its heart, what is the story of Paramour?
Paramour is a love triangle between a world-renowned movie
director, a young starlet that he discovers and the composer of
the movie scores who is also interested in the young starlet.
Their relationships are played out under the backdrop of the
Golden Age of Hollywood. The director is a bit of a Svengali.
The young starlet has incredible talent. Is she going to fall
for "real" love, the love of the boy? Or "reel" love, the love
of movies and millions?
Q. When did you get involved with Paramour?
From day one. Guy Laliberté, the founder of our company, was in
New York about two years ago. I met him at the Mandarin Oriental
with our Chief Creative Officer and our Chief Production
Officer. We sat down and had a discussion. They said, "OK,
Scott, you've been here a few months. Let's plan on doing a
Cirque du Soleil signature show on Broadway. We're going to set
you up with Jean-Francois Bouchard, our Chief Creative Officer.
He's going to help you pull together directors and designers and
people from the Cirque world who can deliver the whimsy,
spectacle and acrobatics. You bring to the table whoever you
need to help deliver the story."
Q. What did you do?
I brought in a pop composer who could write songs with lyrics. I
brought in a scenic director who could help design and plan
character-driven scenes. We had story meetings. I have been part
of the creative process from the beginning, shepherding it. I'm
not the writer. I'm not the director. I'm the producer. On
behalf of Cirque du Soleil, I'm steering the ocean liner. It's a
big ship. So it takes a lot to turn it. We have experts in all
disciplines. With acrobats, there is training and safety
involved. Our scenic technology is over the top. We have amazing
projections. We have drones that are choreographed. We have
aerial acts with strap acts that are bolted into the steel and
the roof of the building.
Q. So what's the great challenge putting together Paramour?
Marrying the two worlds is the biggest opportunity and the
biggest challenge. We've created a show from whole cloth. We
haven't adapted it from a popular movie or book. We've had the
whole world at our fingertips to create what we wish.
There is a moment in the show where our three principals sing
about their love triangle. As they are singing this full-on pop
song downstage, we have an aerial act with two men and one woman
dressed similarly who represent acrobatically exactly what
they're singing about. We have to make that click and work. In
our big opening production number called "The Hollywood Wiz,"
where we introduce our director, we can't just do a normal big
Broadway opening number with singing and dancing. We must have
acrobatic flourish. That requires extra layers of rehearsal and
a cast of 38 instead of 25.
Q. What might surprise people about what you're doing?
Many of the people who are creating what is arguably one of the
most expensive Broadway musicals have never worked on Broadway
before. Half have. Half of the cast. Half of the crew. Half of
the creative team. But the other half, never. We have people
from 16 different countries. Our Director [Philippe Decouflé] is
from Paris. He's never worked on Broadway.
We have a beautiful, incredible industry. But there are 50
people who make shows great directors, great writers, great
designers. It's a cottage, boutique industry. It's not like the
film industry. There are only 45 Broadway theaters. Of the 45
Broadway theaters, 20 of them have open-ended shows that are
never going to close or not anytime soon. There are about 25 new
shows a year. There's 10 new movies a week, 500 movies a year.
So what's exciting and unique is that I'm working with artists
who are new to this. And when you see our set, you're going to
be blown away.
Q. What else are you doing with Cirque du Soleil?
Cirque will also do some traditional stuff, like The Wiz. We did
The Wiz on NBC. Collectively with Bob Greenblatt [Chairman of
NBC Entertainment] and NBC, we selected the creative team. And
they're all Broadway veterans, from Harvey Fierstein to Kenny
Leon to Paul Tazewell who did costumes for Hamilton. We did the
TV show together. I'm going to do the Broadway version of the TV
show next season. There will be acrobats in the choreography,
but it won't be a Cirque signature show. The flying monkeys and
crows will be our apparatus.
Q. What's your typical day?
I get to work around 9:30, go through emails and shepherd our
new projects all day. If there's a particular film that I want
to adapt, we have to pursue the underlying rights with the film
studio. I might have to secure the contract for the book writer
for a show. If we haven't found a composer, we're vetting
composers. If we found one, it's contracting the composer. It
may be finding a director, interviewing directors, organizing
meetings between the directors and the writers. Finding a
theater for The Wiz. Meeting with theater owners.
Then mid-afternoon, I go to the theater until 10 at night
because we're in production. Executive Producer, Jayna Neagle,
is there. I check in with her on budget or problems. I speak to
the director, choreographer, acrobatic coordinator. I watch
rehearsals. I offer opinions. I sit on the production meeting.
Generally, I'm available because decisions have to be made.
Things get cut and added every day. Lighting designs and
projection ideas are tried. I want to be supportive of the team.
I don't usurp their authority. I bolster them.
Q. What do you do when you're not working?
I'm an empty nester. I used to say, "my kids are the weekends,"
with sports or events. But now they're grown. So my weekends are
back for my wife and I. We like to travel and consume art. My
wife is an art curator so we go to galleries and museums
together. We also see lots of shows that I'm not producing.
Q. How do you know when a show or work is good?
It's a combination of luck, good taste and certainly being
passionate. There are no producers who pursue theatrical
attractions who don't think that their show is fantastic, even
those that fail. You have to believe in it to your core. Any
Broadway producer will tell you it's inside. We don't do focus
groups in advance. We don't do marketing profiles. We find a
piece of content, and we develop it. And by the time we pull the
trigger, we're passionate about it.
{ SOURCE: Newyork.com | http://goo.gl/C9wP5G }
Q&A w/Caitlin Madden Carpenter on TORUK
{Apr.29.2016}
-------------------------------------------------------
During a performance of "Toruk," the latest live show from
entertainment-production giant Cirque du Soleil, the audience is
enveloped in the world of Pandora as inspired by the James
Cameron smash "Avatar." Performers, puppets, projectors and an
enormous theatrical set create the fanciful world, set in a time
thousands of years before what takes place in the film.
Cirque du Soleil is bringing "Toruk: The First Flight" to U.S.
Bank Arena May 4-8. Among the crew working on the touring
production is Caitlin Madden, a carpenter who lives in Indian
Hill when she's not on the road with the show.
Having seen "Toruk" from an offstage vantage night after night,
beginning last year with rehearsals, previews and the December
premiere in Montreal through the current 2016 tour, Madden can
provide a detailed and maybe a bit biased description to her
potential hometown audiences about what they will see this week.
"You walk in the door, and you're going to see nothing to begin
with," Madden says. "There's a giant veil that we painstakingly
put together every single day and make sure it looks nice, and
that pulls away to reveal the world of Pandora, as in the James
Cameron movie most people have seen.
"It's this amazing, incredible almost jungle-istic world, and
these projectors are able to transport you into that world, and
you really kind of lose sight of where you are and what you're
doing, and you see these new animals, some that will be familiar
from the movie and many that aren't.
"The imagination of Cirque du Soleil is spectacular and just so
amazing. They were able to create new parts of this world that
James Cameron started. Together we've created even more and even
larger parts of this world, some that you might see in future
movies, some that you might only see in our world. You see
different clans and how they interact with each other. You're
going to hear a new language.
"It's the Na'vi language, which again is in the movie, but there
you were able to have subtitles and things of that nature. In
our situation we have a storyteller that gives you the story as
the artists are performing it in front of you. That helps you
enter into that world and brings you in and helps you understand
what's happening. It's quite an incredible journey."
Though the end result is an engrossing fantasy world, it's the
down-to-earth and occasionally tedious labor of Madden and her
coworkers that makes it happen. The work is physical and the
hours are long. Tuesday is load-in day at U.S. Bank Arena, where
the 100-person Cirque du Soleil road crew and 160 local
stagehands assemble the set. That's a 12-hour work day for
Madden "if not longer," she says.
Wednesday is "validation day," meaning that the show's acrobatic
artists test their apparatuses, and Madden and the others make
final adjustments to the set. There is a rehearsal on Thursday,
followed by the show, and the same thing Friday. There are two
shows Saturday and two shows Sunday, followed by the load-out
that night, when the tour rolls out for Columbus and does it
again next week.
Madden will be working at all of it, showing up early and
leaving late. During the show she moves set pieces among other
tasks and is on standby in the event something goes haywire.
In other words, Madden's show-business lifestyle is more about
work than play, which comes as a surprise to people in her life.
"Because I get the ability to travel the country, I can show my
family and friends what I do when I hit their hometown. I bring
them on backstage tours. People don't really understand. They
don't really think about it. It definitely helps to show them
what I am and what I do. I'm not just a crazy kid that ran away
to the circus. It's an amazing job and an incredible career
opportunity I have with Cirque du Soleil," she says.
To Madden's point, Cirque du Soleil is more corporate culture
than circus act. The Montreal-based company employs 4,000 people
and has 19 shows in current production, including "Toruk." The
average show does 300 performances a year.
Madden works a pattern of 10 weeks on the job followed by a two-
week vacation and has the potential to be promoted within
"Toruk" or another Cirque show to the positions of assistant
head carpenter and head carpenter. The main reason she took the
job with Cirque du Soleil is the same as why others might join
the Navy: to see the world. Cirque du Soleil shows travel the
globe. There's talk that Cirque might soon take "Toruk"
overseas.
Cirque hired Madden last year after she spent five years working
for a Broadway-production company doing touring gigs with the
likes of Blue Man Group, "Beauty and the Beast" and "Shrek the
Musical." She graduated from the University of Notre Dame in
2009 with a degree in film, television and theater and
participated in theater production both at Notre Dame and in
high school at Ursuline Academy, applying the skills she learned
from her dad, an architect.
"One day (in high school) they were building a set in the
auditorium, and I noticed that my friends were having a tough
time. They were trying to screw together two-by-fours, so I went
in and showed them how to use power tools, and from then on I
just kept going back," she says. "Same thing happened in
college. I made friends by showing them an easier way to use
power tools."
When it comes to carpentry and construction at Cirque du Soleil,
the stakes are higher. The way Madden and the production crew
operate today is impacted by what happened three years ago, when
a Cirque acrobat fell to her death during a performance in Las
Vegas. "Safety is definitely the number-one concern, especially
with acrobatics," says Madden. "We wear hard hats and steel toes
for every load-in and load-out. We have rescue kits and rescue
training."
Would Madden call the work dangerous?
"There are aspects where I have to keep my body and those around
me safe," she says. "Because my job is based in Montreal, our
load-in and load-out situation is considered a construction zone
by the government of Montreal, and we are required to wear
safety protection for those times."
If all goes well during a performance, the audience will never
see Madden. But if someone would like to take note of her
presence, that person could gaze at the giant tree positioned at
stage left. On show day Madden is in charge of stage left, so it
will be she who's moving around that tree 10 times her size.
(Not to ruin the magic of the show, but the tree sits on
wheels.)
"As much as I want my family and friends to see what I do, I
don't want them to see me actually do it," she says. "I just
want to be able to show it to them when all is said and done."
About Caitlin Madden
Originally from Cincinnati, Madden first became interested in
theatre and carpentry while attending Ursuline Academy and
working around the house with her dad an architect. She went
on to receive a degree in film, television and theatre from the
University of Notre Dame.
Madden has toured with well-known theatre productions including
Blue Man Group, "Beauty and the Beast" and "Shrek The Musical."
She also previously worked with Notre Dame Athletics,
specifically football and women's basketball.
As a carpenter she is part of the team responsible for managing
and maintaining the entire stage and set. She is involved in the
technical load-in and load-out as well as cues during the show.
"Toruk: The First Flight" is her first tour with Cirque du
Soleil.
{ SOURCE: Chris Varias, Cincinnati Enquirer | http://goo.gl/bBLerj }
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SPECIAL ENGAGEMENT - More In-depth Articles
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45 DEGREES Pushes Back the Limits of Creativity in
France with Futuroscope's La Forge aux étoiles
{Apr.11.2016}
-------------------------------------------------------
45 DEGREES and Futuroscope officially unveiled La Forge aux
étoiles on April 9 in Poitiers, France. The two-year project
gave Futuroscope and 45 DEGREES the opportunity to co-imagine a
very unique show, each drawing inspiration from the other's
expertise. By combining the best of technology and creativity,
Futuroscope and 45 DEGREES have brewed up a deeply artistic
performance that offers a rare visual and emotional experience.
