Wrapping 2024: Ringling Self-Reviews ... Cirque du Soleil Swallows Ballet ... Marcks and Mechanics, Kellner and Zoppe and Ring of Fame Plaques ... Doggies from Shelters, So No PETA Cracks!

             CIRCUS SPRINGS ETERNAL,  does it not?  A clump of papers, e-mails and notes before me, ignored or kept back in a gathering year-long stack, promise some kind of attention ahead, as I ramble through them before the current season goes bye bye into the barn ... After a rough shuffle, here is what randomly I face, from the top ..

            “A WEIRD AND WONDERFUL LIFE” for the  Zoppe Family, headlined a 2022 story from Redwood City’s On Line,  Dan Brown, profiling the old world Zoppes, with a focus on the current Zoppe leading the zip, Giovanni. They are doggedly old tradition, circa1842, all except for not using candles.  Why not? Answered Giovanni’s wife and marketing director Jeanette Prince, to Brown:  “Only because the fire marshal won’t allow it!” In the tent photo, above.     

   SCOTT O'DONNELL,  Circus World’s departing CEO, letting go of having to deal with its new bureaucratic owners, the Wisconsin Historical Society, as he tactfully implied to me when I called him.  An undercurrent of acute disappointment came through ... A big big loss in my outsider opinion.  A new CEO yet to be named.  The selection might tell us about the split.  Watch for a big name insider.

         COME ALIVE! ... Staying closer to  vintage sawdust, the new musical in London town, Come Alive!  The Greatest  Showman, is drawing boffo notices and luring good crowds to  its little 700-seat big top .. . Seems that the parade flies highest  on songs and acts, lowest when stumbling through inane story telling nonsense: Whoever went to a circus for this?  Memo to theatre snobs of increasingly idiotic irrelevance:  Out, damn dramaturgs, out!

           SID KELLNER WAS SOMEBODY ONCE   His brief reign as big top tycoon with James Bros Circus, founded with a popcorn machine in the 1950s, left some of us forever enamored of what he might have been.  Among them, Don Macks and Alex Smith, the later  recalling for me the day at Bentley Bros Circus in Vallejo, 1989, when Sid was guest of honor.  Chester Cable  "gave  great stories about Sid, wrote Alex.   "He was a handful," added Winni McKay.  I can relate, having toiled for King Kellner, and yet still miss his him to this day.
   
           GIVING NEW RINGLING A RAVE  While major media refused to review the circus that dare not speak its name,  in effect letting it review itself to Q&A reporters, a few others  fearlessly filled in the void.  London’s front line circus watcher and critic Douglas McPherson issued golden accolades, impressively noting the absence of many Cirque things that some of us, myself among the doubters, expected to see.  “Ringling has not switched camps.  There is no story line here, no theme, no message, no attempt to dress circus up as art.”

         SO HOW NEW OR NOVEL IS IT?  “It’s a traditional circus,  perhaps we should say New Traditional," opines Douglas.  I like that, although “new” is still being mostly met by an avalanche of unhappy Yelp Reviewers, wanting nothing to do with a sterile makeover.   I’d guess there’s a younger crowd ready to be entertained, and  that, given ticket and concession pries, the Feld of Felds may be cleaning up, ho ho.  Show has dates lined  up into spring.

       “WITH THE GREATEST OF EASE,” we once sang of the daring young man flying high. That word ease, and example of which -- Belmonte Cristiani, above, long ago -- feels more  meaningful to me now, as the ageless delight is more and more strapped to mechanics (lifelines, kids).  An abundance of unprotected ease charmed my heart while watching one of my favorite DVDs, highlights of the Ringling show as broadcast in 1968.  Then to my eyes, ease was more noticeable than now. Ease in the landings.  Ease in the connections. And why might that be? 

        THE PERILS OF SHUNNING PERIL  Could it be that performers in a circus without mechanics  are driven out of fear to perform  more cleanly so as NOT to risk a fall?   Oh, how softer the landings, how crisper the connections back then, before Soviet Circus era safety wire precautions invaded and practically emasculated  the rings.  Oh, how majestic the artistry!  Even Charlie Bauman, such a gracious showman, held court among his chummy tiger friends  with the greatest of ease!

           PRAY FOR  THE RING OF FAME PLAQUES  Many were attacked by  recent storms, leaving them smeared and cracked.  An update down the Covington Chute from the Circus Ring of Fame Foundation, tells of a dire outcome for 160 plus plaques  to be   “pressure washed.” The damage of each will be assessed for restoration treatment, expected  to go well into 2025.  A sad tale.

