SUNDAY MORNING OUT OF THE PAST: Big Apple DEEEEEElicious: NY Critics High On Legendarium from Big Apple Circus .. And More, Maybe, if you step on in! ...

"INSPIRED"
"BEST PRODUCTION IN YEARS"
"BEST TIME I EVER HAD AT A BIG APPLE CIRCUS" 
so go the first reviews for Legendarium

Whenever the Gotham reviews come out for a new Big Apple Circus show, you've got to look for nuances -- small words or inflections that separate a New York valentine to a cherished institution (BAC) from a genuinely positive notice.  This time around, kids, I'd say, they are genuinely positive, not just nice-to-have-you-back-in-town salutations parading as reviews.  And if these aren't raves I'm reading, they strike me as near grade A status.

New York Times:  "This company ... has been consistently inspired, at least since I first saw it 20 years ago. And its newest offering ... isn't about to break that long, superb streak."

Ken Jaworowski, the reviewer, takes keen pleasure in the acts, themselves cast in a setting he describes as"lower-tech, more old-fashioned feel."  He misses Grandma, as do all the others, but gives new clowns Seth Bloom and Christina Gelsone high marks for filling the void with "new comedic relief."

"I can't say it's impossible that one day in the future the nonprofifit Big Apple Ciracus will let down its guard and settle for a humdrum program. But I can say that Legendarium is not that show."

 America's gift to inventively amusing animal acts:  Jenny Vidbel.  Photos by Bertrand Guay/Big Apple Circus 

From the New York Daily News:  Particular praise for Jenny Vedbel's doggie star named Charlie, who "slyly pilfers snacks on cue ... he wins your heart and steals the show."  But the critic, another Grandma fan, was not amused by the new clowns. "Not every moment gleams" said he of them.

New York Post: Let's cut to the core:  Declares Elisabeth Vincentelli, "the troupe’s best production in years."

Also, a former BAC staffer, who worked in the "back office" since 1994, and saw about 8 shows over the years, rings up a rave for Legendarium, essentially asserting  he/she was never a great fan of the show at all, but this one does the trick."the best time I’ve ever had at Big Apple Circus."

Hidden agenda hype?  There is always the chance that, let's speculate, less than warm feelings about management left the staffer soured and far from objective.  Here is a link:

http://travsd.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/big-apple-circus-legendarium/

END RINGERS:  Are they going broke?   Moguls Guy Laliberte and Kenneth Feld have both, at one time or another, showed up on those Forbes "richest" lists.  I looked at the latest, one merely for millionaires, the other for the billionaires.  I couldn't find their names on either ... Perhaps Forbes should issue a special "poorest circus owners" list.  I could name names, but I won't ... Bound for prime time?  A circus series set in the depression called "SAWDUST" and starring a name known to a few of us -- "cinema icon," so goes the PR, Mamie Van Doren.  Indeed, she was big in some or another category, back when Milton Berle and Mr. Ed were big.  Casting continues apace. Show to be shot in 3D (oh, can't you just wait?), said to be a first for TV.  This may be one of those dozens of fledgling pilots that gets off the ground and never reaches a launch pad. I hope it does,I really do, but, but, but I hope it's a few degrees better than the miserably miserable film, Poison for Elephants ... Walt Disney looking for talent heavy on physical comedy and "improv skills" for its Storybook Circus section slated for the new expansion of Fantasyland ... Which reminds me, randomly, I ran into some young daring skate board addicts  competing on major TV doing some great tricks in San Fransisco -- another reason to know that, even if the big top gives up on its daredevils, they and their populist audience will convene in other venues ... And to those who live within easy commute of Big Apple Circus dates, I envy you, over and over.... Out here, we get -- well, no, let me not go into that.

UPDATE, 9/2018

From the year before, here is show stopper  Bob at  Big Apple Circus, 2011-12, and what a riot of fun he was!  One of Jenny Vidbel's three "Furry Friends". Another was an Oink-Oink, the third --- an African Porcupine that looked like an avaado with a Mohawk hair style. The then ambitiously creative Vidbel has since,  I regret, gone safe and soft, her horse and dog routines, from what I have seen and heard, scaled back to timidity.  Tis a pity her genius seems to have vanished.

10.27.12