When Cirque du Soleil Met Theater - ‘Shpeel’ Failure

NYTimes.com: Less than six weeks after opening in New York, “Banana Shpeel” — the latest high-budget, high-profile show from Cirque du Soleil — is scheduled to close on Sunday. For Cirque, the show was supposed to be another milestone: a production that could compete artistically and commercially with Broadway, blending signature Cirque acrobatics and clowns with elements of vaudeville, dance and musical theater. Instead “Banana Shpeel” will go down as one of the most frustrating failures in Cirque’s history.