"We are so excited to be working with Futuroscope to offer a
brand new experience that combines visual and audio technology
with water. The park was an amazing laboratory for concocting
new sensations," explained Yasmine Khalil, president of 45
DEGREES. "To reinvent Futuroscope's nighttime show, we set
ourselves an unprecedented challenge: to create a unique story
that uses a wide array of varied technologies as narrative
vectors."
"This partnership allowed us to pool our talents and play off
each other's creative spirit todevelop extraordinary visual
experiences that grew out of the combination of technology and
art," added Dominique Hummel, president of the Directoire du
Futuroscope.
THE CONCEPT
With La Forge aux étoiles, 45 DEGREES is pushing back the limits
of creativity by exploring a brand new form of expression, which
takes place in the interaction between a multitude of different
technologies and a single human being on a stage, telling the
story of La Forge aux étoiles. Five characters, projected on a
series of screens up to 35 m tall, will interact with a
character in the pool. The entire set is nearly 7000 square-
meters. The work focused in particular on the change of scale,
reflecting the scope of humankind's dreams in comparison to our
physical selves, and on creating a believable interaction
between a virtual giant and a young actress playing in the
Futuroscope pond.
SYNOPSIS
Over a 7000-square-meter lake, a big-bang of visual, aquatic and
pryotechnical effects merge to bring forth this aquatic
fairytale for the entire family. In a constellation of poetic
vignettes, La Forge aux étoiles invites young and old alike to
witness first-hand the friendship between a human girl and a
cosmic giant with his feet on Earth and his head in the stars.
SET DESIGN
o) A 28 ton permanent aluminum and stainless steel set
o) Set consists of 157 facets, covering 270 square-meters
o) An additional projection surface of 450 square-meters is
deployed during the show
o) The projection surface stands 35 meters high
o) 3 automated and synchronized decor elements
o) A rail and an underwater mechanical arm to activate the
2CV and the moon
o) A new infrabasse sound system
WATER AND IMAGE
o) In total, 10 video projectors that generate 205,000 lumens
distributed over 14 million pixels, equivalent to 7 HD on:
o) 3 water screens and a water curtain of 180 square-meters,
20 meters in height with a projection surface of 900
square-meters on the water
o) Automated water fountains: 100 jets; 40 moving jets
o) 600 nozzles capable of generating 300 cubic meters of fog
THE LIGHT
o) A total of 500 water projectors, including:
o) A constellation of 300 individually controllable light
points distributed over the entire basin
o) 22 moving lights
o) 5 lasers of 10 watts
FIRE & FIREWORKS
o) 20 devices that trigger flames during the show
o) Standing pyrotechnic triggering system
o) A pyrotechnic fresco of 50 meters wide and 40 meters high
on two levels
o) 120 firings perfectly synchronized with music
CREATIVE TEAM
o) Daniel Fortin Executive Director, Creation
o) Bastien Alexandre Director and Show Designer
o) Vincent Pasquier Multimedia Designer and Director
o) Maxime Lepage Music
o) Eric Noguès Set Designer
o) Thibaut Duverneix Director, Video Content
o) Yso Southdara Costumes
o) Michel Amann Fountains and Fireworks
o) Claude Lifante Lasers
o) Nicolas Brion Lighting
o) Jean-Michel Caron Sound and Sound Effects
o) Julie Perron and Manon Beaudoin Choreography and Acting
o) Mourad Bennace DJ Galaxie Music
ABOUT FUTUROSCOPE
The very first amusement park created in France, Futuroscope has
welcomed 1 in every 2 French residents since it opened in 1987.
It owes its success to its unique education and entertainment
positioning in the leisure market and its highly diverse
universe that orbits around the great dreams of humankind.
o) Diversified content with more than 25 attractions focused
on delivering fun across the generations.
o) A visitor experience that combines imagery and cutting-
edge technology with more traditional attraction systems
to deliver a fun and family-oriented experience.
o) 85 million-Euro turnover in 2014 makes Futuroscope
France's second-largest amusement park, after Disneyland
Paris.
o) Unique in Europe: After Arthur, the 4D Adventure, The Time
Machine starring the Raving Rabbids wins Futuroscope its
second award for the best attraction in the world.
o) An unconventional regional development model, with shares
held both by the public and the private sectors, 45% by
Compagnie des Alpes.
o) A break destination from 45 per person per day.
Explore at www.futuroscope.com
VIDEO & STILLS
< http://www.cirquefascination.com/?p=8016 >
{ SOURCE: 45 DEGREES | http://goo.gl/g7oJCN }
On The Web: Fourth Wall on Saltimbanco's Tapis Rouge
{Apr.15.2016}
-------------------------------------------------------
When Cirque du Soleil's Saltimbanco' toured across Australia,
Fourth Wall was asked to create an unforgettable and exclusive
environment for the Tapis Rouge (VIP) element of the tour. The
challenge was to design a creation that was uniquely Cirque yet
could tour easily and be adaptable to numerous different spaces.
They didn't know what was possible with this brief, but knew
we'd find out.
THE EVOLUTION
Cirque du Soleil has an incredibly unique style and is world
renowned for its creativity in design and performance so we
had to create something that was worthy of this reputation. Our
approach to the experience was to work closely with Showbiz to
bring to life every requirement and then cirque-ifying each
aspect. The logistical requirements were: serving of food and
beverage, creating atmosphere and providing seating.
o) To deliver on the service of food and beverage, we created
a culinary carousel, which housed platters of canapés and
became the centrepiece for the room.
o) To create atmosphere we were inspired by the split image'
curtains of popular cirque performers and split show
images, which were then hung with sparkling lighting
backdrops. We also installed starlit drape corridors,
flame effect lighting and decadent chandeliers.
o) As a seating solution, we designed bespoke bubble ball
fountains, which brought colour, movement and a sense of
fun to the room. These features were modular and could be
used in combination or as stand-alone pieces, making the
concept work in any space with ease whilst still retaining
a desired atmosphere.
o) To ensure our vision went to plan we visited all locations
during pre-production, installation and removal. In short,
we took the style of Cirque and made sure it worked in
each and every location across the country.
THE CREATION
Thousands of spellbound guests stepped into the "Cirque world"
we had created specifically for this tour. And our client was
equally spellbound in fact, Cirque Management liked the set
elements so much they took them on the road and back to their
headquarters in Canada!
View the images that accompany this post here:
< http://www.cirquefascination.com/?p=8133 >
{ SOURCE: Fourth Wall | http://goo.gl/QnsMfZ }
VISION is SCALADA 2016
{Apr.16.2016}
-------------------------------------------------------
A Free event, unique in Europe and different to anything you've
seen so far!
Are you ready to experience sensations that you've never felt
before? Be captivated by a magical stage design that will take
you to a new dimension. Be swept away by the excitement as the
finest acrobatics of the Cirque du Soleil. Enter a world where
the lines between reality and fiction are blurred through a
moving story. Don't take our word for it, come see it for
yourself!
FROM 2ND TO 30TH JULY 2016
FOR THE FOURTH CONSECUTIVE YEAR
THE CIRQUE DU SOLEIL IS PRESENTING SCALADA
Let yourself be transported to a new dimension with Vision!
SYNOPSIS
In this new story you will follow the adventures of a brother
and sister who have an indestructible bond between them: a
closeness that reflects the family values of the Andorran
culture. The protagonists will be faced with finding themselves
separated in a totally unknown universe. They will arrive in an
imaginary, surreal and futuristic world, where they will travel
between reality and fiction. Throughout their adventure they
will come across many elements of their home town, but in a
futuristic form. The little sister will let herself be ruled by
her instincts until she becomes completely lost in this
futuristic dimension. Her brother, meanwhile, will follow her
footsteps in the hope of finding her, while immersed in a
totally different experience. Separately, each of them must make
this journey on their own, overcoming the challenges of their
own reality. Their instincts and the strong bond of brother and
sister will be the key to their meeting again.
DELVE INTO THE EVENT
Each scene will be carried along by the acrobatic, aerial and
choreographic performances, which will evoke unmistakable
aspects of Andorra.
o) Scenography This year, the stage makes way for video
content to create a truly immersive atmosphere. The stage is
built around the concept of a modular box that will whirl
spectators between the disparate worlds of a brother and his
sister. A series of movable, deconstructed façades provide a
unique and mesmerizing medium for the event's storyline to
unfold.
o) Music The musical arrangements have been crafted to conjure
up two very distinct worlds: that of the brother and that of
the sister. Not only are these distinctions the backbone of
the story, but they will immerse spectators amidst a sensory
experience, rousing a wide range of emotions. The sounds of a
beat-boxer intermingle with the melodies of a live singer to
deliver the event's musical essence, which evinces the Cirque
du Soleil's musical expertise.
o) Costume Design The two distinctive worlds the event
revolves around are further emphasized through the
performer's costumes: futuristic and linear designs mark the
brother's world, while colourful, imaginative and surreal
ensembles represent the sister's universe. All costumes draw
from the reality of the brother and the sister, respectively.
o) Lighting and Video Lighting is used to further the event's
narrative, while enhancing its acrobatic performances. Video
projections envelop the brother and the sister in their
respective worlds. The brother's universe is evoked using
straight lines, a modern atmosphere, bright lights and a
clearly defined tech appearance. The young sister's world, on
the other hand, is more surreal, organic, colourful and
innocent. The video takes on a second layer of meaning by
interacting with the performers. At certain moments the video
content is influenced by the action taking place on-stage.
o) Acrobatics The aerial acrobatics and choreographies in
Scalada: VISION were specially created with video projections
in mind. The staging is inspired by a modular box allowing
the main characters to travel between the two parallel worlds
the story unfolds in. A brand new set of magical acrobatics
will take the audience on a journey among these two
dimensions, evoking the same emotions experienced by the
event's protagonists. This year's event boasts more group
performances than in previous years, making it all the more
difficult and spectacular!
THREE UNIQUE MOMENTS
o) The City of Lights The brother experiences, for the very
first time, a futuristic world, made of lights and videos,
where he meets beings from another time who change. These
characters creates a fascinating world of movement. Lost
amidst the chaos of that world, where dancers and acrobats
perform in unison, he becomes fearful of it, yet unable to
resist its pull. He will have to find his way through it to
complete his quest: finding his sister.
o) Craving love While seeking his younger sister, the brother
finds himself in front of a fallen bridge. On the one side
there stands a magnificent woman. The only thing connecting
them will be the long rope -his only way across the bridge-,
upon which they perform a poetic duo. In a tangible display
of sensitivity, the duo bear each other's weight so they can
take flight. It's an intimate moment where audiences will
hold their breath, enveloped by the event's visual poetry.
(Duo Relation Act, created by Rigolo)
o) The Giant Door Finale In the last act, the sister reaches a
giant door, which stands between her and her brother, who is
on the other side. She must find a way to get to him. Using
her imagination, which will have helped her throughout her
journey, she conjures up a series of characters who perform
incredible acrobatic feats on a power track. The more
impressive the acrobatics, the wider the door opens.
CREATIVE TEAM
MUKHTAR OMAR SHARIF MUKHTAR
DIRECTOR
Mukhtar has been part of the Cirque du Soleil family since 2005,
when he started as an artist in the event LOVE. In recent years,
he has employed his creative talents in the design of the
choreography and the staging of several major projects. He was
involved in the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic
Games in Beijing as an assistant choreographer. He also
participated in the 2013 and 2014 editions of the event One
Night for One Drop in Las Vegas, as choreographer and director,
respectively. In the team 45Degrees, Mukhtar choreographed
events for General Motors in Germany and the Mosaic Gala in
Washington, and was behind the staging of the Cirque du Soleil
section of C2-MTL 2013.
