Variety: Even the slickest tightrope walker loses their balance sometimes, and 2012 will go down as the year when blockbuster spectacle-peddler Cirque du Soleil found itself on a very slippery downward slide for the first time in its 28 year history.
On Jan. 16, the company announced it was laying off 400 of their 5,000 world-wide employees, most of them coming from the head office in Montreal.
8 comments:
Wow, was I unaware of the humble beginnings of Cirque! I like hearing that small companies with a passion for what they were doing making it so far in where they are today. However, it looks like, in Cirque's case, that the passion has perhaps turned a little overzealous. It's a shame to see such a successful company go start to fumble over something like trying to spread themselves too thin. I think part of being a good troupe or company is knowing your limits and what you can do to make those limits spectacular, which Cirque was able to do for awhile. I'm glad they're trying to keep it original with new shows, but maybe in producing so many new works they are in fact having a reverse effect on their own originality.
Cirque's problem lies in their amazing shows. The problem is that, I think, people on a tighter budget don't feel you need to see cirque shows. They're all amazing, but often in the same way. So 30 years of the same show is bound to get boring to the same(ish) audience! Cirque should branch out (I can't imagine Worlds away didn't help!)
I love cirque, most people love cirque, but their recent ventures into celebrity based acts just hasn't appealed to me. I can only assume that a good number of other people feel the same. I cant personally explain why those shows aren't as appealing because they are most likely and the same production quality as the other cirque shows. I have no worries of cirque going bankrupt but perhaps they should focus more on existing shows before starting up even more new ones.
Most companies are laying off people and Cirque clearly isn't immune to this. I wonder who they are laying off from Montreal, whether many lower level employees or middle and upper. It's probably many of the lower and a couple upper. I watched a Cirque show last year and while I was in the audience I couldn't help but wonder what their profits were like. Especially since the show I was at was not sold out, it was probably about 3/4's full and I think one scheduled show was cancelled completely. Nevertheless companies must do what they need to in order to survive and that is what Cirque is doing. Unfortunately that means laying off employees that they may not need as well as re-evaluating some of their production ideas.
I think that one avenue that Cirque should look into is touring in many different regions. Cirque may be at the stage where it can only survive in Vegas, once a year in New York, or every other year and just tour in other countries - Europe, the Caribbean, Japan, etc. They probably need to also develop new interesting productions which continue to push the envelope but are also easy to tour.
Im sad to see such a fantastic company struggling. I saw Cirque in Pittsburgh when I was little and fell in love. Ive since seen them in Las Vegas and in Montreal. I though each show was phenomenal but I also have not seen any of their recent stuff. As Hunter said I too wasn't that interested in seeing their new celebrity based shows. But its sounds a lot like their leader Guy Liliberte is not really helping matters. I hope they come back from this.
I'm also sad to hear that this is happening... at the same time with shows as complex as cirque cost is very high. Lady Gaga ran into a similar problem with her tour of Fame Monster with all the special effects the cost of tickets were getting so high fewer people could afford to see the shows. I think cirque did the right thing in laying people off. It is unfortunate that people lost their jobs but if that is what they had to do to keep afloat it is the best thing for them.
one of the issues addressed her as a stupid cause to the downfall of iris was the lack of affordable parking. it seems surprising that a company like cirque with the resources its had didnt spend the money to make such an accomodation for its audience that they already had a hard time trying to get to the theatre to see this show. This article seems to put some blame on Cirque's infatuation with celebrity based shows. Micheal Jackson the immortal world tour is doing incredibly well and set to continue into 2014.
I have no doubt in my mind that Cirque will continue as a successful business. Fiscally, I'm sure in the long run they'll have nothing to worry about. The issue I find here is trying to overextend creativity in a short period of time for more money. What happens then, is half-baked ideas and creativity to an extent. I think Cirque has fantastic material and each show takes some serious time to become the well-thought out and precise shows they produce. If they take it easy, slow down a bit, and spend a little more time creating more well thought out show concepts, they'll be just fine.
Post a Comment