         HAS THAT ACT A NAME?   Increasing frustration, pulling up a website and wishing to see photos and names of the acts.   You might find photos with no names, or you might find nothing.  Here are three shows that deny us the obvious:  UniverSoul, Royal Hanneford, and Zoppe.  I understand this annoyance is also offered Brit fans by some of the circuses over over there. 

         AND OVER THERE IN BRIT LAND, the lions aren't roaring any more than they are over here, and  most big tops leave four legged critters out of the lineup.  Doggie stars everywhere should go on strike!    Has anybody heard of The National Dog Show?  Slowly, some of our more timidly produced shows are daring to reboot canine capers.  Big Apple Circus  brought back a pack of them to its recent Lincoln center opus. all only because, of course of course, yes, yes, okay they were  “rescued from dog shelters.”    Below, the three human fountains on Big Apple -- a knockout.

       CIRQUE DU YOU TUBE  Circuses near and far are never far away on You Tube, and that’s an armchair luxury.  Cirque du Soleil on the comeback trail is putting out one hour compilations of acts from three of its shows, and what a leap from where they were when last I saw them.  Now what I behold is  the most  persuasive merge yet of circus and ballet.  And I thought it couldn’t be done.  There’s even a fake animal on  the bill.  Really, rebranding is in order: Cirque du Ballet –  Eye Candy Acrobatics.  Would two hours of what I saw hold me?  Not so sure, the artistry seemed on the fundamental side, the acts maybe Montreal made. There latest opus, ECHO, a $30 million baby three years in the womb, is drawing wildly mixed notices, the negatives impatient with opulently obtuse narrative nonsense. Below, oh by gosh by golly, a fake horse -- out of desperation?

          BILLION DOLLAR BIG TOP  Per Fortune Magazine last April, though Cirque’s attendance is up from from pre-Covid levels  (sales then dwindling), they “remained saddled” with half a billion-plus in debt. No longer much of a fan, yet I rue, driven by the mesmerizing eye candy alone,  not having seen them when they were in San Jose recently. You Tube images are shimmering, bodies flying and floating over and around each other through staple acrobatics.  Yelp reviews reveal a growing number of people growing tired of it all. 

           DOWN THE LANE OF TALBURT  A late-breaking entry,  inspired by watching on You Tube a video he took of the wining Beatty-Cole performance in 1993, this is to acknowledge his great visual  contributions  to American circus history.  I am watching all the acts, clearly filmed, unlike so many videos taken by patrons from a fixed location, behind poles and patrons passing. Such a pleasure.   Thank you, Santa Lane!

       A TELLING VOICE I WILL MISS:  The passing  of Bill Taggart at 94,  a prime contributor to my coverage of the last days of Ringling under canvas in 1956, as profiled in my book Fall of the Big Top.  His days  on the Big Show in the yellow ticket wagon involved show-sanctioned short changing, a rather shocking  reality he made known to me and  in articles he wrote. He also shared with  me a disclosure on John Ringling North's personal proclivities, hard to believe, but then backed away and asked me not to repeat them. Maybe more on this in the coming year.

            RARE VALIDATION AT CAMBRIDGE A smiling cross-pond discovery this past year that my first book, Behind the Big Top, originally published by A.S. Barnes Over Here, the Tantiviy Press Over there, was published  an online in 2009 by Cambridge University Press.  A cap and gown for me?  I  had felt honored that the book was was reviewed by  circus connoisseur par excellence,  Antony Hippisley Coxe, excerpts of which appear at the top of the book's listing.   These seem to include only his  warmly affirmative words, not his extensive criticisms of incredibly inept editing and sloppy research on my part, all justly held.  I look forward to re-reading  Coxe's  wonderful 1951 A Seat at the Circus.

        STILL MISSING CIRCUS REPORT   The nice lady e-mailing her pleasure over the fist of seven posts I did on Circus Report founder and long time publisher, Don Marcks (she was a part of his variety shows), and anxiously waiting for more to come, and then, when more came, going silent thereafter.  Did I err in showing his more human side, such as a marriage quietly annulled?  Many of us still rue the absence of Don's labor of love, Jim Royal among them: "In those pre-internet days, Mr. Marcks provided a very valuable service to our industry." Were Don alive today, I have no doubt that he would be putting out CR online.

