The Greatest (New) Show On Earth Hits TownBy Phil Drew The Record Chuck Wagner took an interview concerning the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus on his cell phone while climbing the hillside at the National Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia, a dramatic structure in sight of the Potomac. “What is this supposed to look like, the Pharos Lighthouse?” Yes, the tower before him is a replica of one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World. “I’ve always wanted to check this out,” continued Wagner. “My grandfather was a Mason, and I’m kind of excited to see it.” Is this traveling-with-the-circus a cool gig or what? Wagner is now in his first national tour as ringmaster of the all-new Ringling Brothers production currently visiting the eastern seaboard, including this weekend’s stop at Albany’s Times-Union Center. “One of the things that makes Ringling Brothers fantastic is, it’s the last of the great Barnum-style circuses,” Wagner said. “We all live on board the train like we’re our own little city, and our little train goes everywhere. Every two-year tour is a 40-city tour, and they’ve got it down to a routine. “ And because I’m the ringmaster, I’ve got a really nice suite on the train. It’s not exactly the Jim West, ‘Wild Wild West’ car, but it’s really comfortable. And how many people get to say they’ve seen the country by train?” Sure it beats a bus – a mode of transport with which Wagner is quite familiar. Wagner’s ticket to ride with The Greatest Show On Earth was punched along an unusual path for a circus performer – the Great White Way. Wagner has spent the better part of two decades as an actor, including Broadway roles in such high-profile musicals as “The Three Musketeers,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Les Miserables,” “Jekyll & Hyde” and “Into The Woods.” He’s done numerous first-run national tours of some of those, and others. A circus is not that big a leap from all of that, he maintains: “Heck, a Broadway show on a national tour is always a little like running away from home to join the circus anyway.” His selection to headline the current national tour, dubbed “Circus of Dreams,” instead of a traditional-circus performer as ringmaster, reflects the evolution of the circus format in the age of digital multi-media and the ever-shorter popular attention span. A few years back, Ringling Brothers producer Feld Entertainment began adding such elements to its three-ring extravaganza as the “Backstage Pass,” a behind-the-scenes pre-show, and huge opening and closing productions, replete with Broadway-style musical numbers. Now, “Circus of Dreams” has exploded even that format with what Feld touts as the biggest changes in 50 years. Onetime American Idol contestant Jennifer Fuentes is now at the mike for the big production number, giving the whole affair some pop-cultural cachet. A 25-foot video screen has joined the low-tech wonders of the center ring, the better to display close-up images from an array of live cameras around the arena floor. Instead of the diverse and diverted thrills of three rings, the arena is “now one large playing space, allowing each act to be appreciated on its own, in sharp focus,” noted Wagner. Shortly after Fuentes as master of ceremonies kicks off the proceedings, she selects from the audience a “family” who will see their dream of being part of the circus come vicariously to life. A mother who dreams of being an aerialist; a daughter yearning to dance; a young boy who quickly joins a foot-juggling troupe, and morphs eventually into the King of the Circus; and dad – Wagner. “I want to be one of those Barnumesque, bombastic ringmasters, kind of the cheerleader for the whole proceedings,” he said. “I play it very broadly, to reach 15,000 people. I get to be in the circus and at the circus at the same time. The show is played out along a story line, a very simple storyline. But instead of being a rich, deep pathos ride of human emotions, it’s basically an all-happy experience, and I basically play myself.” And how. “It’s not a stretch for me,” he said. “The delight of coming to the circus is something I truly share with the audience. If you come to it with the eyes of a child, it’s still the Greatest Show On Earth that everyone has come to expect.” He has a historian’s long view of the importance of keeping the circus alive. “It will continue to live in the future, not just be bones in the future, if we continue to breathe new life into it, if we can help to make it sing,” he said. It’s a long way from Pensacola, Florida, where Wagner now makes his home with his wife, Susan, who’s pursuing a master’s degree in psychology, while his own grown children are off at college. (or finishing high school.) He’s having a ball: “I love playing to these huge crowds. I come from old-school Broadway, playing to the back of the house. To play places like Salt Lake City’s Delta Center (in Utah) or Madison Square Garden, they’re huge. It’s like playing the Roman Coliseum.” Well into his two-year commitment to the circus, he is in negotiations for another tour after this one, although he hasn’t completely sworn off Broadway. “Theater has been very, very good to me,” he said. “I’ve been lucky to ride with some very successful shows. Now that the business has begun to slow down for me, the Great Architect has granted me the gift of connection to the Felds.” His use of the Masons’ term for the Almighty is apt, given the hilltop on which he now stood, cell-phone in hand, surveying the Virginia countryside - one of the many sights Wagner will see of this magical train-ride running away with the circus. “I’ve been working for 20-plus years on the stage, but I feel like a kid at the candy store,” he said. “My best adventures are still ahead of me.” Printed in the Troy Record April 26, 2007 |
