Backstage: "Canadian circus company Cirque du Soleil will invest a record $57 million in a new show in Moscow next year to test the ground before launching a permanent show in Russia by 2015, its president said Monday.
'Zarkana' is Cirque du Soleil's first new show in Russia and will be the most expensive non-permanent show the company has ever made to date, Daniel Lamarre told reporters.
4 comments:
This is somewhat astonishing that they are doing a test that costs $57 million. With this show only running for 9 weeks in one location I wonder where it is moving to next test the Russian market. I wish that I had $57 million to do a test and just see if it works. With it being the largest budget for this type of show I wonder what they are going to be doing with that money. I am sure that it will involve a large amount of new technology and things that have never been seen before. It seems that Cirque de Soleil has been doing a lot of these type of test shows. This show will be interesting to follow to see if it works as they want it to.
Russia is an excellent market to shoot for. This could really pay off for Cirque, or be overkill. Russia is very strong in its arts and bringing a permanent show to the country would be a great way for Cirque to expand. It will be interesting to see the show and see how it progresses, especially since it is the most expensive. Hopefully it will out do the others and bring in a lot of revenue. It almost seems like they should put the show on for longer just incase there is an initial interest that soon dies down.
I think this will definitely be an interesting thing to follow. With such a global expansion over the past decade, I think that "Cirque du Soleil" definitely has the potential to be a household name.
I also do find it interesting that the article reads as if Zarkana is premiering in Russia first, since I thought Zarkana is going to be premiering in New York this summer, and kicking Tony Awards out of Radio City Music Hall this year as part of that process... I've personally never seen a non-resident Cirque show, so I'm very curious what a "record"-breaking touring show will entail, and if it is anywhere on par with some of the more elaborate resident shows.
It seems to me that Russia, like AJ said, would be an excellent market for Cirque. The article even noted that one fifth of Cirque's performers are from Russia and that the Russian community "gets" Cirque. I'm confused about why the $57 million is going into a test show. If the show is successful, will that money have basically been put into developing a new show in Russia? What happens if it is less successful? Does $57 million go down the drain in nine weeks? It seems a bit much, but, then again, it's Cirque. Cirque has been able to appeal to various audiences and seems to put its money to good use. Nonetheless, I'm figured intrigued to find out if this Russian Cirque show will continue on past its initial nine weeks.
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