       LET THE FIFTIES PROUDLY PARADE!  Let me send you off whistling up a long long list of circuses touring these shores in the year 1959, as provided by John Swan’s The Circus Review.   You might be as amazed as was I, coming  across this by accident.  And who was the idiot quoted on Pledge Break Society’s (PBS) intolerably sloppy documentary, Circus, clamming that Ed Sullivan "killed the circus" in the the 1950s?  Here are all the circuses he did not kill.

Humbug!

UNDER-CANVAS CIRCUSES

Adams Bros. & Sell Circus.
Beers Barnes Circus
Carson & Barnes Circus
Cristiani Bros. Circus
Clyde Betty & Cole Bros Circus
Famous Cole Circus
Garden Bros. Circus
Hunt Bros Circus
Hagen Bros. Circus
King Bros Circus
Kelly-Morris Circus
Mills Bros. Circus
All G. Kelly & Mile Bros circus
John Strong Circus
Sello Bros Circus

INDOORS, BALL PARK CIRCUSES

All American Circus
Bailey Bros Circus
Clyde Bros Circus
Circorama
Dobritch Circus
Orrin Davenport Circus’
Don Francisco Circus
Faabian’s circus
Gil Gray Circus
Gene Holter Wild Animal Circus
Garden Bros, Circus
Hamid-Morton circus
Harold Bros Circus
James Bros. Circs
Polack Bros Circus
Rudy Bros Circus
Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus
Tom Packs Circus

The billowing big tops remain a world unto themselves, operating slightly on the edge of mainstream society and culture. And may they remaini that way – exotic to robotic, real or fake, candles or no.

Keep your cards and e-mails coming. You never know what might appear here next December 31. I am not so prone now to carelessly throw stuff away.  In fact, if the stack warrants, I might do a mid-year catch up in '25.

HAVE A HAPPY SNAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

SHOWBIZ DAVID'S HOLIDAY FAVORITES IN CINEMA

1  IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

Were I pushed to name the greatest American movie, this would be it. Not until last year watching it and being struck by the brutal darkness that descends upon its final scenes, all thanks to the genius of Frank Capra, did I come to this feeling.  Jimmy Stewart's best performance.

2  HOLIDAY INN

Much better than the sequel, White Christmas, this great 1940's musical sails along from song to song, dances up delights, has a good story line with a twist, and  great Irving Berlin score.  Most of all, for its breezy brevity and swift pacing.

3  A CHRISTMAS CAROL 1938 or 1951

Personally I'd give the edge to Reginald Owen in 1938 from MGM, although others seem to favor the 1951 version with Alastair Sim. Both pack an emotional wallop.  Tears are perfectly acceptable on this side of the Big Pond.

4  MEET ME IN ST LOUIS.

A masterpiece from director Vincente Minnelli . The songs include two classics, the miraculously thrilling "Trolley Song," and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Judy Garland in her prime. No film makes a better case for the importance of family over monetary ambition.

5  MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET.

Love the tingle of it all, the busy New York atmosphere, the masterful performance of Edmund Gwenn, who brings off the role as few could.  A role he was born to play. Best of all, this brings back a spirit of Christmas closer to the one I grew up in, long before the secular sphere began it's attack on Christmas, religion and the binary family.

 6  THE SOUND OF MUSIC LIVE 2015, BRITISH

No, not the overly long movie. And yes, you may miss Julie Andrews more than you can bear, understood, but at least  give this one a chance.  It stayed very close to the original script, reinstating two great songs on the darker side that had been callously 86d from the film, but did not reinstate the lovely "An Ordinary Couple" Instead, with Oscar Hammerstein gone, Richard Rodgers composed both music and lyrics -- if you can call them that -- for the weirdly awful "Something Good" to replace it.

7  A CHRISTMAS STORY

Maybe? I must confess, I dread the scene where the kid's tongue gets stuck to a pole. Otherwise, I suppose this one rates high, and maybe I should try watching it again. 

ELF?

What about more recent hit films? So, I took on this one, my reaction in texting shorthand: first part in Santa’s factory, loved it, Bob Newhart’s humor steals the scene.  Will Ferrell to NY to find father, a stone faced CEO bore  Ferrell's  hyper antics grow flat, hollow fast.  Jim Carey should have played the role. No desire to see again.  85% critics on Rotten,    79% pop meter.