ALEXIS LAURENCE (LEX)
SCENOGRAPHER AND AUDIOVISUAL DESIGNER
The confluence of art and technology is what defines LEX, a new
studio dedicated to new means of communication based on the
design and production of audiovisual projects for the theatre
and television, architectural projections and large-scale
exhibition spaces. Since 2008, LEX has been specializing in art
direction, stage design, production management, technical
drawing, animation, 3D modelling, video content creation,
programming, and the design of interactive lighting and sound
for unique projects. The aim of the studio is to support the
artistic process of a project through innovative, strategic and
creative solutions and always with the aid of state-of-the-art
technology. The studio's founder, Alexis Laurence, has
contributed as artistic director and in the technical
development of corporate events, installations and events for
both Cirque du Soleil and also for Cirque Éloize, Moment
Factory, GSM Project, MUTEK, Igloofest and Montreal?s Quartier
des Spectacles.
TONY ADIGUN
CHOREOGRAPHER
A man of many hats: creative director, curator, choreographer,
dancer, educator and mentor. Tony Adigun devotes all his passion
and performance to each project, giving it his own unique
signature style. He is founder and Artistic Director of the
dance company Avant Garde Dance and seeks to continuously
explore new terrains with his work. Tony's iconic style is
renowned around the world, and he has choreographed and
performed with top artists including Janet Jackson, Whitney
Houston, Usher, Ashanti, Cheryl Cole, JoJo and Mel B, among
others. His work with older people in community dance projects,
commercial tours and artistic endeavours has enabled Adigun to
get the best of the people he works with, bringing them his
unique and innovative artistic vision. Tony creates works that
transform and educate people, challenging them to accept his
motto "Innovate Never Replicate". Recipient of the BEFFTA Award
for the Best Choreographer in 2011 and 2012, Tony is currently
Creative Director on Sky One's Got to Dance and dance consultant
for the programme Britain's Got Talent and two dance projects in
London Collabo and Show & Prove.
BRUNO RAFIE
LIGHTING DESIGN
Bruno Rafie has the benefit of more than 20 years of experience
as a lighting designer in the worlds of circus and music, as
well as for television and special events. Since its very
beginning, he has collaborated in the Montreal International
Jazz Festival, where he has created the lighting for artists
such as Stevie Wonder and Ben Harper. Rafie has twice received
the Félix Award for lighting designer of the year, in 1994 and
again in 2001. Outstanding among his work with Cirque du Soleil
is the lighting he designed in 2010 for the 26th creation,
Banana Shpeel'. He is currently part of the special events
team, with which he has just created the lighting for the event
commemorating 30 years of Cirque du Soleil.
JEAN-MICHEL CARON
SOUND DESIGN
Kurios was the first complete Cirque du Soleil event co-designed
by Jean-Michel Caron, who has two decades of experience working
in the world of sound. Jean-Michel has spent the last six years
of his career dedicated to creating sound environments,
primarily for a series of special Cirque du Soleil events. He
has also participated in several productions by the Moment
Factory studio, based in Montreal, including Ode to Life', a
multimedia event projected onto the facade of the Sagrada
Familia in Barcelona in 2012. He has also worked on numerous
theatre projects and exhibitions in Quebec. Since joining Cirque
du Soleil, Jean-Michel has worked on a variety of projects,
including the events OVO, Zarkana, Totem and Amaluna. Jean-
Michel has also been professor of sound design at the Collège
d'Alma since 2012.
Check out more at SCALADA'S Website:
< http://scalada.visitandorra.com/ENG/ >
{ SOURCE: Andorra Tourisme }
=======================================================================
ITINÉRAIRE -- TOUR/SHOW INFORMATION
=======================================================================
o) BIGTOP - Under the Grand Chapiteau
{Amaluna, Koozå, Kurios, Luzia & Totem}
o) ARENA - In Stadium-like venues
{Varekai, TORUK & OVO}
o) RESIDENT - Performed en Le Théâtre
{Mystère, "O", La Nouba, Zumanity, KÀ, LOVE,
MJ ONE & JOYÀ}
NOTE:
.) While we make every effort to provide complete and accurate
touring dates and locations available, the information in
this section is subject to change without notice. As such,
the Fascination! Newsletter does not accept responsibility
for the accuracy of these listings.
For current, up-to-the-moment information on Cirque's whereabouts,
please visit Cirque's website: < http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/ >,
or for a more comprehensive tour listing, visit our Itinéraire
section online at: < http://www.cirquefascination.com/?page_id=6898 >.
------------------------------------
BIGTOP - Under the Grand Chapiteau
------------------------------------
Amaluna:
Frankfurt, DE -- May 11, 2016 to Jun 12, 2016
Knokke-Heist, BE -- Jul 14, 2016 to Aug 7, 2016
Manchester, UK -- Sep 7, 2016 to Oct 2, 2016
Dusseldorf, DE -- Nov 17, 2016 to Dec 18, 2016
London, UK -- Jan 12, 2017 to Feb 4, 2017
Vienna, AT -- Mar 9, 2017 to Apr 2, 2017
Koozå:
Buenos Aires, AR -- Apr 21, 2016 to Jun 5, 2016
Santiago, CL -- Jul 19, 2016, 2016 to Jul 31, 2016
Sydney, AU -- Aug 25, 2016 to Nov 13, 2016
Brisbane, AU -- Nov 24, 2016 to Jan 8, 2017
Melbourne, AU -- Jan 20, 2017 to Mar 26, 2017
Perth, AU -- TBA
Kurios:
Atlanta, GA -- Mar 3, 2016 to May 8, 2016
Boston, MA -- May 26, 2016 to Jul 10, 2016
Washington, DC -- Jul 21, 2016 to Sep 18, 2016
New York City, NY -- Sep 29, 2016 to Nov 27, 2016
Miami, FL -- TBA
Luzia:
Montreal, QC -- Apr 21, 2016 to Jul 3, 2016
Toronto, ON -- Jul 28, 2016 to Oct 2, 2016
San Francisco, CA -- Nov 10, 2016 to Jan 22, 2017
Seattle, WA -- Feb 2, 2017 to Mar 26, 2017
Calgary, AB -- Apr 6, 2017 to May 21, 2017
Totem:
Tokyo, JP Feb 03, 2016 to Jun 26, 2016
Osaka, JP - Jul 14, 2016 to Oct 12, 2016
Nagoya, JP - Nov 10, 2016 to Jan 15, 2017
Fukuoka, JP - Feb 3, 2017 to Mar 19, 2017
Sendai, JP - Apr 6, 2017 to May 21, 2017
------------------------------------
ARENA - In Stadium-Like Venues
------------------------------------
Varekai:
St Petersburg, RU -- Apr 27, 2016 to May 8, 2016
Kazan, RU -- May 11, 2016 to May 15, 2016
Chelyabinsk, RU -- May 18, 2016 to May 22, 2016
Tolyatti, RU -- May 25, 2016 to May 29, 2016
Sochi, RU -- Jun 2, 2016 to Jun 5, 2016
Zaragoza, ES -- Jun 29, 2016 to Jul 3, 2016
Santander, ES -- Jul 6, 2016 to Jul 10, 2016
Granada, ES -- Jul 13, 2016 to Jul 17, 2016
Murcia, ES -- Jul 20, 2016 to Jul 24, 2016
Dubai, UAE -- Sep 16, 2016 to Sep 24, 2016
Istanbul, TR -- Oct 5, 2016 to Oct 9, 2016
Milan, IT -- Oct 20 2016 to Oct 23, 2016
Florence, IT -- Oct 27, 2016 to Oct 30, 2016
Bologna, IT -- Nov 04, 2016 to Nov 06, 2016
Turin, IT -- Nov 10, 2016 to Nov 13, 2016
Nantes, FR -- Nov 16, 2016 to Nov 20, 2016
Toulouse, FR -- Nov 23, 2016 to Nov 27, 2016
Strasbourg, FR -- Nov 30, 2016 to Dec 4, 2016
Paris, FR -- Dec 7, 2016 to Dec 11, 2016
Lille, FR -- Dec 14, 2016 to Dec 18, 2016
Lisbon, PT -- Jan 5, 2017 to Jan 15, 2017
Lyon, FR -- Apr 13, 2017 to Apr 16, 2017
TORUK - The First Flight:
Cincinnati, OH -- May 4, 2016 to May 8, 2016
Columbus, OH -- May 11, 2016 to May 15, 2016
Hamilton, ON -- May 20, 2016 to May 22, 2016
London, ON -- May 25, 2016 to May 29, 2016
Providence, RI -- Jun 1, 2016 to Jun 5, 2016
Baltimore, MD -- Jun 8, 2016 to Jun 12, 2016
Duluth, GA -- Jun 15, 2016 to Jun 19, 2016
Pittsburg, PA -- Jun 22, 2016 to Jun 26, 2016
Ottawa, ON -- Jun 30, 2016 to Jul 3, 2016
Denver, CO -- Jul 21, 2016 to Jul 24, 2016
Lincoln, NE -- Jul 27, 2016 to Jul 31, 2016
Chicago, IL -- Aug 3, 2016 to Aug 7, 2016
Indianapolis, IN -- Aug 10, 2016 to Aug 14, 2016
Nashville, TN -- Aug 24, 2016 to Aug 28, 2016
Brooklyn, NY -- Sep 7, 2016 to Sep 11, 2016
Newark, NJ -- Sep 14, 2016 to Sep 18, 2016
Winnipeg, MB -- Oct 5, 2016 to Oct 9, 2016
OVO:
Syracuse, NY -- May 4, 2016 to May 8, 2016
Philadelphia, PA -- May 11, 2016 to May 15, 2016
Bangor, ME -- Jun 2, 2016 to Jun 5, 2016
Bridgeport, CT -- Jun 8, 2016 to Jun 12, 2016
Hartford, CT -- Jun 15, 2016 to Jun 19, 2016
Atlantic City, NJ -- Jun 22, 2016 to Jun 26, 2016
Windsor, ON -- Jun 29, 2016 to Jul 3, 2016
Greenville, SC -- Jul 13, 2016 to Jul 17, 2016
Chattanooga, TN -- Jul 20, 2016 to Jul 24, 2016
Huntsville, AL -- Jul 27, 2016 to Jul 31, 2016
St. Louis, MO -- Aug 3, 2016 to Aug 7, 2016
Manchester, NH -- Aug 25, 2016 to Aug 28, 2016
Hershey, PA -- Aug 31, 2016 to Sep 4, 2016
Hampton, VA -- Sep 7, 2016 to Sep 11, 2016
Roanoke, VA -- Sep 14, 2016 to Sep 18, 2016
Orlando, FL -- Sep 21, 2016 to Sep 25, 2016
Estero, FL -- Sep 28, 2016 to Oct 2, 2016
Jacksonville, FL -- Oct 5, 2016 to Oct 8, 2016
Erie, PA -- Nov 17, 2016 to Nov 20, 2016
---------------------------------
RESIDENT - en Le Théâtre
---------------------------------
Mystère:
Location: Treasure Island, Las Vegas (USA)
Performs: Saturday through Wednesday, Dark: Thursday/Friday
Two shows Nightly - 7:00pm & 9:30pm
2016 Dark Dates:
o May 7 11
o July 6
o September 10 14
o November 9
Special / Limited Performances:
o June 18, 2016 (Only 7pm performance)
o June 19, 2016 (Only 7pm performance)
o December 29, 2016 (Two Shows)
"O":
Location: Bellagio, Las Vegas (USA)
Performs: Wednesday through Sunday, Dark: Monday/Tuesday
Two shows Nightly - 7:30pm and 9:30pm (as of Aug 12, 2015)
2016 Dark Dates:
o June 12-24
o July 2-5
o August 1-9
La Nouba:
Location: Walt Disney World, Orlando (USA)
Performs: Tuesday through Saturday, Dark: Sunday/Monday
Two shows Nightly - 6:00pm and 9:00pm
Zumanity:
Location: New York-New York, Las Vegas (USA)
Performs: Tuesday through Saturday, Dark Sunday/Monday
Two Shows Nightly - 7:00pm and 9:30pm
(Only 7:00pm on the following days in 2015: January 20,
May 8, May 15, May 19, May 20, and December 31)
KÀ:
Location: MGM Grand, Las Vegas (USA)
Performs: Saturday through Wednesday, Dark Thursday/Friday
Two Shows Nightly - 7:00pm and 9:30pm
(Only 7 pm performances on May 9, 16 and June 21)
2016 Dark Dates:
o May 5 - 13
o July 13
o September 15 - 23
o November 23
LOVE:
Location: Mirage, Las Vegas (USA)
Performs: Thursday through Monday, Dark: Tuesday/Wednesday
Two Shows Nightly - 7:00pm and 9:30pm
(Only 7:00p.m. on May 15-16, June 19-21, December 31)
(Only 4:30p.m. & 7:00p.m. performances on July 4)
MICHAEL JACKSON ONE:
Location: Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas (USA)
Performs: Two Shows Nightly - Dark: Wednesday/Thursday
Schedule: 7:00pm & 9:30pm on Friday, Saturday, Monday & Tuesday
4:30pm & 7:00pm on Sunday
JOYÀ:
Location: Riviera Maya, Mexico
Performs: Tuesday through Saturday, Dark: Sunday/Monday
One/Two Shows Nightly:
9:00pm (Weekdays)
7:00pm & 10:15pm (Fri, Sat & Holidays)
=======================================================================
OUTREACH - UPDATES FROM CIRQUE's SOCIAL WIDGETS
=======================================================================
o) WEBSERIES -- Official Online Featurettes
o) FOTOS -- Images From Cirque & Other Photographs
o) VIDEOS -- Official Peeks & Noted Fan Finds
---------------------------------------------------
WEBSERIES: Official Online Featurettes
---------------------------------------------------
*) LUZIA: THE STORY OF AN ENCOUNTER
The Story of an Encounter is a web series that explores
inspiring love affairs between Cirque du Soleil and Mexico.
