And perhaps the last with Cirque du Soleil as an independent company. What am I talking about? It all started on Wednesday, March 25th with a blurb from the Globe and Mail. In it the paper suggested the sale of Quebec’s famed Cirque du Soleil was moving into the final stages, with bidders given until the following week to submit offers to a acquire a controlling stake in the company.
3 comments:
I never would image a company like Cirque du Soleil to be in a bad place. Now I understand why they decided to team up with NBC to create a Live Broadcast of The Wiz. I just remember thinking that doing this broadcast seemed way out of Cirque's element. But now I understand. And to see the lengths that companies would go to to acquire the amount of money they need to succeed is very interesting. And this wasn't a huge step for this company to make, however it is a step in allowing to keep this company on it's feet. But I would never guess that Cirque would be here because of how successful they are now and how many people rant about being a part of their company. So this was a huge surprise to me that broadened my view on big companies and what they have to go through to stay in tact.
I don’t understand much financial vernacular, but what I got from this article is that the chief owner of Crique is selling all but 10% of his current ownership to investors. Does this mean the investors have a say in the actual content of Cirque shows? I hope not, because that would be downright awful. The allure of Cirque shows is that they hold a mystery and artistry to them that can only be perfected and imagined without some money-powered financier breathing down the creative directors’ necks. Also, if Cirque has been self-operated fo almost 30 years, why are they selling out now? Everyone loves Cirque shows or at least some aspect of them, so why do they feel the need stop sell to investors? Why not pass the company along if Laliberté doesn’t want to manage it anymore? I’m sure that he has someone just as passionate about Cirque works closely with him.
I'm still relatively worried about this transition for Cirque. While I do agree that the company and creative work as a whole could definitely use some revitalization, there is some real risk being taken in terms of tarnishing the Cirque name. Just on the basis that they're choosing to do The Wiz is a real risk, just because they could either be making too much of a statement or not enough of a statement. Based on Cirque's relative absence from social commentary involvement in their productions, i'm going to assume that the NBC production will be composed almost entirely of pure spectacle, which is very dangerous to do when you take a show like The Wiz given the current social and historical context of being at a real crossroads in human rights. However, I really wouldn't expect anything less from them. They do spectacle, they've always done spectacle, and will likely always focus on spectacle. At the same time, they should have perhaps chosen a show that was maybe more conducive to to that style.
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