Incredibly, there are so many Christmas movies out there, and yet the way they are rated on various "best" listings can differ widely.  A gem on one raking can be a dog on another.  For my eyes, classic Christmas films remain canonized in a far more socially unified time. And I will say no more, but.... Humbug!

Beware the Pitfalls of You Tube Reviewing, -- Big Apple Circus Ill Served? This is NOT a review

Perfect example: I watched a video, in two parts,  of Big Apple Circus, apparently shot by a patron, lasting half as long as the actual show itself, with the Flying Poemas left out. I can see the included acts well enough to know, for example, that how three water exhaling guys turning themselves into Roman fountains --  Jesse Highley, Neal Skoy, and Robert Ryan  --- are as ingeniously brilliant as is a labored slack wire workout borderline amateur.  But as for the themed production casting the acts in hometown settings,  I am left  with a felling that maybe The New York Times got it right in calling what looks to me like a disjointed mishmash  “underwhelming.” But also left wondering, had I actually seen the new Ringling, might I have liked its production values as much as I did the acts?  Nothing beats being there.  

Send Back the Dogs, Please! Zoppe’s Latest Charmer is a Mixed Bag

Circus Review
Zoppe Family Circuses
At Redwood City, CA
November 23, 2024
Tickets: $12 to $33.

Not so easy, in fact a rather challenging confection to review.   Program starts out with barely a whimper (more on this later), clowning lingers on in spots, and the quality of action ranges from spectacular to sketchy. But tell that to the dozens of gleeful children who lapped up the performance.  In fact, if I were a parent, I would want Zoppe to be the first circus my child sees. Giovanni and  his sons have a way of connecting with kids. His missing hat routine, a crowning example, had the moppets practically flying out of  their seats screaming with pointed fingers to get his eyes on the hat.

 

In another clever bit, the two Zoppe boys – Julien, 15, and Ilario, all of three (yes, three),  find a big balloon and have fun bouncing it back and forth — until the uppity ringmaster, unable to wrest it away, reaches up to pop it. They are ordered out of the tent, only to reappear moments later, chasing after another balloon, and this bit goes on and on for, oh, maybe another hundred balloons — the last one releasing a spray of water onto our ringmaster’s head. Great pay off! Grade A clowning.

During the opening ensemble splash, little Ilario on his own runs up to a spot on the ring carpet, as if following script, and lowers himself into a head stand, joined by his father and brother doing the same.  Priceless.         

Although show is on the short side – with a concession intermission apparently consuming  as much time as is needed  –  there is sufficient talent here to impress dads and moms.. In the top tier category,  Brayan Portugal delivers stellar head stands on the  single trapeze in motion.                                                                   

German Ramos's  control walking up the ladder and down the other side is extraordinary.

Also top tier in my eyes are a troupe of rambunctiously ambitious Ethiopian performers from one of the poorest countries on earth, named Zom Habesha.  They light up the show with juggling gusto.  I only wish their act had been longer.  They also deliver a compelling risley display, giving it more the feel and thrust of teeterboard. It is as roughly executed in spots as it is brilliantly creative in others, as shown in the photo below.

And I am waiting for the dogs to appear.  Last year, they were the highlight of the show, as they tend to be on most circuses these days.

There’s gaucho dancing from the Sanchez Family, contortion by two Ethiopian girls, Beki and B, and a cloud swing from Chiara Zoppe, attached to a lifeline.  The Daring Horseman, Caleb Caracini Asch, rides masterfully well, joined by Audrey Prince for some nice duo work.  She returns in another bit, standing alone on the horse while attached to a mechanic. Seems pointless. Recorded music throughout the program is generally relevant and appealing.

A great discovery for me was ringmaster Patrick McGuire, so refreshingly different.  In fact, perhaps the most original new kind of a ringmaster I have seen in ages.  He issues few announcements, but  expresses himself in magical gestures, moving in and out of the proceedings without ever hovering.   And he surprises with a skill for juggling clubs by  running up to reach Caleb on his sauntering steed, the two then cross-jiggling. Terrifically stylish.

While still waiting for the dogs to appear, let me take the time to review the very first act on the show. Why it is even there can only be understood by knowing that the clown and the owner are the same person.  Guess who gets his way?  So we are  feted by the spectacle of Giavanni hauling out his trunk into the ring and proceeding to take his sweet time making up his face. The weakest opening I’ve ever endured at a circus.