It shines a spotlight on some of the creators of LUZIA,
revealing their longstanding or budding love affair with
Mexico and its people. The series also explores the
protagonists' individual roles and respective approaches in
the creation of Cirque du Soleil's LUZIA, which kicks off
its world tour in Montreal in April 2016.
o) EPISODE 3: PATRICIA RUEL, DIRECTOR OF CREATION
April 5, 2016
Catch up with LUZIA Director of Creation Patricia Ruel in
her home-away-from-home in San Agustinillo, Mexico, as she
talks about the privilege of working on a Cirque du Soleil
production. Hear her rave about the culture and diversity
of Mexico and muse about the child she and her Mexican
husband are expecting. Back at Cirque Headquarters in
Montreal, Patricia presents her newborn baby Salvador to
the team, drawing a parallel between her half-Mexican, half-
Quebecer child, and the creation of LUZIA the result of
the deep connection between Cirque du Soleil and Mexico.
LINK /// < https://youtu.be/RxPpFP3qzJE >
o) EPISODE 4: MAJO CORNEJO, LEAD SINGER
April 12, 2016
In her home in Mexico, LUZIA Singer Majo Cornejo prepares to
say goodbye to her family and head up to Montreal to join the
LUZIA cast as it prepares for its upcoming world tour. Catch
up with Majo on her first day at the snowbound Cirque du
Soleil Headquarters in Montreal, and listen in as she tries
her chops at the show's stirring theme song "Tiembla la
Tierra" in an emotionally charged, impromptu performance
in front of Show Co-author Daniele Finzi Pasca and Composer
Simon Carpentier.
LINK /// < https://youtu.be/adAKn8E_rsw >
o) EPISODE 5: RODRIGO DE LA MORA, MUSICIAN/GUITARIST
April 19, 2016
During his final days at home in his native Mexico, LUZIA
Musician and Guitarist Rodrigo de la Mora talks about the
difficulty of leaving family and friends behind to head out on
tour. As he settles into his temporary new digs at the artists'
residence in Montreal and meets up with fellow musicians in the
music studio, Rodrigo is anxious to get to work. Listen in as
the overwhelmed Rodrigo tells all about the amazing opportunity
of finally getting to work alongside one of his personal idols,
Show Co-author Daniele Finzi Pasca.
LINK /// < https://youtu.be/O_zB8mYmjxE >
Check out all the other episodes of this great web series
here: < http://www.cirquefascination.com/?page_id=7798 >
*) KURIOS ABOUT...
o) EPISODE 13: BONUS CONTENT!
April 12, 2016
In this last episode of KURIOS About, enjoy some never seen
footage from the web series!
LINK /// < https://youtu.be/D_3b1rIwwwo >
Check out all the other episodes of this great web series
here: < http://www.cirquefascination.com/?page_id=6868 >
*) DHL: GREAT IS IN THE DETAIL
A lot has changed since the world's number one grossing live
entertainment tour got its start in Quebec in 1984. Thirty
years on, Cirque du Soleil has become a part of the DHL
partnership program, which will help bring the spectacular
troupe of performers and acrobats to cities around the globe.
"Not your average circus," the spectacular troupe of acrobats
and performers has had more than 140 million spectators since
its inception in Quebec in 1984. With shows in 300 cities on
six continents, the partnership is the perfect fit for DHL's
global logistics capabilities. Join us as we go behind-the-
scenes with Cirque du Soleil on tour with "Great is in the
Details" and learn how DHL and Cirque are working together!
o) EPISODE 11: THE PERFECT BALANCE (AMALUNA)
April 1, 2016
In this episode we enter the realm of the Balance Goddess
who creates a world in equilibrium with a mobile made of
thirteen palm leaf ribs. Her movements are slow and almost
meditative as she concentrates all her attention on building
this structure.
LINK /// < https://youtu.be/25E94sJdGBY >
o) EPISODE 12: DAZZLING AND DURABLE (AMALUNA)
April 15, 2016
In episode 12 of the Great is in the Detail series we
explore the dazzling and durable costumes in Amaluna. The
show's costumes and make-up are intricate but also
designed to be practical to endure the stress of the high-
flying performances. To find out more about DHL's
partnerships: http://www.dhl-in-motion.com/
LINK /// < https://youtu.be/2-DZOXixx3o >
o) EPISODE 13: FABRICATING INNOVATION
May 02, 2016
In episode 13 of the Great is in the Detail series we
discover how Cirque du Soleil is using advances in 3-D
technology to accelerate the design process.
LINK /// < https://youtu.be/LQzv8ksvMLI>
Check out all the other episodes of this great web series
here: < http://www.cirquefascination.com/?page_id=8126 >
---------------------------------------------------
FOTOS: Images From Cirque & Other Photo Links
---------------------------------------------------
AMALUNA -- https://goo.gl/j05hkT -- Happy 4 Year Anniversary!
KA -- https://goo.gl/QtRLlh -- Check Out the Speakers
KOOZA -- https://goo.gl/6Z18jz -- Thanks Uruguay!
KOOZA -- https://goo.gl/BISNVH -- Premiere in Buenos Aires
KURIOS -- https://goo.gl/Ahrt8R -- At Atlanta Dogwood Festival
LA NOUBA -- https://goo.gl/nqoNLp -- Favorite Moments...
LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/CWLYlR -- Meet The Fish?
LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/uGQ0SQ -- Media Day Images
LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/zI9HTI -- Eco Design Fashion Show
LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/PG7CKy -- Second Dress Rehearsal
LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/7ym7vN -- Second Dress Rehearsal
LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/2vE0Kv -- Second Dress Rehearsal
LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/QYRJrX -- Soft Opening!
MYSTERE -- https://goo.gl/DL34n0 -- First Pitch (Cubs vs. Mets)
OVO -- https://goo.gl/XWz9Kc -- One Week from Opening Night!
OVO -- https://goo.gl/md5ro1 -- Thank You Lake Charles!
OVO -- https://goo.gl/9m4CBq -- In Baton Rouge
PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/a3xGUs -- Hang in There!
PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/apsWyG -- Just a Bit of Makeup
PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/JXxcde -- Turning Broadway Upside Down
TORUK -- https://goo.gl/hoCXmT -- Some Pre-Show Shenanigans
TOTEM -- https://goo.gl/aR636g -- Break time!
TOTEM -- https://goo.gl/ROOi6v -- Backstage Fun
TOTEM -- https://goo.gl/rRtq4R -- Japanese Merchandise!
TOTEM -- https://goo.gl/TgDBo8 -- Japanese Merchandise!
TOTEM -- https://goo.gl/Zqat2g -- Japanese Merchandise!
VAREKAI -- https://goo.gl/fJ4ClW -- Last Minute Prep
VAREKAI -- https://goo.gl/lYSEml -- Feel the Excitement?
VAREKAI -- https://goo.gl/5YMGqD -- Finally Here Moscow
VAREKAI -- https://goo.gl/jCJ2vG -- One Hour to Go, Moscow!
VAREKAI -- https://goo.gl/DYLon3 -- One Hour to Go, Moscow!
VAREKAI -- https://goo.gl/gwYE54 -- Musician's Point of View
VAREKAI -- https://goo.gl/vImGXT -- Female Clown Gets Ready
VAREKAI -- https://goo.gl/5w1IIc -- Female Clown Gets Ready
ZARKANA -- https://goo.gl/kT7yPG -- Never Missed a Show!
---------------------------------------------------
VIDEOS: Official Peeks & Noted Fan Finds
---------------------------------------------------
AMALUNA -- https://goo.gl/Cl1RSF -- Thanks Amsterdam
AMALUNA -- https://goo.gl/vzeJHX -- Time to Dance!
AMALUNA -- https://goo.gl/jJzEw7 -- Hello Germany!
AMALUNA -- https://goo.gl/oCn5qR -- At Royal Albert Hall (48 min)
JOYA -- https://goo.gl/gUJVrK -- Live from the Kitchens
KOOZA -- https://goo.gl/TzSy9T -- Thanks Montevideo
KOOZA -- https://goo.gl/cCwIoA -- Surprise Mall Visit
KOOZA -- https://goo.gl/PhGv1A -- The Kingdom of Kooza
KURIOS -- https://goo.gl/NVTzwY -- Take Me Out to the Ballgame!
KURIOS -- https://goo.gl/fvfqci -- Two Year Anniversary!
KURIOS -- https://goo.gl/D1l2QJ -- Inside the Box Sneak Peek
KURIOS -- https://goo.gl/VH3Tzg -- Facundo Gimenez, Behind the Red Nose
LA NOUBA -- https://goo.gl/ouqHI7 -- Bernard Hazen's Rola Bola Act
LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/7xzZ9X -- Be On The Lookout
LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/c3m9aB -- Raising the Big Top!
LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/XGNEVQ -- Press Conference Video
LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/xB3WYY -- Meet Diana, Graceful Pole Dancer
LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/aK4v1o -- Meet Rachel, Cyr Wheel artist
LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/l0dIZ8 -- Meet Alexsei, Bendable Contortionist
LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/7sswER -- Meet Laura, Football Juggling artist
LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/Grntlv -- Mee Emily, Agile Trapeze Artist
LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/hVnkLM -- Met Benjamin, Fearless Straps Artist
LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/BecI6z -- 5 Days until Premiere!
LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/dfxPDu -- 4 Days until Premiere!
LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/b7hCjw -- The Luzia Boutique
LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/t4wEYH -- Sneak Peek Video from Cirque
LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/djpvPe -- Boutique in 360 Degrees!