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All clowning aside, it's truly a ringless circus BY STEVE PARKS March 13, 2006 Sounds like a law firm, if we didn't know better. All the above partners - P.T. Barnum, James Bailey and the Ringling brothers - were around the last time the circus that bears their names dared to open in New York with fewer than three rings. Unless you count the upscale "Barnum's Kaleidoscope" that played Bryant Park in 2000. But unlike that one-ring circus, this edition, following 125 three-ringers since 1880, has no rings. As directed by Emmy winner Shanda Sawyer and costumed by Oscar winner ("Memoirs of a Geisha") Colleen Atwood, the new Ringling attempts a storyline. You could call it a theater in the half-round performance of "The Steroid Menagerie." The animal rights folks were out in force, distributing flyers with photos of elephants in chains. Ringling countered with videos of talking pachyderms. (There's a major video component to this circus.) But judging from the applause elephants get, Ringling will persist in the "animal conservation" business. The "Circus of Dreams" plot of this ringless Ringling emphasizes family values. "Volunteers" are plucked from the audience by Jennifer Fuentes, an "American Idol" alum with pipes (yet who only made it to the top 30 in the year of Ruben Studdard). She asks mom and dad and their progeny what circus role they dreamed of running away to. Dad (Chuck Wagner) wants to be ringmaster, turning fathers everywhere into anachronisms. (We wonder what Kenneth Feld makes of that, since this show is the brainchild of his co-producer daughter, Nicole.) Mom (Gisela Riquelme) wants to be an aerialist so she can wear skimpy outfits and soar above it all. Daughter Jan wants to be a circus dancer. (She gets a pie in the face during the clown food fight.) But brother Dan thinks he's too little to run away. And while he shows interest in animal training - assisting Svetlana Shamsheeva in her awww-inspiring birds, cats and dogs show - and nimbleness in acrobatics, he refuses to commit. On Dan's journey, we meet some wacky talents. Herkules catches cannonballs with his bare hands. The Yunnan Flyers swing from the floor into soaring trapeze catches. But no act better demonstrates the distance from three to zero rings than the Igor Kassaev Cossacks, equestrian acrobats whose steeds gallop at near-top speed as opposed to an accelerated canter inside a ring. When Dan achieves his dream, he demands an upside-down walk on the ceiling. Wellington "Super" Silva obliges by hanging 25 feet above the arena floor. The ringless Ringling still is a circus with greatest-show-on-earth pretensions. But the father-knows-best theme takes the edge off the vagabond freak show that's always been part of its hyperbole. Circus as family sitcom? Despite its garish dare-deviltry, this edition is too homey an escape to lure runaways. Dream on, Danny. RINGLING BROS. AND BARNUM & BAILEY. 136th edition. Nassau Coliseum tomorrow-Sunday; Madison Square Garden March 23-27, April 1-17. Seen Friday at Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, N.J. |
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New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com Circus minimus Friday, March 24th, 2006 Ladies and gentlemen and children of all ages: Step right up and gaze at a sight never before witnessed by human eyes! Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is at Madison Square Garden with not three, not two, no, not even one single solitary ring! Stripped of its rings, the circus is presented in an open space, framed on one end by a banked semi-circle. The new setting has all the charm of a warehouse and tends to swallow up the acts. Perhaps to counter this, a hanging 24-foot circular TV screen projects closeups of the performers. The camerawork and picture quality are excellent, but doesn't this defeat the whole purpose of eliminating distractions? Ringling Bros. gets into real trouble by overlaying a fantasy story line on the whole package. A "family" of four is plucked from the crowd to live out their circus dreams, but it is immediately apparent they're all ringers. That leaves us with professionals portraying amateurs aspiring to be professionals! Not all is lost. The unimpeded floor plan frees the Kassaev Cossacks to gallop about on horses. The soaring Yunnan Flyers live up to their name. The swarming hornet's nest of seven motorcyclists buzzing inside the Globe of Death still amazes. And animal trainer Madame Shamsheeva does the seemingly impossible: She gets kitty cats to obey her commands and interact peacefully with dogs and birds. Still, she's a slight successor to Gunther Goebel-Williams, who once tamed the big cats. But that was a different circus. For tickets, call (212) 307-7171. Phil Cornell Originally published on March 24, 2006 |
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Circus Review Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus Play Madison Square Garden By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN It takes a peculiar sort of ambition to want to catch a 70-pound cannonball being propelled at your rib cage at 75 miles an hour. Or to teach three Doberman pinschers to dance on their hind legs. Or to lower yourself under the belly of a horse as it gallops around a ring. Or to ride a motorcycle at 50 miles an hour, circling inside a 16-foot-diameter sphere, four inches away from six other racing cyclists. Maybe it even takes a peculiar sort of ambition to want to watch these things. But watching — which can be done now at Madison Square Garden at the 136th edition of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus — is also peculiarly satisfying and entertaining. This is no longer the "greatest show on earth," as the trademarked line has it. How could it be, given how much smaller the earth has become and how much showier its entertainments? In Las Vegas, the stage set alone for Cirque du Soleil's astonishing "KÀ" turns that recent arrival into a compelling contender for the hyperbolic title. And every day, more amazing things are shown on varied tubes and screens, unconstrained by known physical laws or traditional notions of taste. But in a Sunday afternoon performance, the old Barnumesque hype ("The strongest man in the world," heralded the Ringmaster about Herkules, "watch and be amazed!") just added to the charm. At its best, this circus — produced by Kenneth Feld and Nicole Feld, his daughter, and directed and written by Shanda Sawyer — has stepped back from hyped-up techno fantasies, from the aesthetic ambitions of competitors and from the traditions of this particular company, which once made its reputation by piling spectacle upon spectacle in multiple rings of risk and display. For the first time since 1880, when Barnum and Bailey joined forces and kept trying to trump themselves, this is not a three-ring circus but a one-ring show, with the semblance of a plot.
That is welcome. It genuflects a little too readily to the culture of video — a 24-foot-wide screen broadcasts the acts as they take place and tritely adds talking elephants and special-effects vignettes to the mix. Even the main singing star, Jennifer Fuentes, got her start on "American Idol." But the set design and the acts themselves are meant to invoke the old culture of the big top, with wagons and banners and elephants and acrobats and jugglers and dare-devil escapades; one hour before each show, all ticketholders are invited to meet members of the cast, and some animals, in the main arena. (Incidentally, there have been some complaints about sightlines from seats on the main floor.)