What, the show is ending?  No dogs?  ARE YOU KIDDING, ZOPPE?  This would be like a kid at Ringling years ago waiting for the elephants to appear and being criminally stood up. No, Zoppe, No! It leaves a gaping  hole in the performance.  Unconstitutional!  Unzoppetutional!  On my way out, I stopped to tell McGuire how much I missed the dogs.  He said, “Giovanni could not find a dog act.” I don’t believe that.

This company remains true to its most consistent theme — FAMILY. And at finale, they all stand, hand to hand, perfectly still across the ring, without even a hint of  milking for applause. A  pause, and then the crowd erupts into cheers.  You could feel their joy.  Heck,  you could feel the love.

I’m praying for the return of a dog act next year.  If one isn’t there, neither will I.

3 stars 

                   Once upon a Zoppe season, not that long ago.

END RINGERS:  A rich history:  The Riding Zoppes with Cucciolo were brought to America in 1948 by John Ringling North, and they appeared in DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth ...  Jeanette Prince responded to my request for names. This is the only circus I know of that does not at least post pictures of its acts on their website. It suggests that acts are frequently coming and going during the season.  To his credit, Giovanni each year offers a fairly fresh slate of acts.  And from other lands, the show stays that much fresher ... Oh by gosh, by golly!  Yes, I was right. I am professionally related to the Zoppes.  Look what I found searching through  my papers.  Drum rolls, please!  From a press release I wrote for Sid Kellner when he hired me as press agent for his 1969 James Bros. Circus tour, headlined Circus Kids Uphold the Great Tradition of Their Parents:

"Animal trainer Alberto Zoppe's two delightful children, Caralynn, 5, and Giovanni, 3, both assist their father in his whimsical dog, poodle, and horse act.  When the ringmaster announces their entrance, Caralynn and Giovanni perk up enthusiastically and bounce into the center ring with great glee, like two tots entering an enchanted picnic area. Circus kids never have time to learn what stage fright is."

And all the years later, there's another little Zoppe following the same family muse ... (My year on the show is profiled, by the way, in my book Keep That Day Job! -- if you'll allow me the shameless plug,)

Still a Few of Our Favorite Things ... A Sweet Little Show Tune Conquered the World of Jazz ... Now the Holidays Call

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bight copper kettles and warm woolen mittens    

I first heard those words from the voice of Mary Martin on the original cast album of The Sound of Music, broadcast on our radio one Sunday evening in late December, only a few weeks after the show had opened on Broadway to great reviews.    A week or so later, I had in hand my own copy of the snowy white cast album. Decorated in delicate foliage, in colors gold and red and green,  how like a lovely Christmas morning gift it felt.   In a few weeks, it would reach the number one spot on Billboard’s Best Selling Albums and remain there for 16 straight weeks. Sometimes at the skating rink during club practice, they played it.

Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

In those sunnier days, Rodgers and Hammerstein were the gods of musical theatre, able to capture in song the widely shared sentiments of Americans.  One evening in the early 1950s, a televised toast to their magic was broadcast simultaneously on ALL three major networks.  Point made?

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles   

I could never have known how fate would coddle and guide this musical up a most remark road, gradually cementing its charms into the hearts of Americans.  The movie that followed a few years later achieved a phenomenal success.  Two words may have spelled its everlasting lock on our hearts: Julie Andrews.  Years later, people flock to movie houses to participate in a sing-along of the songs as they appear on the screen. 

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes

In 1961, through the soprano sax of jazz musician John Coltrane, My Favorite Things became an almost instant classic, and would become Coltrane's most requested song ever, and his personal favorite of all his recordings. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1988 and certified gold in 2018.

A few magical days ago, while listening to a local FM adult contemporary station that plays non-stop Christmas music every season, came the sweetest young voice singing the song.  And I felt a rare connection between that night long ago, listening to Mary Martin, and now, hearing the song from a new voice on the radio, making it feel like a perfect addition to  the holiday cannon, as if it had always been there.

Silver white winters that melt into springs ... 

11.30.22

SUNDAY OUT OF THE PAST: They Read Me, They Bleed Me ... They Hate Me ... They Hate Me Not!

First posted  on July 18, 2010


As an update to this re-posting, let me add that I hold in the highest regard John Ringling North II and James Royal, who have never assaulted me in the fashion described below. They have remained most congenial, responding to my request for photos for my last book, Inside the Changing Circus, sending me annually, unsolicited, a copy of their program magazine with a bag of peanuts.

In the Circus Report that he founded and slaved over for most of his later life, the late Don Marcks once pointed me to a small space on the back cover that sometimes hosted adds. other times went blank. Said he, “How about your column there?”