MYSTERE -- https://goo.gl/vi5T7M -- Don't Miss Open Rehearsals
MYSTERE -- https://goo.gl/PcFb87 -- Flying Trapeze circa 1994
OVO -- https://goo.gl/SWY2bV -- Thank You Lake Charles!
OVO -- https://goo.gl/Km4Dsy -- OVO Mascots Out and About
OVO -- https://goo.gl/cIRo2m -- CirqueSessions #1
OVO -- https://goo.gl/Qiswyp -- CirqueSessions #2
OVO -- https://goo.gl/fn0h46 -- CirqueSessions #3
OVO -- https://goo.gl/j8vWtx -- CirqueSessions #4
OVO -- https://goo.gl/qo85tD -- How Much Bounce?
OVO -- https://goo.gl/8uPOqa -- Trampoline (Arena Version)
OVO -- https://goo.gl/a04xzA -- Korean Cradle (Arena)
PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/hx4uPb -- The Western Scene
PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/K6l499 -- Rooftop Chase
PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/Ne1pcB -- Five Days to Go
PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/XcPhrL -- Bob & Bill, Composers
PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/9MnLOn -- First Night Preview!
PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/nwFIEr -- Taking Our First Bows
PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/ljONQt -- Acrobat Fletcher Blair Sanchez
PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/uaXi03 -- Behind-the-Scenes
PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/iXpg30 -- Cast's Favorite Movies
SODA -- https://goo.gl/8tcOkp -- Alex González de Maná
SODA -- https://goo.gl/1xIR9Q -- Adrián Dárgelos de Babasonico
SODA -- https://goo.gl/X7d3l7 -- CirqueSessions #1
SODA -- https://goo.gl/fVinJZ -- CirqueSessions #2
TORUK -- https://goo.gl/uebX91 -- Sound Technician Jeff Eben
TORUK -- https://goo.gl/VyYD4w -- Andrew McCabe, Automation Tech
TORUK -- https://goo.gl/kM6ePa -- TORUK's Kites
TORUK -- https://goo.gl/on199T -- Jumping Into Action!
TORUK -- https://goo.gl/C9HjPT -- Kentucky Derby Special
TORUK -- https://goo.gl/Ocg8Z6 -- Puppeteer Kristi Hughes
VAREKAI -- https://goo.gl/IFLF2j -- At The Evening Urgant Show
ZARKANA -- https://goo.gl/bQT4Hy -- Defying Gravity
ZARKANA -- https://goo.gl/a9xFAi -- Playing with Fire
ZARKANA -- https://goo.gl/CGdFrQ -- Getting Ready for the Final
ZARKANA -- https://goo.gl/1fRgHE -- Final Bow
ZARKANA -- https://goo.gl/FdSMJZ -- The Straps Act
ZARKANA -- https://goo.gl/3WcpvB -- Clips of Zarkana in Las Vegas
ZARKANA -- https://goo.gl/tY5QXr -- Banquine Act
ZUMANITY -- https://goo.gl/YmZmcF -- Ready for a Love Affair?
=======================================================================
FASCINATION! FEATURES
=======================================================================
o) "The Press Peeks at Paramour"
A Special Collection of Articles from the Press
o) "Passionates Preview Paramour"
By: Douglas Metzger - Long Island, New York (USA)
o) "JOYA, A Night in the Mayan Jungle"
A Special to the Fascination! Newsletter
------------------------------------------------------------
"The Press Peeks at Paramour"
A Special Collection of Articles from the Press
-----------------------------------------------------------
In their new show "Paramour," Cirque du Soleil puts their signature
spin on a Broadway performance. Set in the world of Golden Age
Hollywood, the show spins the tale of a young poet forced to choose
between love and art with a blend of music and circus art while in
the process. Join us as the press goes behind-the-scenes for a sneak
peek at Paramour
CBS GOES BACKSTAGE
------------------
Ruby Lewis, who plays leading lady "Indigo" in the show, told CBS News
that it's an exciting new challenge for her. "It's brand new to me,"
Lewis said. "You have to be ready for anything, including flying in
the air or balancing on someone's hand and for me that's the
scariest part." At the age of 6, Ruby Lewis had her first on-stage
performance, playing Fern in "Charlotte's Web." From that day on, the
Shelbyville, Kentucky, resident knew she was going to be a performer.
"I was never a cheerleader," Lewis told CBS News. "I was a dancer who
preferred tap; I liked to be into the ground." Now, the actress is
readjusting and learning new tricks. "It's the sexiest show on
Broadway."
FOTOS /// < http://www.cirquefascination.com/?p=8030 >
Jeremy Kushnier, who plays "A.J. Golden," chimed in that Lewis is a
perfect example of how Broadway and Cirque du Soleil are crossing
over. "[She's] hanging upside down, dancing her face off, singing,
being thrown around," he explained. While rehearsing ahead of live
shows, Lewis told producers that she was willing to try anything.
"That's a big mistake to say to circus people," Kushnier joked.
And now go behind the scenes with the leading lady of Paramour Ruby
Lewis! < https://www.facebook.com/CBSNews/videos/10153532301020950/ >
TIME OUT GOES BEHIND THE CURTAIN
--------------------------------
It's a Thursday morning at Broadway's Lyric Theatre, a month before
the first preview of Cirque du Soleil's upcoming Broadway production,
Paramour, and the stage is full of people doing casually miraculous
things. To one side, a guy in jeans scampers gracefully up a vertical
pole. Men and women are tossed around like footballs. In the middle of
the stage, shirtless men in athletic shorts jump up and down on a
teeterboard, the circus version of a playground seesaw, that's
launching each of them into the air in turn, high enough to perform
elaborate flips and twists. When they land, their weight smacks the
teeterboard down against the ground, in a slow and regular rhythm: ka-
thump, ka-thump, like a heartbeat.
These performers may be the core of Paramour, but they are also part
of a much larger jigsaw puzzle that is carefully being assembled. For
unlike the spectacles that Cirque du Soleil offers in its trademark
yellow-and-blue tents, which are collections of specialty acts loosely
united by fantastical costumes and themes, Paramour weaves its circus
elements into a straight-up Broadway musical with an original score
and a plot about a love triangle in golden-age Hollywood. "There are
teeterboard and straps and trapeze and Russian bar and trampoline
actsall the things that you would expect at a Cirque show," explains
Scene Director West Hyler. "But they take place inside a very real
story about a filmmaker, his lead actress and the composer who's
scoring the film."
More pieces of the puzzle come into place in the afternoon, when
Paramour's entire cast of 38not just the acrobats but also musical-
theater actors, singers and dancersperforms its first stumble-
through. The band is in the audience and meeting the rest of the
company for the first time; 20 makeshift tables have been set up over
the auditorium's red velvet seats and are crowded with computers and
mixing boards to meet the show's complicated technical demands. If
Cirque can pull this off, it will be an unprecedented merger of circus
spectacle and musical-theater narrative. "I've always believed in
having a story that you are as much interested in as the acrobacythat
if those two worlds could combine, something really magical could be
created," says Hyler. What follows are some glimpses of how that magic
happens.
This pivotal hand-to-trap sequence illustrates the leading lady being
torn between romantic rivals. "Sometimes we use acrobatics to reveal
the inner psychology or to physicalize the emotional and psychological
struggle of the characters," says Hyler. "It's like the dream ballet
in Carousel, which is a musical trope that's been around forever,
except we're taking that idea of a dream ballet and making it a dream
trapeze act. The same characters are embodied by different artists who
have the skills necessary at those points in the story."
One of the most striking sequences in Paramour is a breathtaking
aerial duet between English twin brothers Andrew and Kevin Atherton,
who are suspended directly above the front rows of the audience. The
Athertons don't use safety cables; they rely entirely on their own
strength to stay in the air. "This is not Spider-Man or Peter Panone
of those shows where you have an actor in a harness," Hyler points
out. "These are people who have trained their entire lives to be able
to do this. And it's amazing." Andrew credits the deep mutual trust
between him and his brother for their success with Cirque du Soleil,
for which they've worked in multiple shows over the past 15 years. "I
wouldn't say it's a twin connection, but we've been working together
so long, and I know that he'll put my safety before his," he says. "So
then you can concentrate on making the act emotional and beautiful,
not on thinking, Is this safe? We're always adding elements of danger
into our act and choreography to make it more spectacular."
In addition to its plot, musical numbers and circus spots, Paramour
contains a number of sequences built around eye-catching visuals. In
one, the face of leading lady Ruby Lewis is amusingly green-screened
onto a variety of famous movie posters; in another, bright-orange
interconnected rooms are deployed to evoke gradual movement across a
film strip.
Some of Paramour's most circusy moments are set up as parts of movie-
musical numbers being shot by the main characters. "They're making
films in which the actress is the star, but she's surrounded by an
acrobatic ensemble," says Hyler, adding that some scenes are inspired
by sequences in classic Hollywood musicals. Michael Kidd's inventive
Western-themed choreography for 1954's Seven Brides for Seven
Brothers, for example, serves as the jumping-off point for Paramour's
teeterboard act, an homage that significantly raises the athletic
component. (It includes a quadruple flip.) Thick safety mats are
disguised to look like wooden scenery.
Circus performers comprise a little more than half the cast; the rest
of it consists of more traditional musical-theater folks, such as Reed
Kelly and Kat Cunning (pictured above). To smooth out that division in
the ensemble, the creators have tried to find acrobats who can dance
and act a bit, as well as chorus members with special skills. "We have
a few dancers who have a gymnastics background or are very flexible,"
says Acrobatic Designer and Choreographer Shana Carroll. "Some of them
can do back handsprings and flips, which helps everyone blend well."
The Chinese pole, a popular circus discipline, features prominently in
an Act II dream sequence. "We call it The Nightmare,' but it's
actually a revenge dream for the movie director," says Carroll. "He
imagines a horror movie with zombies attacking Joey, his rival. It
seems like a happy park scene, but then zombies come up through
manholes and attack." Practicing it here is Jeremias Faganel, a
Chinese-pole specialist from Argentina. Thanks to Cirque du Soleil's
worldwide recruiting pipelines, nearly all of the acrobats are from
foreign countries, including Australia, Norway, France and Poland.
Acrobatic flier and hand balancer Amber Van Wijk just turned 21 years
old, and she already has one Cirque du Soleil show under her belt. "I
was touring for two years with Varekai when I was 16, and then I went
back home [to Antwerp, Belgium] to finish high school," she says.
"Then they offered me this contract in New York. I've always wanted to
go there, and it was perfect timing, so I was like, Yes!'" She hasn't
had the chance to explore the city much yetthe rehearsal schedule is
exhaustingbut she did get to see a musical on Broadway, which helped
her understand how Paramour works. "Pretty much every trick you do in
the show, every movement, there's a story behind it and a reason you
do it," she says. "That's very different from my previous experiences.
In Varekai, you could kind of hide behind the amazing costumes and
makeup. On Broadway, people see you from so close."
"Even though it's a very large cast for a Broadway show, it's a very
small cast for a Cirque show, where usually they can have up to 70
acrobats, but they're mostly specialists," says Carroll. "I had to
find a really all-star ensemblepeople who I knew could perform up to
five disciplinesor we wouldn't be able to have enough acrobatic
material." Fletcher Blair Sanchez, seen here on the Chinese pole, is
also highly skilled at teeterboard, trampoline and tumbling. "That's
rare, and I love the cast I have for that," she says. "They're
covering so much ground. They just blow my mind every day with how
talented they are."
CIRQUE'S BROADWAY BALANCING ACT
-------------------------------
The dancer emerges from stage left, in white tails and top hat; from
stage right comes a juggler in a black tuxedo. And then begins a
choreographic throwdown the dancer taps, the juggler balances a cane
on his nose a prelude to the best-of-both-worlds spectacle promised
behind the Art Deco curtain.
The circus is coming to town, but this time with a story to tell.
Cirque du Soleil, a global entertainment behemoth that has 17
different shows running worldwide, is once again trying to establish a
long-running production in New York City, the major-league market that
has most stubbornly frustrated its ambitions.