The plot also reaches back to the mythology of circus life: a family that has always dreamed of being in the circus is selected from the audience. Dad becomes the Ringmaster (Chuck Wagner), Mom becomes a trapeze artist (Gisela Riquelme), their daughter, Jan (Lucilene Correa), turns dancer, and their son, Dan (played by both Ruirui Zhu and Dashan Hou), is seeking his special role. Essentially, the entire family runs away and joins the circus.
It turns out, of course, that they are all pros. But this mythology is one of the intriguing things about circuses and their reputations: these traveling shows (this one is in the middle of a two-year, 80-city North American tour) have traditionally promised the excitement of circus life to anybody en route. A circus is a lure, offering a trapeze ring for the congenitally mundane, enticing inhabitants of ordinary life with a glimpse of reckless possibility. Once the circus was the only show in town, though now such lures are widely available.
The biographies of some of this circus's stars show the power of these lures. Herkules, the "world's strongest man," was once a 90-pound weakling, Joszef Pakucza, an engineering student in his native Bekescsaba, Hungary. The son of a local policeman, Mr. Pakucza taught mathematics and physics before realizing he could apply his knowledge of levers and weights to catching cannonballs and surviving a Jeep driving over his midriff. In Lipetsk, Russia, Madame Shamsheeva (a k a Svetlana Shamsheeva) placated her parents by studying economics at night but loved animals so much that she worked at a zoo full time. She now trains 13 dogs, 14 cats and more than 50 birds. And the Shenzhen Acrobatic Troupe is a product of contemporary Chinese flirtations with capitalism, its 16 young men and two young women (ages 9 to 23) privately sponsored in a city that is one of the nation's new high-tech centers. But watching these people in action we see there is nothing ordinary about them. What does it take to do these feats? Consider just the animals. Anxious about contemporary concerns for their treatment, the circus makes a point of its compassionate approach, even describing elephants' tricks as being "natural." But that's the key to the circus: while we are seduced into seeing everything as natural and easy — whether it involves juggling hats or riding two horses simultaneously by standing on their backs — actually, what we are seeing is something radically unnatural, something that would not happen without lifetimes of obsessive training. It is not the ordinary family who escapes into the circus; it is the exceptional, the extraordinary, the bizarre, the startling. Circuses once displayed freaks partly because freakishness of ability and accomplishment is one of the circus's features, like dogs walking on their hind legs, or acrobats hanging from the ceiling, or elephants dancing. There is always an aura of discomfort and the forbidden about the circus, which the old freak side shows turned into a fetish. Perhaps the performing family is central to circus traditions because only with that kind of generational experience does the odd really come to seem natural. The motorcyclists racing in that small sphere are part of the Torres Family — five brothers and three cousins from Paraguay. A Brazilian acrobat, Wellington Silva ("Super Silva"), is the child of a clown and a dancer; his sons are following his example and becoming trapeze artists. But don't try this at home, kids: the tricks the Kassaev Cossacks do on horseback are based on traditional Cossack cavalry maneuvers and come from a people who lived as they fought: on horseback. In one of the best acts, the Yunnan Flyers, an acrobatic troupe from China, leap off swinging platforms, making their muscular twists and airborne somersaults seem both thoroughly natural and completely beyond ordinary experience. Sometimes this circus is a little antiseptic. (Where are the dangerous lions and tigers?) But when it works, as it so often does, you are precariously balanced between two worlds: the natural and the freakish; the expected and the bizarre. We want to be taken in by the illusions and live in both worlds at once. During rare moments when something goes slightly awry, we become aware of our wish: a bird refuses to cooperate with its mistress, a Cossack seems to lose poise in a maneuver, inadvertently showing just how dangerous it is. No problem. We would like infallibility but are comforted by frailty. Other flaws are more unsettling though, particularly in the clown work, which was almost all formulaic, plastic and predictable. (A staged food fight would have been far more amusing had there really been ketchup in that giant tube). Clowns should upset the precarious balance of the circus with hilarity. The only risk here was that they would show just how ordinary a thing the circus is — when that isn't the case at all.
Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus will appear through April 17 at Madison Square Garden;(212) 465-6741. It then travels to Hartford,Philadelphia and Providence, R.I. Copyright 2006The New York Times Company |
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No rings and no stripes, yet it's still a great show
BY JANET CAGGIANO Cheryl Miles walked into the Richmond Coliseum last night for the opening performance of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus expecting to see some stripes. So was her 4-year-old cousin, Eunique Lawson. Both were disappointed. "I told him we were going to see the tigers," Miles said. "Oh, no! I can't believe they aren't here!" For the first time in 50 years, Ringling Bros. is undergoing major changes. Gone is the three-ring circus, replaced with an open arena and a jumbo video screen. And, to the surprise and disappointment of some, no more tigers. "The tigers were the best part!" said 15-year-old Megan Lewis as she visited a concession stand between acts. "But this is still fun. There's so much to see." But is it still the Greatest Show on Earth? "I haven't been to the circus since I was a child, and this is way different," said Amanda Goodrich, who brought her 2-year-old daughter, Maggie, to last night's show. "But I like it better. It feels more updated. It's not like an old-time circus anymore. It's sleek looking." The costumes have been updated to a more contemporary look, from strapless dresses to shiny vests. And for the first time, Ringling Bros. weaves a fictional story throughout its performance. The characters, portrayed by circus performers, are average family members who live out their dream of joining the circus. The father becomes the ringmaster, the mother a glamorous trapeze artist, the teenage daughter a circus dancer and the son a juggler. One of the night's favorite acts involved household cats and pigeons. Amazingly, the felines seemed uninterested in eating their feathered friends. Instead, they pushed them around on a cart. Other acts included the world's largest pie fight, the Globe of Death
featuring seven motorcycles, an equestrian performance, a dog routine and
a
NASCAR parody. Mighty Herkules astounded all when he let a 2-ton Jeep
drive With just one ring to watch instead of three, spectators had little trouble keeping up with the action. "I like it better this way," said Brian McMullin, who brought his 4-year-old son, Brendan. "It's great because you don't have to look back and forth and worry about missing something." No matter how hard you strain, though, you won't find those tigers. "It's too bad they aren't here," Miles said. "But we are still having a
great time. It is the circus, after all." Contact staff writer Janet Caggiano at jcaggiano@timesdispatch.com or
(804)
649-6157. |
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Lord of the Rings New ringmaster brings Broadway background to circus Chuck Wagner will serve as ringmaster for the 136th Edition of "The Greatest Show On Earth." Joan Tupponce Richmond.com Wagner heard that Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus was looking for a ringmaster while he was auditioning for Broadway touring productions in New York. When he was selected for the breakthrough 136th Edition of "The Greatest Show On Earth," Wagner informed his family in Florida that dad was "running away and joining the circus." The new ringmaster's credits are noteworthy. He spent five years in the role of the Beast in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" - he was a standby in the original Broadway cast, opened the Canadian company and returned to Broadway to star in the production. Other credits include the Broadway productions of "Into the Woods" and "Les Miserables" and the Broadway tour of "Jekyll & Hyde." Ironically his theatrical career began in 1984 when he won a role in "The Three Musketeers," a Broadway show produced by Irvin Feld, who also owned the circus. "This has come full circle," Wagner said. "The Felds helped me launch my Broadway career and now bring me to this new adventure." Playing to the massive crowds at the circus has been a learning experience for the veteran actor "We play to houses that are 15,000 to 17,000 people [compared to Broadway shows with an audience of 2,000 or 3,000]," Wagner explained. "It's a different style of entertainment. I trained in the theater to sing to the back of the house. Here, it's impossible to do that." Wagner is thrilled to be part of this year's re-imaged show. To redefine the show, Ringling assembled a team of television, film and stage veterans. The new creative team includes costumer designer Colleen Atwood, who won an Academy Award for her work on "Chicago" and production designer Robert Brill, a 2004 Tony Awards nominee for his work on "Assassins." "This is the biggest change [in the circus] since the loss of the big top," Wagner said. "We've gone beyond the three-ring circus." Action will take place in one grand ring and will be supported by a jumbo video screen that promises to bring the audience closer to the action. "They wanted to take the traditional circus and make it more kid friendly," Wagner explained. "Now it's easy for kids to follow." In the new format a family from the audience gets to take part in the circus. Wagner is the dad in that family. "I become the ringmaster and my wife becomes an aerialist," he said, referring to his circus family. "My daughter becomes a dancer and my son does lots of different things in the circus. [The concept is] geared toward young kids so that everyone can see the circus through the eyes of a child. It's captivating and entertaining." Wagner is honored to be carrying on the tradition of ringmaster and points out that there have been fewer ringmasters - only 35 - than Presidents of the United States. "I'm the first ringmaster/dad," he said. "In reality I am a father who loves the circus and is living the dream of running away to join the circus." |
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Entertainment Sunday, February 5, 2006 Circus gets a makeover By Katie Reetz Staff Writer GREENSBORO -- Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the greatest show on earth is getting a makeover. |
