Friday, September 09, 2011
Cirque du Soleil: A global sensation
Variety: Even by the Cirque du Soleil's overachieving standards, this has been an exceptionally busy year.The innovative Montreal-based circus is premiering three shows in North America in the space of six months, a first for the Cirque. "Zarkana," written and directed by Montreal filmmaker Francois Girard, made its bow at Radio City Music Hall in late June, and is off to Madrid and then the fabled Kremlin Theater in Moscow.
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5 comments:
It feels like cirque has been around for ages (which it has) but the number of shows that they have been producing each year keeps growing which is great for the industry. Cirque leads a lot of the innovation in our industry and not to mention the jobs the company creates. It is great to see so much interest in this unique type of theatre.
Cirque has had many successes with its existing model, and this new model of show has proven viable thus far. The Kodak and Radio City each have their unique challenges: IRIS must load-out for the Oscars each year, and Zarkana was not allowed to make any alterations to Radio City because of its landmark status. The amount of time and effort put into each of these shows far exceeds what is typical for Broadway and other commercial theaters (3 years of training, two months of tech, and $120M as opposed to 8 weeks of rehearsal, two weeks of tech, and $25M), and are both able to accomodate larger audiences at each performance than the typical Broadway theater. The structural design of Zarkana and the scale necessary to energize such large space, and the use of media on IRIS are examples of innovations made by Cirque from which the rest of the industry will benefit.
I hope to see the Michael Jackson show when it comes to Pittsburgh next year.
I think Cirque's success is a big testament to people's desire to explore unique forms of entertainment. There's no other form of theatre that is quite like the Cirque model. This article was written before a bit of sad news came for Cirque, as their resident show in Tokyo, "ZED" will be closing at the end of the year. Cirque's partner on ZED decided to pull out it's financial backing of the show after the extreme drop in tourism in Japan after the earthquake in Japan. It goes to show that even the largest, most successful companies in this business are not impervious to being affected by outside issues and a loss of financial support from others. Nonetheless, I am so pleased that Cirque is expanding its market. The people of Cirque have so much creativity and talent to share with the world. (Really quickly, I just want to say that I was so annoyed by this author saying, "the Cirque"!)
Cirque seems to have over the years acquired a individuality that puts them apart from other forms of live entertainment. It truly succeeds where traditional theatre many times fails. They have the ability to sell the atmosphere and the experience just as much as their content. Many consumers look at theatre and think they can watch the movie instead, or a concert you can watch the DVD. Cirque has gained a reputation for not being able to be captured on film. I also believe that the success of Cirque should be attributed to their marketing and publicity departments. They get news of their shows into major outlets and many times get articles about the new and exciting show they are putting on. Cirque's success can also be attributed to the true collaboration between creative and production. The creative team is allowed artistic freedom and the production team is allowed the resources to make even the most ridiculous artistic dream a reality. They also are involved in one of the markets that is based solely on spectacle, Las Vegas.
The depth and breath which Cirque incorporates allows the individuals to be drawn into all their production and drawn into them as a company. Cirque is an excellent example of commercial theatre that is truly invested in the works they do. As the company grows they are changing the way in which large scale performances are viewed. The amount of productions they produce at such a large scale have pioneered an ever expanding corporation. The commitment to having ever adpating circus works and committing to a vision is something that is great that this idea is being shared all over the globe.
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