A previous Cirque attempt at narrative theater, "Banana Shpeel,"
disastrously flopped at the Beacon Theater in 2010; a more traditional
(for Cirque) acrobatic show with multiyear aspirations, "Zarkana,"
quietly faded away after productions at Radio City Music Hall in 2011
and 2012.
So now Cirque is trying a high-wire hybrid a combination of theater
and acrobatics, with a splash of old Hollywood, in one $25 million
musical called "Paramour." And, never one to bet small, it is opening
the show cold on the world's most famous stage: Broadway.
The timing is, to put it mildly, challenging. The company, long
dominated by its storied founder, the fire-eater-turned-billionaire
Guy Laliberté, just last summer was acquired by a group of investors,
led by the private equity firm TPG, that is closely watching costs as
it seeks revenue growth.
And Broadway, always home to more flops than hits, is particularly
competitive this year there are currently 36 plays and musicals,
many with strong reviews and crowd-pleasing titles or stars, vying for
attention and audience before "Paramour" begins previews this weekend
at the Lyric Theater in anticipation of an official opening on May 25.
Cirque arrives on Broadway with enviable strengths: a well-known
brand, a stable of world-class acrobatic performers, considerable
marketing muscle and deep enough pockets to let a show build. And the
company, explicitly pitching its show to domestic and international
tourists, is opening after this year's Tony Awards eligibility
deadline meaning it won't be hurt or helped by the spring awards
cycle and on the eve of summer, when out-of-town visitorship is
especially high.
"The people that work there are really smart artists, but how are they
going to make their next step? That's what we're all watching," said
Diane Paulus, a theater director represented on Broadway this season
with "Waitress." Ms. Paulus in 2012 directed a big tent show,
"Amaluna," for Cirque, and in 2013 won a Tony Award for "Pippin,"
which was noteworthy for its successful integration of circus arts
with dance.
"It is a big question mark for Cirque now," she said. "What's next for
them, and how are they going to break new ground after they broke
ground so powerfully 35 years ago?"
"Paramour" is expensive by Broadway standards at $25 million it
costs twice as much to mount as "Hamilton" but not for Cirque, which
once spent $165 million developing a single show, "Ka," in Las Vegas.
"Obviously we want to be successful in New York because it is such a
large market and such a large tourist destination, but this is not
even close to a bet-the-company type of thing," said David Trujillo,
the TPG partner who is managing that company's Cirque investment.
"This is one show."
"Paramour" is distinguished from most other Cirque productions by the
use of a script with dialogue, original songs (10 of them, composed by
the frequent Cirque collaborators Bob & Bill, along with Andreas
Carlsson, and played by an eight-piece band), and a fully realized
story (a love triangle, set in Hollywood's Golden Age, involving a
film director, his muse-like star and a composer).
But it also has plenty to appeal to die-hard Cirque fans:
contortionists, jugglers, trapeze artists and tumblers; trampolines
and teeterboards; banquine (human pyramids) and hand to hand (partner
acrobatics on the floor) and hand to trapeze (a woman travels between
a male porter on the ground and one on a trapeze, representing the
love triangle).
The show will make heavy use of technology it includes video
projections and eight costumed drones and, in an attempt to mimic
the circus, will break the fourth wall with a strap act above
showgoers, a chase scene through the theater and rappelling into the
audience.
Every circus needs its ringmaster, and here it is Scott Zeiger, an
alumnus of concert promoting, Ringling Bros. and touring Broadway
shows, who two years ago started Cirque Theatrical, a new division of
the company.
He has been selling the show exuberantly at a recent event for the
news media, he pretended to have forgotten his prepared remarks,
prompting an acrobat holding a sheaf of papers to tumble across the
stage for a bit of circus humor. Then he framed the case for
"Paramour": "What we are trying to do here, and I think we're doing
well, is seamlessly blending the best of Broadway singing, dancing,
acting, of course with all that is Cirque du Soleil's signature
artistry incredible acrobatics, amazing costumes, cutting-edge
technology, and sheer whimsy and joy."
One day after the press event, Mr. Zeiger had to manage some tougher
news. The company's leaders, dissatisfied with what they saw during an
early run-through of the show (a "lions' den," in Cirque lingo,
comparing the executives to predatory carnivores), abruptly ousted the
show's leading man and said they wanted the running time cut by 10
percent, to get it under two hours.
"Paramour" is being developed by much of the same creative team, and
features two of the most distinctive scenes (a rooftop chase with
trampolines, and a live filmstrip with dancers in frames) as "Iris," a
$100 million homage to the history of cinema that Cirque hoped would
become a permanent installation in Los Angeles but instead closed
after 19 months. (Cirque productions cost more money than Broadway
shows because they often involve newly built or reconfigured
performance spaces; they take more time to develop because of the
complex training required for risky acrobatic acts, and more money to
run because of the larger troupes.)
Some fans worry the echoes of "Iris" mean they've seen this show
before.
"On the one hand, those were cool acts, but, on the other hand, can't
you think up anything new?" said Keith Johnson, a Seattle-based Cirque
fan and blogger who estimates that he has seen 20 Cirque shows. Mr.
Johnson said he is concerned that "Paramour" may suffer from creation
by committee, rather than by a single visionary, and that marketing it
will be hard. "The image of their brand is so strong that, when they
try to do anything radically different, it's difficult for them to
communicate what it's about," he said.
But the creative team says the similarities between "Paramour" and
"Iris" are limited and largely thematic.
"There was a little bit of a desire to build from Iris,' but in the
end we took a completely different direction," said Shana Carroll, who
designed the acrobatics for both shows.
Ms. Carroll typifies the top-flight circus artists working on this
project she is a former Cirque trapeze artist who left to found a
highly regarded contemporary acrobatics company, Les 7 Doigts de la
Main, and is now working with both firms. (She calls Cirque "the
godfather company" and 7 Fingers "the rebels.")
The shows' director, Philippe Decouflé, is a French dancer, trained in
mime, who has become a choreographer and is fascinated by shadow acts
and other innovations involving light. He said he is inspired, in
part, by the geometric dance patterns of the movie choreographer Busby
Berkeley.
The cast is big for Broadway (small for Cirque), with 22 acrobats and
16 actors, and as is typical for Cirque, is multinational and
multilingual, with performers from 13 countries. It includes one pair
of identical twins (the aerial strap artists Andrew and Kevin
Atherton), one married couple (hand-to-trapeze performers Sam Charlton
and Myriam Deraiche), and 10 alumni of national gymnastics or
acrobatics teams.
The show also requires more safety precautions than most Broadway
productions do, given the risks involved with acrobatics and the
memories of the woes that beset performers in "Spider-Man: Turn Off
the Dark," a previous tenant in the same theater.
Cirque has deployed acrobatic coaches in New York to monitor safety at
all shows; the acrobats train daily, watched by health and wellness
experts, to try to prevent injuries, and there are safety briefings
for cast and crew. There are also quiet signals: a fist to the top of
the head means "I'm O.K."; "hup" means "I'm ready"; and "short" means
"my landing is off."
Most of the cast, and most members of the creative team, have never
worked on Broadway before; dance workshops were held in Paris, where
the director is based, and acrobatic acts were developed in Montreal,
where Cirque has its headquarters. For nine weeks, the show rehearsed
at Grumman Studios in Bethpage, N.Y., because there were no spaces on
Broadway big enough; when the show moved into the Lyric, Cirque built
a gym under the stage for the acrobats to continue their daily
conditioning.
"We're learning a lot from one another," said Justin Prescott, a 28-
year-old dancer from Houston who has never seen a Cirque show, but is
now performing in "Paramour" he is the featured tap dancer at the
show's start, and is learning to do simple acrobatics on a vertical
pole.
Joe McAdam, a 23-year-old acrobat from England who had never seen a
Broadway show, was a competitive trampoliner before joining Cirque and
touring with "Amaluna." He has had to rein in his jumping for
"Paramour" he does flips off a teeterboard, and had to beadmonished
not to leap so high because he was disappearing from view above the
show's 25-foot-9-inch proscenium. (And yes, there were jokes about
making lighting adjustments while he was up in the fly space.)
"It's very interesting to see how the actors work it's very
different," Mr. McAdam said. "And the stage is so big. I'm curious to
see how it's going to feel with the audience in it."
Cirque began performing in New York in 1988, and over the next two
decades sent a stream of big-top shows to the city, running for a few
months at a time, first in Battery Park, where they sold quite
strongly, and then, when development of that area forced them to
relocate, on Randalls Island. Over time, as the company's productions
became seen less as a hot new thing, appealing to affluent adults, and
more as mainstream family fare, the company began presenting shows,
for shorter periods of time, at Madison Square Garden. Although
critics often sneered, audiences were healthy.
The stumbles with "Banana Shpeel" and "Zarkana" reinforced existential
questions shadowing Cirque: Has the company, once a group of Quebec
street performers and now a giant multinational, lost its way
creatively? Has it oversaturated the New York market by coming too
often? Or has it fundamentally misunderstood the differences between
Las Vegas, where the company has eight shows running simultaneously,
and New York, where the entertainment options for consumers are more
varied and competitive?
"Cirque definitely was hip when everyone first discovered it in the
U.S. in the late 80s and early 90s, and it contributed to the
redefining of Las Vegas as an entertainment destination and a family
destination, but by the late 2000s they were starting to reach a peak,
and perhaps had lost a bit of that magic," said Louis Patrick Leroux,
a theater professor at Concordia University who serves as director of
the Montreal Working Group on Circus Research. "But they still have an
extremely strong brand I can't think of many companies, other than
Disney, that have their recognition and they're in a period where
they're redefining what their presence is."
The company went through a period of retrenchment, with significant
layoffs in 2012 and 2013, but now, with the new owners (including a
Chinese investment firm, Fosun, that is a minority partner), is aiming
for growth, particularly in China, where it has just opened its first
office in Shanghai, is building a theater for a permanent show in
Hangzhou, and is planning touring shows. New York and London are also
major expansion targets, as are, to a lesser extent, Germany and the
Middle East.
Mr. Trujillo said that, in the wake of the acquisition, his firm had
helped Cirque "get rid of distractions," like investments in
restaurants and bars; hired new financial executives; and identified
areas for potential revenue growth: further adaptations of existing
properties (like "Toruk," a circus prequel to the movie "Avatar"),
music events, water fountain and light shows, programming as part of
real estate developments (like theme parks or casinos), digital
marketing, premium pricing, brand licensing and show sponsorships.
"They had just stalled it was a stable business that was ready for
the next step of growth, but needed a partner to help them achieve,"
Mr. Trujillo said.
"Paramour" is not the only Cirque show coming to New York after
Labor Day, the company is also bringing in short runs of its two new
touring events, "Toruk," at the Barclays Center, and a much-praised
big top show, "Kurios," to Randalls Island.
But "Paramour" is the big hope a major project by the new theatrical
division, which also hopes to bring to Broadway a stage version of the
live broadcast of "The Wiz" that it developed with NBC last year.
"We know how brutal Broadway can be, but I think we have the right
ingredients to sustain the position here, serving the Broadway
audience and the Cirque family at the same time," said a bullish
Daniel Lamarre, the company's president and chief executive. "There is
no other market where the competition is so furious you have a lot
of great shows in this city so that's why we're coming at it in a
very humble way. We just hope that we can make our mark on Broadway."
STUNNING NEW LOOK AT PARAMOUR
-----------------------------
Broadway World, Theater Mania and Playbill published a set of pictures
today as a "First Look" at Cirque du Soleil's Paramour
Although not
really a "first look", it does give us a glimpse into the new
production.