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From Broadway to Barnum and Bailey His smooth baritone voice is as commanding as his 6-foot-4-inch height. And he can belt out “If I Can't Love Her,” from “Beauty and the Beast,” as easily as the sultry “Hello Little Girl,” from “Into the Woods.” He's now traveling the country in a miles-long circus train as ringmaster with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus. And less than a month into his new job he's fairly certain he's the luckiest man alive. “I feel very, very fortunate,” said Wagner. “This is like Broadway squared or maybe even cubed.” Broadway and the circus have their share of similarities, said Wagner. Traveling with the circus is somewhat like being on the road with a national Broadway tour. You're still trying to tell a story but with the security of a two year contract, he said. And then there's the size of the crowds. Wagner said he will perform for more people in a day and a half with the circus than during a week on Broadway. And seeing those crowds, full of both adults and children, is what makes this role so exciting. For a performer, there's nothing better than playing to a full house. “It's like playing the Roman Coliseum,” said Wagner. The role was also a chance for Wagner to come full circle with his career. His first Broadway role was produced by Irvin Feld, whose family now owns the circus. Irvin Feld's son Kenneth had kept upwith Wagner's career. “He asked me if I would seriously do it,” said Wagner. Wagner, 47,has spent a lifetime performing. His first exposure to theater came when he was 10. He was on vacation with his family in New York and saw the original cast performance of “1776.” He went on to earn a degree in drama from the University of Southern California. In addition to his stage career, Wagner played Randall Thompson for two years on the soap opera “General Hospital” and worked with Desi Arnaz, Jr. on the short-lived television series “Automan.” The latest version of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus isn't new to just Wagner. The entire concept has been re-done. Gone is the traditional three-ring set-up. In its place is a production centered around a single storyline. “I think it's still very much like the traditional circus in a dream format,” said Wagner, who plays the “dream father.” “With just one scene taking place at any given time the show makes it easier for the kids to focus,” said Wagner. “It's the biggest physical change since the big top went away.” |
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Article published Feb 3, 2006
A redone circus comes to town GREENVILLE -- There's one show at the Bi-Lo Center this weekend that has been in the making for 136 years. The show is called the Greatest Show on Earth, but it's not what it used to be. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has undergone a complete makeover. The show still features dancing elephants, aerial stunts and clowns, but the brand-new blue show makes the famous three rings a thing of the past. The action takes place on the entire arena floor, giving the acts a lot more space. Although the new circus format seems to have less going on, it does have its advantages. One advantage is the huge LCD screen that's 24 feet in diameter and brings spectators right to where the action is. The big screen is especially helpful when the performers are turned away from where the spectators are seated. The big screen also makes it possible to see humans from the famous Asian elephants' point of view. If your dream is to be a star in the circus, the new show offers the perfect opportunity with Circus Celebrity seats. Circus Celebrities get to board a special musical trolley and travel around the arena during a musical number with former "American Idol" finalist Jennifer Fuentes and circus performers. The special seats do bear a high price tag, but definitely allow spectators a brief chance to live their big-top dreams. The re-imagined circus is tagged "the circus of dreams," and introduces yet another new element to the circus -- a storyline. Spectators will watch as the members of one lucky family (of circus performers) live out their big-top dreams. Dan, the family's young son, doesn't think that he, just a young boy, can do anything in the circus. So, with the audience's help, elephant jokes, clown hi-jinks, circus stars and lots of moral support from his family and Fuentes, Dan journeys through circus acts and learns that he, too, can live out his dreams of being a circus celebrity. The storyline and the re-imagined show are definitely aimed at children, but the show offers something for everyone to enjoy. If clowns are your favorite part of the circus, you'll really like the new show, which features 16 clowns, the largest number in recent circus history. "With the whole arena floor to cover, we need a lot of clowns out there," said Clown Boss Scott O'Donnell, the head of clown alley. The clowns have two acts of their own in the show. One is a segment called "The Diner" that O'Donnell insists is the world's biggest food fight instigated by an elephant. The second clown act is a takeoff of NASCAR, called "Smashcar," in which the clowns race their clown cars around the arena. If you've never seen a cat walk a tightrope or a dog dance to a beat, then Madame Shamsheeva's animal shows just might amaze you. The shows feature domestic dogs, cats and some well-trained birds doing some amazing tricks and stunts. If you're into acrobatic or aerial stunts, the circus offers plenty of those, too. Super Silva does some amazing upside-down skywalking without a net or even a safety wire, and the Yunan Swing group does some amazing aerial stunts by jumping off large swings and flying through the air. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus shows at the Bi-Lo Center also feature the strength displays of Herkules, billed as the world's strongest man; the high-octane thrills of motorcycle mania and the breathtaking horseback stunts of the Cossacks. Though the circus has changed and the rings are no more, the excitement, thrills, amazing animals and comical clowns are all still there. |
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Ringling transformed ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR February 3, 2006 6:00 am GREENVILLE, S.C. - Nothing is forever, and that includes one of America's most beloved entertainment icons. So expect some stunning changes at the 136th annual Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey show, playing through Sunday at the Bi-Lo Center in Greenville, S.C. The beloved Ringling has been given a major makeover. Gone are the fabled three rings, the traditional ringmaster, some of the classic acts long associated with the show and much of the razzle dazzle that came with having a trio of acts performing at the same time. The new Ringling features a "songstress" as the central figure, a storyline about a family living out its circus dreams, a huge circular TV screen, more audience interactivity and the feeling that there are fewer performers in this fast-paced and shorter show. This is either brilliance on the part of owners Feld Entertainment, a bid to remake the show for a 21st century audience hooked on video games and the Internet. Or it's a jumbo-sized blunder (think New Coke). It's probably really too early to say, as Ringling 136 only opened its two-year tour Jan. 4 in Tampa, Fla. It's worth noting that Feld saved the fading Ringling circus, purchasing the production in 1967. These are the biggest chance since Ringling moved from tents to arenas in the mid-1950s. Opening night at Bi-Lo was not sold out, even with some of the arena draped to create a more theater-like atmosphere. And many prime seats were empty, being extremely pricey. Other tickets are less expensive.
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| Article published Jan 23, 2006 'Greatest Show' sheds its rings By Mark Hughes Cobb |
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| THE CIRCUS SHAKES THINGS UP Ringling Bros brings some derring-do, new show to Bi-Lo Center Published: Friday, January 27, 2006 - 6:00 By Donna Isbell Walker ENTERTAINMENT WRITER dwalker@greenvillenews.com When the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus hits Greenville next week, fans will find a few surprises along with the usual exotic animals and high-wire derring-do. It's a whole new circus, with a completely different feel, said Nicole Feld, the show's co-producer and granddaughter of impresario Irvin Feld, who took over the operation of the circus almost 50 years ago. "The biggest thing is, when (fans) walk into the arena, it will look totally different," Feld said recently, over the phone from New York. "People will be surprised right from the beginning. What we've really tried to do is reconfigure the space to make it a better experience for our audience, and a less passive one, so they're more actively involved throughout the show." One big change will be the arena floor. The iconic three rings will be gone, replaced by a more open floor. A 25-foot video screen magnifies everything that's happening. This time, there will be a storyline to follow, with the audience rooting for and urging on the performers, Feld said. The story takes the idea of a family running away to join the circus, and each member figuring out his or her role in the show. This year marks the 50th since Irvin Feld took the circus from outdoor tents to indoor arenas, so it made sense to create a new look to mark the anniversary, Nicole Feld said. But another reason for the change is that today's audience is markedly different. Children are used to fast-paced, interactive video games, "so we thought, 'How could we make sort of a live-action video game out of the circus,'" she said. Despite all the changes, the circus at its heart is still the same, Feld said. "Our mission and mantra are very clear at Ringling Brothers. We are family entertainment for families, by families. It is still that. It is still the spectacle that people come to see, the human-animal interaction that people want to see. The costumes and the scale of being in the arena and hundreds of people, and all this kind of stuff that is very traditional Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey, and that isn't lost. And the heart and soul of the performers and the quality of the acts is there. People are coming to see a circus to see circus acts, and the storyline helps to enhance that ... (but) it's still the same kind of entertainment." Nicole Feld knows all about circus entertainment. The 27-year-old, whose father Kenneth took over the circus in 1984, grew up with the acrobats and elephants. "I had clowns for baby sitters," she said. "I learned how to sew from the clowns and make costumes for our stuffed animals." After college, Feld went to work for People magazine as a photo editor, but she eventually felt circus life calling her back home. So in 2001, she went to work as an apprentice for her father, and she became a co-producer in 2004. "It occurred to me that I'm crazy (to work somewhere else) because I'm one of three people in this world who have this incredible opportunity to do something really different and be part of something really special. ... It's the greatest place in the world." |
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Tireless showman fueled 'Greatest Show' Joy Wallace Dickinson Sentinel Staff Writer January 8, 2006 Recent news releases trumpeted "the biggest changes Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has experienced in 50 years" -- changes Orlando audiences can check out when the circus's all-new Blue Tour rolls into town for shows at the T.D. Waterhouse Centre on Thursday through Jan. 15. We're only the second stop on the circus's Blue Tour, which debuted last week in Tampa (now the home of Ringling winter quarters); what we used to call the "big top" also has two other shows on the road, with the Red Tour in Miami and the Gold Tour in Daytona on Jan. 17-21. Presumably those yet-to-be-revamped shows still are three-ring circuses, but the Blue Tour is dropping its venerable three-ring format, announced CEO Kenneth Feld. "Ringling audiences say their lives are already three-ring circuses," he said, "so they want something less distracting." That the term three-ring circus has become a part of our language testifies both to the Ringling show's longevity and to its prominence in American entertainment. A dip into the circus's heritage revealed that the word jumbo, as in jumbo jet and other uses, actually comes from P.T. Barnum's prize elephant Jumbo, a sensation in the 1880s. It was Phineas Taylor Barnum who started the three rings in 1881, circus histories say, and the Orlando-bound show traces its 135-year-history to his Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Circus, which made its debut in 1870, when he was 60. By 1872, he was already calling it "the Greatest Show on Earth" -- now a registered trademark. Master of silver linings The man who later said "every crowd has a silver lining" got his start in show business in the most bizarre way 35 years before, in 1835, when he was a modest young New England store owner. Barnum learned of an aged black woman named Joice Heth, a slave whose owner claimed she was 161 years old and had been the nurse of George Washington (who was born in 1732). Already the astute businessman -- and outrageous huckster -- Barnum visited Heth and reported that she "sang a variety of hymns, and was very garrulous when speaking of her protege 'dear little George,' as she termed the great father of our country." Barnum quickly began to exhibit Heth throughout New England. And here's how he got the reputation for saying "there's a sucker born every minute," which apparently he may not have actually said. Humbugs and mermaid When public interest in his supposedly 161-year-old wonder began to wane, one historian's account says Barnum himself fired up business again by writing "anonymous letters to local newspapers claiming that Heth was in fact a 'humbug.' " One of his letters claimed Heth in fact was "not a human being. What purports to be a remarkably old woman is simply a curiously constructed automaton, made up of whalebone, India-rubber, and springs that are ingeniously put together, and made to move at the slightest touch according to the will of the operator," Barnum's anonymous letter claimed. Heth, who was apparently very old but of course very real, soon died, but Barnum was on his way, purchasing a museum in New York, where he exhibited oddities such as The Feejee Mermaid, "ostensibly an embalmed mermaid purchased near Calcutta by a Boston seaman," according to circus history on ringling.com. Those are the very early roots of the spectacle that continues here next week, in what producers promised will display "cutting-edge technology, . . . a hip, pop-style score and a family-friendly story-line." That's cool, circus folks, but we have those kinds of attractions in these parts. One of the attractions of the circus has always been its tinge of Barnum's pure outrageous chutzpah, a touch of the man whose long career exhibited "shameless hucksterism, peerless spectacle, and everything in between," as the circus's own history says. Step right up The Ringling circus Web site, ringling.com, has good sections on history and tradition. See also ringling.org, for information on The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Ca d'Zan, John and Mable Ringling's Venetian Gothic mansion on Sarasota Bay and the Circus Museum. And don't forget Cecil B. DeMille's 1952 cinema extravaganza, The Greatest Show on Earth, part of which was filmed in Sarasota. Charleton Heston got fourth billing behind Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, and Gloria Grahame, all better known at the time, and Jimmy Stewart appears as Buttons the clown. DeMille's spectacle also featured dozens of real circus performers (the cast list is full of names such as Tiebor's Sea Lions and The Flying Comets), especially the legendary clown Emmett Kelly, who died in Sarasota in 1979. Joy Wallace Dickinson can be reached at jdickinson@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-6082 or by good old-fashioned letter at the Sentinel, 633 N. Orange Ave., Orlando, FL 32801. Copyright © 2006, Orlando Sentinel |