Check out the images here: http://www.cirquefascination.com/?p=8202
# # #
SOURCES:
1. CBS News, Charrat Martin Photography
2. Time Out | http://goo.gl/JNDYnA
3. Michael Paulson, New York Times | http://goo.gl/TTobu7
4. Broadway World, Theater Mania, and Playbill
------------------------------------------------------------
"Passionates Preview Paramour"
By: Douglas Metzger - Long Island, New York (USA)
-----------------------------------------------------------
I'm lucky enough to be a Passionate' one of those people who has
followed Cirque for many years. And in my case, well over a decade now
thinking about it. I've also been lucky enough to attend multiple
CirqueCon's (a fan-organized gathering of like-minded fans of Cirque
du Soleil), soft and hard openings of shows, premiere's in Old
Montreal, as well as travelled to various venues around the country
taking in both resident and travelling shows (such as LUZIA and
KURIOS).
KURIOS is wonderful if you haven't seen it yet. I've subsequently been
able to follow that show from premiere in Montreal thru Chicago and
Atlanta. By the time KURIOS leaves the US mainland, I will have seen
it a dozen times or more. (Yes, it's that good!) I've related my
KURIOS exploits since it too has gone through some developmental and
artistic changes since premiering. Some of these changes were due to
artistic flow and others imposed by Cirque corporate (read that as
"financial requirements.") These changes have tightened the show,
added an audience participation element (bridge,) as well as
subtracted, added or modified artistic acts, for good, or bad. But
then preview are used to shake out those tenuous elements, strengthen
show stoppers, adjust story migration and timing, and finally get the
cast familiar with their routines. (I look forward to seeing changes
in Luzia.)
Which brings me to PARAMOUR...
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
-----------------
In advance of attending the soft-open I had immersed myself within
PARAMOUR social media campaigns and press events. (It also didn't hurt
to have Cirque corporate undertake a ground-shift policy change
related to using all forms of social media - Twitter, Tumblr,
Instagram, etc.) This shift was quite literally overnight, with my
everyday feeds being blown up by all things Cirque. At one point I
actually felt bombarded! PR did a decent job of issuing almost daily
updates, production clips, story-line announcements, cast involvement,
behind-the-scene montages and such. It also didn't hurt matters that
PARAMOUR was using an openly secret' development studio near my
residence as their practice shop for months on end (Grumman Studios
Bethpage, NY. The same venue used to stage NBC's live telecast of the
"Sound Of Music" a few years ago.)
Within the last few weeks prior to a shows opening Cirque runs one (or
more) Lion's Den performances. This is a collective and detailed
review - from beginning to end - of all individual acts/artists used
in a show to see how their performance has developed since conception.
Not only do the producers and segment developers get involved, Cirque
headquarters typically dispatches its own creative team, some of whom
have been involved since conception, others whom might not have (for a
fresh take on the product). Each of these reviewers set up in the
audience seats, erect desk surfaces upon which to work, and then
critique everything
from artistic presentation, logistical need,
transition, costume, makeup, show running position, physical presence,
and more. EVERYTHING. This is a grueling, sometimes fraught,
undertaking for all involved. You have world-class artists and
performers working their hardest to get things right. Sometimes their
act has only recently been conceived and never before undertaken on
stage, anywhere. In other cases long-standing performances, developed
over the years, are modified for artistic interpretive need within the
shows structure. This can become a make-it or break-it moment, down to
the individual artist.
PARAMOUR's last Lion's Den prior to preview took place on March 29th.
From all reports, it was characteristic of typical Den's, with one
exception. One of the show's lead actors - Bradley Dean -unexpectedly
left the show (with less than 2 weeks to first preview.) Initially all
parties cited "irreconcilable differences," but within the Den it was
felt that Bradley didn't quite mesh with the show's timing or need. In
an interview with Michael Paulson of the New York Times Theater Desk,
Cirque's Scott Zeigler (head of Cirque's new Theater Division) said
"Bradley Dean is an extraordinary actor, and won the part for all the
right reasons, but we all felt that the chemistry and dynamic on stage
wasn't what we were hoping it would be. We were looking for something
slightly different from what we were getting, and it took watching it
from start to finish to see that."
Structurally this is a body blow to any theatrical production,
especially being so close to opening. Historically, while this has
happened in a very limited number of cases, it's something that just
doesn't tend to occur with Cirque. Admittedly, Cirque doesn't
typically hire stage and film level actor/actress outsiders' for its
shows. Usually this talent is developed specifically from within
Corporate and brought along to the show in question. Reacting to this
lead change, producers brought in veteran Broadway actor Jeremy
Kushnier, who, believe it or not, had previously auditioned for the
part during casting calls. National news and social media circles
descended upon this change with varying levels of concern. The larger
media outlets tended to take a pessimistic view, while social media
was a bit more tolerant, though pockets of doom and gloom maintained.
True to Broadway form, the show must go on.
THE LYRIC THEATER
-----------------
Long in advance of this night a close group of Passionates planned a
gathering prior to the show, and as part of that gathering we dine
together before the show. We chose a local restaurant - Virgil's BBQ
(http://www.virgilsbbq.com/) , which is conveniently located about a
block away from the Lyric Theater and could easily accommodate our
group of 12. The environment was inviting, the food excellent (I
highly recommend the hush puppies and salads), the staff is easy going
and paced to follow your needs, and the company was, of course,
illuminating. It was simply an amazing start to a wonderful evening!
(Parking, if needed, is directly next door and - for NYC - reasonably
priced. The restaurant is also very close to trains, bus routes, and
like the Lyric itself, in the midst of Times Square - so both are very
easy to reach.)
The Lyric Theater (http://www.lyricbroadway.com/) first began life as
two distinct theaters, the Lyric and initially The Bryant. The Lyric
in 1903, first operated by the Shubert brothers as a traditional
Broadway theater.The Bryant in 1910, as a film and vaudeville house.
In 1920 The Bryant would be renamed The Apollo under the Selwyn
brothers ownership and became the twelfth Broadway theater in Times
Square. Through the years and across various management / ownership
teams the Lyric hosted Fred and Adele Astaire in For Goodness Sake;
The Marx Brothers Broadway hit The Cocoanuts; and Cole Porter s score
of Fifty Million Frenchmen. Similarly The Apollo hosted Poppy,
starring W.C .Fields; and performers such as Ethel Merman, Jimmy
Durante, and Ed Wynn. Further, Take a Chance provided Ethel Merman a
show stopping song - Eadie was a Lady.
Both theaters closed, opened and were sold throughout sometimes
challenging years, concluding in the 80's going into derelict states.
Through the late 60's, 70's and 80's Times Square had generally
becomeblighted and detracted from its underlying desire to be a world-
class attraction for performing arts of all styles. Finally in 1990
the State and City of New York formed a non-profit organization "The
New 42nd Street." This non-profits goal was to take over ownership of
seven theaters (including the Lyric and The Apollo) and bring them
back to their former glory. Under the premise of promoting the arts,
master 99 year leases were issued to various management teams. As part
of such a lease each theater was required to: be fully renovated;
provide secure and attractive daytime and evening events all year
round; strengthen NYC's role as the premier entertainment city in the
U.S.; provide diversity of entertainment and talent; be affordable to
the maximum extent possible. (Today, through various legal
proceedings, British firm ATG now owns the Lyric.)
Beginning in 1992 the Lyric and The Apollo theaters were renovated
into one venue, the Lyric. Since undergoing significant renovations
into one of Broadway's largest (approx. 1900 seats) the theater has
hosted many hits' including: revivals of Jesus Christ Superstar, 42nd
Street, and On The Town. First run productions included Chitty Chitty
Bang Bang, Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, The Pirate
Queen, Young Frankenstein and lastly Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.
The theater entrance is on 43rd Street. Rope lines exist west from the
main entrance. Audience members line up along the street façade of
theater. Staff is kind and attentive. Those working the waiting
audience rope walk its extent making sure those assembled are there
for the correct show and time, as well as have tickets in their
possession. You enter through gold-gilded doors and up six steps into
the elaborate white and gold marbled oval orchestra lobby. (Don't miss
the theaters Stage Door' as you enter. It's immediately on the east
side of lobby doors and clearly marked as such.)
This theater is one of the more ornate on Broadway. Marble columns are
polished to a deep shine, themselves supporting the two open mezzanine
lobbies above. A small merchandise kiosk is set immediately on the
left, while the traditional Prologue Bar is set conveniently for
drinks. On the left you find a sweeping grand stair leading to the
upper mezzanine lobbies. There you'll find a sweet shop, and intimate
VIP lounges. Further to the rear of the street lobby you'll find entry
into the orchestra sections.
The theater proper is fashionable in an understated way. Ornate
ceiling panels exist though they appear to lack fluidity or
partnership. They seem somewhat, disconnected with each other,
installed to break up dead space.
The mezzanine level is made up of traditional elevated seating areas.
Two balcony wings exist on each side. The first balcony box closest to
the stage is used for production equipment, lighting and sound. It's
also occasionally used throughout the show for cast members
interacting with the stage performance. Directly rear of these boxes
are two additional boxes containing about ten seats. (It appears these
might be the best seats in house to take in the full perspective of
the show in an immersive setting. In my next visit prior to opening,
I'll seek to confirm this.) Lastly, above the 1stmezz is the
2ndmezzmade up of traditional seating.
PREVIEW NIGHT
-------------
Personally, taking in an initial new offering from Cirque elicits a
frenetic feeling within. Excited anticipation of being overwhelmed,
thrust back into your seat, emotionally connected to the moment /
performer / act / show is typical. Cirque excels at tweaking your
senses, sometimes with a proverbial tidal wave of production. When
Cirque is on point everything envelops the audience member. Costuming,
music, set design, act sequencing, stage presence and merchandise are
all used to thrill and memorialize. PARAMOUR is no different, albeit
with Preview limitations.
My seat for the night was ORCH row M, stage left isle. I chose these
seats to be far enough removed from the stage to get an overall image
of what was about to take place, as well as be close enough to feel
immersed within. In some Cirque environments (namely O' or LUZIA) sit
too far away and the connection with the show can be lost. This is
mostly due to stage design elements (pseudo round.) In the Lyric
though I would find it hard to believe there's a bad seat in the
house. The show is certainly three-dimensional and NOT confined to the
stage. Most notably are the aerial Cleopatra' acts of Kevin and Andi
Atherton, as well as subsequent chase scenes which take place on stage
and in a limited sense throughout the orchestra isles and 1st mezz
closed balcony boxes.
The show's storyline follows the burgeoning relationship between a
movie producer AJ Golden (Jeremy Kuschnier), a club singer Indigo
James (Ruby Lewis) and the singer's love-in-waiting composer Joey
Green (Ryan Vona.) AJ is introduced to Indigo and decides she will be
Hollywood's next big thing. And so begins an epic, and nostalgic,
journey to produce a movie and make himself rich. AJ also hires Joey
to score the movie. And so the triangle is formed beginning an epic
battle between true love, fame and fortune. Throughout the show you're
introduced to and follow the storied lives of the cast of characters.
You'll be exposed to back story, historical movie montages, faux film
strip recreations, dream sequences, rewinds, forward winds and
possibly a side-wind(?).
The show's initial opening is constructed as an introduction to AJ
Golden. "The Awards Ceremony" (Act I, Scene 1) and "The Acceptance
Speech" (Act I, Scene 2) is formed by a short tap and dialogue routine
before moving into the productions kick-off old west number set in
front of a saloon. (It should be noted that this number is far
different from the Media Day Press Release video that Cirque du Soleil
released on Facebook and YouTube.) This opening is full-on classic
Broadway, sure to wow even the most jaded or seasoned theater goer.
Dance, singing, set design and costuming are all brought to bear in
this Saloon number (Act I, Scene 3: "On the Set"). It's a tap your
feet, heart- warming production that gets full Cirque treatment. In
the midst of a stage full of cast members singing and dancing away
suddenly you're shocked by characters being lifted high into the air.
Your focus changes back to the main characters as others are then
thrown through the air or launched from teeter boards. Action on stage
and then arcing through the air from one side of the stage to the
other to be captured by roving cast members. You find yourself
excitedly trying to predict where the next flight or throw will
emergefrom .At the conclusion of this number some audience members
leapt to their feet with applause. (Personally I was excited and
enamored enough to contemplate reaching for my phone to text my friend
to immediately get on a train and see the show.)
You then find yourself calming through a couple of understated
character building numbers before falling into a lengthy night club
scene (Act I, Scene 4: "Cafe") where the first introduction of Indigo
takes place. Ruby embodies the classic night club singer accompanied
by Joey, her understated love-in-waiting composer piano player. The
number is a bit flat at first with expectations building toward a wow
that just never comes. It is full of life and dancing, just with
limited perk (and some odd set pieces that don't seem to play a role
in the number.) Then it's on to "Closing Time" (Act 1, Scene 5), a
street scene which simply wows. Cast members run and rotate around
street lamps, then climb and slide down them, HEAD FIRST!
Next comes "Filmstrip" (Act 1, Scene 6), a reinvigorated rewind'
scene (IRIS 2.0) where seven dressing rooms appear across the stage as
props to set up a heavily choreographed human reenactment of a film
strip. This eventually leads through "Screen Test" (Act 1, Scene 7), a
reproduction of classic on-camera test scenes shot with characters.
Here AJ asks Indigo to provide emotion and depth to her scene, to
which she, being inexperienced, has no emotional connection to the
given lines. She's then asked to draw upon other life experiences.
Thereafter follows "The Night Before The First Day Of Filming" (Act 1,
Scene 8), which leads you through building the underlying thread of
the show, the relationships between the characters, and sets the stage
for the perilous dichotomy of fame, fortune, and love. And then "Movie
Posters" (Act 1, Scene 9) - a number that fell flat with me, although
others seemed to enjoy it. It fleetingly attempts to recreate live
versions of storied movie posters. The cast sets up in front of
cameras and a green screen in an attempt to recreate exact positions
for movie poster art. Marks are found, positions secured, a live
picture is taken which then dissolves into the famed movie poster. For
some it works, for others, it's either too long or forced.
The last active number in the first act is "Cleopatra" (Act 1, Scene
10), a full cast dance number thematically following familiar Egyptian
movie reenactments. The cast is in period dress with shockingly
brilliant set design. The dance number ends when Kevin and Andi
Atherton - flyers extraordinaire - who come center stage and take
flight into and well above the audience (out to about Row P). This is
clearly their best work ever, quite literally the pinnacle of their
career. They appear to go through 4 sets of straps throughout the
number; Awe-inspiring is an understatement! The only detraction I
found to their act was their costumes - they're armless half-body
white tunics. While they're initially consistent in theme to the
ending of the "Cleopatra" dance number, seeing how far afield the rest
of the production goes at times, it would have been nice for their
costuming to strike out from the number and place focus where it
should be... on the artistry of flight. Otherwise, it's hard to
imagine them creating a better performance, just hands down great,
which leads to a standing ovation. A heart rending act closing (Act 1,
Scene 11: "Calamity Jane") number has Indigo torn between glitzy AJ
and her pining love Joey and then the curtain drops to end the first
half of the show. (And the company receives another standing
ovation!)
The second act begins after a 20 minute intermission.
We open with "The Dream" (Act II, Scene 1) - a dream/nightmare
sequence with exceptionally distracting music and visual overlays that
last well past need. This act sets the stage for our characters
meteoric rise to fame and fortune, as well as underlying contractual
obligations (Act II, Scene 2: "The Director's Office"). The fraught
relationship and unrequited love between Singer and Composer takes
shape as the fame hungry movie producer seems to set his hooks into
his red haired trophy. The relationship between the three characters
is artistically well interpreted in the next number "Hand-To-Trap"
(Act II, Scene 3). This is full on Cirque to its core. The three main
characters are artistically represented by flyers, trapeze artists.
The love, disinterest, compassion, power and envelopment are all
expressed in dance fleeting grasps fingertip embraces. The number
culminates in Indigo's' head first dive from trapeze into the waiting
arms of Joey. This dive took my breath away! Yet another rising
applause point for the audience.
The remaining fill numbers are adequate (Act II, Scene 4: "The
Director's Office 2"; Scene 5: "On The Set 2"; and Scene 6: "Hollywood
Buzz") with the exception of "Press Conference/Dressing Room" (Act II,
Scene 7). This number returns us to the show's opening. AJ is on a
press podium addressing questions from newsies and photographers
below. He excludes Hollywood in every sense - power, glitz, glamour,
style, and accomplishment. As each question is offered (sometimes
difficult to understand as the backs of the cast are to the audience,
with the exception of AJ's), a forced laugh line is inserted. This
recurrent HA-HA-HA-HA-HA is repeated 6 to 8 times. And after the first
two it becomes a bit monotonous and grating. In order to carry the
story line to its culminating form (a placed love/power struggle),
they needed such a transition, but its implementation leaves much to
be desired.
This brings me to near end of the show with the biggest staging of the
night "New York City Rooftops" (Act II, Scene 8). The storyline has
developed to a point where true love triumphs over fame hungry evil.
Fame is diminished and tries to strike back at love. An epic chase
scene takes place with fames muscle trying to take back the lost'
love of Indigo. A three storey set is constructed to represent NY
rooftops complete with water tower, neon signs a flag pole and fire
escapes. Trampolines are secreted within one of the roof tops and used
in an epic chase. Athletically the number works... well, slightly. You
find yourself entertained by the action; swings from props and
trampoline work. Unfortunately, the number is a miss to this reviewer.
It misses on execution and continuity. I'd put it in the "needs
further development" category. It's certainly action packed, in fits
and starts, but otherwise...
And no, I won't spoil the show's ending. So I'll stop right here!
The show I attended was its second full run through. The first being a
closed showing the night before, in front of family and friends. The
show ran long, 2:45 and started 15 minutes late (after encouragement'
by the NY audience.) As the curtain dropped at finale those in
attendance (including Guy Laliberte) jumped to their feet including
myself - in an extensive standing ovation. As the next weeks prior to
its scheduled May 25thopening progress, the show will tighten up as
the cast gets comfortable working together. The show should coalesce
nicely, with some hopefully sizable reconstruction. I'd say the show
was about 70% there. Go, enjoy it. It's possibly one of Cirque's best
Great White Way offerings.
------------------------------------------------------------
"JOYA, A Night in the Mayan Jungle"
A Special to the Fascination! Newsletter
-----------------------------------------------------------
Amelia (@xameliax) is a 27 year old luxury lifestyle blogger from the
Midlands. On her blog you'll find a mixture of everything from beauty
reviews to recipes, beautiful places to visit and stay, wearable
style, restaurant recommendations, lifestyle articles and more. A
couple of weeks ago she and her husband Joe took a trip to Riviera
Maya in Mexico for a week of luxury. While they were there Cirque du
Soleil invited them over to see JOYA (in exchange for an honest review
of their experience) for an evening they deemed as a Theatrical &
Culinary Intimate Experience
and that it was.
# # #
We've seen Cirque Du Soleil once before when they visited the UK last
year with Kooza. We travelled down to London to see them perform at
The Royal Albert Hall and it was honestly one of the most magical and
breathtaking pieces of theatre I have ever seen. We felt as if we'd
stumbled into a mysterious big top and experienced something secret
leaving awed and amazed at the sheer skill and beauty of the circus.
As you can imagine we were incredibly excited to see them again
especially in a residency performance and with a three course meal
with champagne beforehand too! We had no idea what to expect when our
taxi pulled up to the front of a magnificent mangrove jungle that
housed the big top and a series of wooden bridges.
There is a bar at the bottom where you can sit and enjoy a drink
before the show in the Mexican sunset and it was quite simply lovely.
We were booked in for the Dinner & Champagne package at 6pm (show
starting at 7pm) so we went straight up to the big top and stepped
into the magical world of JOYA.
Inside the big top is truly wondrous. Bathed in blue light with
jellyfish shaped lights on the ceilings and walls covered in books, it
really gets your mind whirring as to what's in store! We were led to
our table just a few rows back form the stage which is set in the
round and settled in listening to the live band serenading us
throughout dinner. If you don't fancy eating (although I'd highly
recommend you do) there are stools on the higher rows for those
wishing to watch the show and not enjoy the culinary part.
Ok, let's talk about the food. Everything apart from the glasses and
dinnerware is edible
even the menu!!! This is some serious Heston
Blumenthal stuff going on here. There were two choices for main beef
and fish (with a vegetarian option on request I'm sure as nothing was
too much trouble) and a set starter and desert. There was an ice cold
bottle of Mercier champagne waiting for us too which surprised me
maybe it's because all my experience of Champagne on holiday (apart
from in the south of France) has consisted of sweet sparkling wine
pretending to be the good stuff but I just wasn't expecting real
Champagne or incredible food for that matter. Oh how wrong I was.
I won't spoil the surprise of what exactly was on our plates as I'm
not sure how often they change their menus but it was all spectacular.
Perfectly cooked fish, melt in the mouth sticky slow cooked meat and
beautifully fresh accompaniments this is some seriously good food
guys and well worth the extra $'s on your ticket. All enjoyed with
your champagne and the band playing away on stage, such a lovely
atmosphere.
Desert came served in a book. Yes a book. With a selection of sweet
things perfect for any palette and it was totally delicious. We felt
like kids in a sweet shop with so much thought going into the food and
presentation. I can't stress enough how worth it' the meal and
champagne package is we loved every mouthful and sipped on the
second half of our bottle as the show began.
JOYA is a light-hearted journey into the Mayan Jungle with animals and
creatures from land, air and sea and it truly takes you on a ride.
There is storytelling, audience interaction and of course amazing
feats of strength, acrobatics and skill -and it's funny too! A lot
more light-hearted than our previous Cirque Du Soleil experience
(Kooza) which was more mystical than comical, JOYA is fun for all the
family and if you're in one of the best' table seats you're in for a
real treat. There weren't as many tricks in JOYA as I've seen in other
shows but there were enough to make you sit with your mouth wide open
in total awe of what's happening in front of you! The band and
vocalists were out of this world and it was just wonderful.
I don't like to give too much away about productions like this what
happens in the big top stays in the big top but I can say it's a
fantastic show and an absolute must if you're in Riviera Maya or
Cancun.
When the performance is over you're led out into the gift shop where
you can buy all sorts of gifts to commemorate your evening at the
circus I was actually tempted by one of their beautiful tropical
looking scarves. Our hotel arranged a taxi for us and it was around 40
minutes to the big top, when we finished our driver was there waiting
safe and sound and all for £35 return. We honestly had one of the most
incredible evenings we've had so far on a holiday and JOYA is a real
wonder.
JOYA runs Tuesday-Saturday with various show times and tickets
starting from just $77 USD. Our showing was full so I'd say it's worth
booking in advance.
# # #
Check out Amelia's blog (with pictures!) here:
http://www.xameliax.com/joya-cirque-du-soleil-mexico/
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COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER
=======================================================================
Fascination! Newsletter
Volume 16, Number 5 (Issue #148) - May 2016
"Fascination! Newsletter" is a concept by Ricky Russo. Copyright (C)
2001-2016 Ricky Russo, published by Vortex/RGR Productions, a
subsidiary of Communicore Enterprises. No portion of this newsletter
can be reproduced, published in any form or forum, quoted or
translated without the consent of the "Fascination! Newsletter." By
sending us correspondence, you give us permission (unless otherwise
noted) to use the submission as we see fit, without remuneration. All
submissions become the property of the "Fascination! Newsletter."
"Fascination! Newsletter" is not affiliated in any way with Cirque du
Soleil. Cirque du Soleil and all its creations are Copyright (C) and
are registered trademarks (TM) of Cirque du Soleil, Inc., and
Créations Méandres, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No copyright
infringement intended.
{ May.10.2016 }
=======================================================================