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| TAMPA - Not long into Wednesday's debut of the redesigned Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the audience listened in as singer Jennifer Fuentes told a boy: "Get ready for anything and everything to happen." He did. We did. It didn't. For the big premiere at the St. Pete Times Forum, anything and everything turned out to be a lot of the same old thing. And even the brand new shine wasn't all that shiny. It wasn't all that new. But, oh, that brand. Now in its 136th year, Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey retains the kind of name recognition that could make a marketing consultant sell her soul. (Too easy, people. Let it go). Yet entertaining 21st century youths whose attention wavers between MP3, PSP and ADD is a whole other thing. Which is why the old-school circus tried some sorta-kinda new moves this year. For one, they got rid of the three-ring concept. Heck, they got rid of the ring concept altogether. (Odd, since circus is Latin for - you got it.) Also, they promised a storyline, somewhat of a nod to Ringling's popular new-age rival, Cirque du Soleil. Unlike Ringling, the Canadian troupe does not do animal acts, and it goes for a more adult audience. Removing the rings seemed to work well in Wednesday's debut, as the horse riders, clowns, aerialists and other performers shared the arena floor. It was a nice touch. Kenneth Feld, Ringling's producer and chief executive, told the New York Times the storyline is intended to help families "connect with a story in an emotional way." Sorry, but that's a load of hooey. The "storyline" is no more than a pseudo-nuclear family who gets invited to be part of that night's show. Actors playing the father and son respectively become the night's ringmaster and the audience's proxy, while the mom and daughter get to do - by comparison, at least - virtually nothing. The few pop culture references salted into the show already are terrifically dated. Over here, a nod to The Matrix (a blockbuster only, oh, six years ago); over there, a play on the moniker Notorious B.I.G. (the rap star's been dead eight years now). A few more bells and whistles helped flesh out the approximately two-hour show, including a sizable video screen that gave the crowd a close-up look at some of the action. And the addition of Fuentes, a former American Idol finalist, also helps. But really, it was the same ol' circus, with a little trapeze action, some dancing elephants and a whole load of clowns. Probably the night's most popular act was "Madame Shamsheeva," whose act with acrobatic cats, dogs and birds (often simultaneously) would put Bob Saget to shame. But there's nothing new about that. "For years we've been using the phrase "an all new show,' Feld told the New York Times, "and now we can say we really mean it." Say what you like, sir, but that doesn't make it so. Rick Gershman can be reached at rgershman@sptimes.com or 813 226-3431. His blog is at sptimes.com/blogs/tampaarts/ |
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Ringling In A New Era TAMPA - The three-ring format, gone. So, too, the tiger act. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus opened its national, two-year tour in Tampa on Wednesday night with its biggest format revision since the circus moved from playing under tents and into arenas half a century ago. A 65-foot oval now helps define the ringless performance area. Other changes include a curtain to give the arena a more theaterlike feel, a story line and a 24-foot video screen that gives audience members with even the cheap, upper-level seats close views of the acts. Despite the changes from the traditional show, many of the familiar elements are still present: Elephants, clowns and trapeze artists ran through their routines at the circus's final rehearsal Wednesday afternoon at the St. Pete Times Forum. Owners hope the new format will keep the show relevant in a digital age in which entertainment options are limitless. Changes have been kept under wraps the past six weeks, and rehearsals at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa were closed for the first time. Only a New York Times reporter was given an advance preview of the show. Ringling's audience dictated some of the key changes, said Kenneth Feld, chief executive officer of privately owned Feld Entertainment, owners of the circus. Mothers with children from 2 to 11 years old, the circus's core audience, said they want a more intimate feeling to contrast their own hectic life, Feld said. "They have a three-ring life," he said. The tiger act, a staple of the circus for years, was removed. Feld denied that protests from animal rights groups prompted the decision. Such organizations have turned almost every circus stop into an opportunity to protest, including the show's five-day run in Tampa. The groups say circus trainers mistreat animals when they teach them to perform in acts, a charge that Ringling Bros. denies. Tigers still have a role in the circus's second touring unit, which played Tampa in 2005 and is now in the second half of its two-year tour. But in a clear message to those who criticize Ringling's treatment of animals, the elephants get speaking roles on the 24-foot video screen. Someone gives the animals voiced-over words, telling audiences that their act is based on naturalistic behaviors of elephants and poking fun at the animal rights issue. "The animal rights groups have won in a way," said Janet M. Davis, a professor of American Studies at the University of Texas, who teaches a course on the history of the circus. "There is less emphasis on animals in the new show." The new format is aimed at a younger generation and includes elephants dancing to hip-hop music and a daredevil motorbike race inside a globe. The story line features a family who is picked from the audience and joins the circus. The circus doesn't disclose attendance figures, but Feld insists attendance is good. As the circus makes its way to New York for its national debut in mid-March over the next two months, the audience will determine whether the new show is a success, Feld said. Their reaction will help owners decide whether the circus's other unit will change its format in 2007. Some changes for the unit, which he would not reveal, are in the works, he said. Although there is a risk in revising the circus, the alternative would have been worse, Feld said. "It would have been a bigger gamble to do nothing," he said.
This story can be found at: http://www.tampatrib.com//MGBVTX3L2IE.html |
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In a Daring Leap, Ringling Loses Its Three Rings
By GLENN COLLINS TAMPA, Fla., Dec. 29 - And now, ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, step right up and meet the no-ring circus. For the first time in its history, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus will present a new show to its audiences without three rings, or two - or even one. When the 136th edition of the circus opens on Wednesday at the St. Pete Times Forum here in Tampa, where Ringling maintains its winter quarters, the elephants, clowns, aerialists and acrobats will roam an arena floor. In as big a departure, the show will have a story line instead of being simply a cavalcade of acts. The changes seem to echo the format of the circus's new-age rival, Cirque du Soleil, which in a few decades has grown into as mammoth an enterprise as Ringling Brothers, though the promoters of both shows discourage the comparison. Instead, Kenneth Feld, Ringling's producer and chief executive, attributes the overhaul to market research: The circus's family audiences say their lives are already three-ring circuses, so they want something less distracting. And "they also wanted to connect with a story in an emotional way," Mr. Feld said. "No show survives 135 years without making dramatic changes," he added. Ringling Brothers traces its lineage back to the early 1870's with P. T. Barnum's first circus, which introduced its third ring in 1881. (The circus has used three rings ever since.) "For years we've been using the phrase 'an all new show,' " Mr. Feld said, "and now we can say we really mean it." The new production - at $15 million the most expensive Ringling has ever assembled - tries to celebrate the contemporary. A giant video screen will magnify live action on the arena floor, so audiences will get never-before-seen views, "such as the face of the strong man as the Jeep drives over him," Mr. Feld said. It will be presided over by a woman starring in a role that seems very much like a ringmaster's, although Ringling isn't quite calling her that. In southwest Florida's tight-knit community of active and retired circus performers, speculation about the new show has been building for weeks. Feverish Internet bulletins dubbed it "the secret circus" after the rehearsal arena at the Florida State Fairgrounds was uncharacteristically locked down after Thanksgiving. Performers passed through tight security only after signing confidentiality agreements. Paul Binder, founder and artistic director of the one-ring Big Apple Circus in Manhattan, said he had been hearing rumors about the new show for weeks, but was surprised to learn it was ringless. "The ring has always defined what a circus is," he said. The show's new configuration "might hurt them among traditionalists," he added, "but that's not their biggest audience. I don't think customers in the arena pay that much attention to the rings." He said that the new production was "a bold experiment that may give Ringling the freedom to do what they always wanted to do - an arena show." Ringling played under canvas for the last time in 1956 before its rebirth in arenas the following year. Even then, it stood by the three-ring tradition. Rings have defined the circus since an equestrian showman, Philip Astley, began cantering in a circle in the 1760's in England. The name circus - Latin for ring - began to be applied to this entertainment in the 1780's, the same decade that the circus came to America. But can the name be used to describe the new Ringling show? "Circus," Mr. Feld answered, "has always been whatever the people who ran the circus decided it to be." The only gamble, he said, is whether the new show will prove to be as popular as the old, as it tours before a projected 11 million customers during a two-year run across America. The overhaul was not a response to business reverses, Mr. Feld insisted. He refused to confirm published reports that his privately held show has annual revenues of $600 million, saying only that business "has been very good." Nor, he said, has the show been influenced by alternative circuses like Cirque du Soleil. "Our show and our audiences are very different from theirs," he said. Among other things, Cirque du Soleil's shows have no animals of the nonhuman variety. But for the first time, that Canadian troupe is competing with Ringling for arenas. After years of touring under canvas and in hotels - and more recently with permanent shows in Las Vegas casinos - Cirque du Soleil will present its first arena show, "Delirium," which is to have its debut on Jan. 26 in Montreal before touring to 115 cities in North America. Ringling tours to 79 markets each year. The privately held Cirque du Soleil has acknowledged annual revenues of $500 million for its 11 shows in the United States, Europe and South America. "I doubt that they are copying us, and I don't think they said, 'We're going after Cirque,' " said Renée Claude Menard, the spokeswoman for Cirque, based in Montreal. "We have never been competitors, and we hope Ringling does well." One factor in the transformation of the show is that it is co-produced by Mr. Feld's 27-year-old daughter, Nicole, who is "more in touch with the future of the circus," Mr. Feld, 57, said. Ms. Feld said, "Perhaps it's easier for me to do something new." Mr. Feld said the new show was designed to appeal to Ringling's core ticket-buying audience - mothers with children from 2 to 11. "Families have told us that they found the three rings an unwelcome frenzy, because they said their lives are already so frenzied," he said. "They want to be part of a spectacle that is a bonding experience for their families. Getting rid of the rings gets rid of barriers, so that, in a visceral way, the audience is invited to be part of it all." Building the circus around a story line is also meant to invite the audience in. The conceit is that a family of four is plucked out of the crowds to achieve its circus dreams. (The family members are, of course, shills, who soon surprise the audience by doing extraordinary things, since they are actually skilled performers.) The plot turns on the fortunes of the family's 8-year-old son, a role sufficiently demanding to require the efforts of four different young, look-alike acrobats, who spell one another in performance. The new 2-hour-5-minute production is formally known as the Blue Show, one of Ringling's two separate touring units. The show "will be a work in progress," Mr. Feld said, as it wends its way north to its traditional, formal opening-night arena, Madison Square Garden, on March 23. The only remotely ringlike feature in the new show is the so-called horse cove, a 65-foot-wide, 30-inch-high horseshoe-shaped platform located where Ring 1 used to be. It serves as a stage for human and animal performers and is joined to a banked rubber track traversed not only by galloping steeds but also by careering clowns in a manic dodge 'em-car parody of a Nascar race. The demise of the three rings means that there are now three entrance points for performers and animals, instead of one. The nine-piece live circus band, once on the arena floor, is now perched 30 feet above. Now 15 blue-coated acrobats from China can juggle their yellow fedoras across the entire arena. A troupe of Cossack riders on 14 horses can crisscross the performance space at a gallop, doing dangerous vaults over flaming barricades. "And the elephants can roam around more, too, so even the animals aren't as limited in this new space," said Jennifer Fuentes, a 21-year-old soprano who acts as "the lady ringmaster," as she put it. Her commanding, ubiquitous role transcends that of "featured female vocalist," which she performed for the last year on the Blue Show. Ringling isn't giving her the formal ringmaster title, though, perhaps because the ersatz father in the show's imaginary family becomes a top-hatted ringmaster. So will the circus ring be banished from future Ringling shows? "We'll have to see what the audiences say," Mr. Feld said, adding that no decision would be made about changes to the three-ring Red Show until next year. "But, of course, if we do only no-ring shows, then that itself will become predictable." |
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