I was very touched by the unexpected offer from someone who was my direct opposite, but resisted his polite invitation, telling him “eventually, I will write something that will cause you problems, and that will be it.” Don dreaded the discontent of circus owners and as a rule edited on the super safe don’t-rock-the big top side.

I knew Don well, as I knew the small insulated circus world well. They, most of them, are sheltered from criticism by the fans and by media indifference. Indeed, many a performer could last a lifetime under small tops, even in Ringing rings, and never face a legitimate review.

Before we fell into a kind of soft unspoken estrangement, Don once complained to me over the phone (we talked often) about circus fans who sent in glowing notices of Circus Vargas. He was growing tired of it. He printed their predictably rosy notices nonetheless.

Another time, Don told me, “I got a review of Circus Vargas. The guy was pretty critical, so I didn’t print it.”

That was Don, and that is how the circus world would like it to be.

Which brings us to the thorn in your side, that nagging customer who can inject unsettling opinions into your beautiful backyard paradise where every circus is the best it’s ever been, and better than all the others.

It was in Don’s paper that a piece I wrote looking back at Irvin Feld’s career, sometime after Mr. Feld passed away, caused probably a more vicious reaction than had ever greeted anything penned about the circus. Feld employees took out venomous attack ads in Circus Report. About a dozen or more. Some full pagers. Not a soul came to my defense. They bled me yes, and I did not die. And I still will not die. Bleeding is a part of my bizarre mission. When you get away with mouthing off in national print at age 14 (in The White Tops), it tends to go to your head, especially when, many years later, Variety signs on.

My most recent encounter with a hurricane of hostility arrived upon my posting a review here of Kelly Miller Circus. Some of you have no doubt seen it. Maybe you were amused. Maybe you half way agreed. Or considered me a number of things not fit for print — in more ways the one. In the eyes of the offended, I’d made a total fool of myself. That's the risk you take for daring to reveal your feelings, for you risk going against the grain. But how else?

One of the comments slung at my posting by that ever-ubiquitous contributor “Anonymous," whose profanity I did not allow onto the lot, found irony in my “legendary expertise” (a compliment, Anonymous?) being unaware that the names “Nellie” with “Hanneford go together. No, what I really failed to link were the names “Poema” and “Hanneford.”

I looked elsewhere, to one of the three Kelly Miller blogs, this being Steve and Ryan’s. Amidst some controversy, Steve, a classy guy, posted his own comment, “everybody is entitled to their own opinion.” Among other comments, Jon turned what he doubtlessly considered a negative into what I consider rare validation. You see, Jon lumped me together with the snobby New York critics’ crowd. May I take a bow please!? “Mr. Pompous ‘I live and die in New York’” he called me. (Mr. Pompous lives in Oakland, CA.) Well, it beats beings bland. And since I no longer disco into nights of senseless danger, gotta do something for cheap thrills.

Jon described my review as “a homework project.” Now to that, Jon, I can relate. For years, even after landing bylines in Variety and getting published in book form, I still felt like I were trying be a writer; lately, I’ve promoted my self-regard to writer trying to be a writer.

I'll grant that Jon might be on to some prickly things about me, but he goes totally off the rails when he accuses me of a mind set that was “formed before the presentation was presented.” If only he knew what was actually in my mind when I sat down to take in a performance of Kelly-Miller in Brewster, NY — and how what I thought I might find was significantly altered by what I actually found.

As for my carrying on like a know-it-all New Yorker, that tickles me pink lemonade. Why? Because, for starters, I think the NY critics are the toughest, and they think for themselves. Growing up, I admired how, following another opening night, they were forced to form their opinions in hours or less, rushing back to newsroom typewriters or to telephones to call in their notices. No time to stick their fingers in the wind or equivocate their immediate gut reactions down to intellectual mush. I read and treasured Walter Kerr almost every Sunday in The New York Herald Tribune. And when I landed my first byline in Variety, that only emboldened my stubbornly independent ways. Whatever I am, it's me that you get. I just wish, trust me, that you'd get a lot more voices and a lot more opinions -- in declarative review form.

"Pompous" if you please. English class room deficient if you must. But bias in advance? That I fight all the time, admitting that, yes, I too am human, but I think the conscious struggle to fight bias has made me a better, fairer reporter. Two things that remain uppermost in my thinking and approach: Number 1. Keep your mind an open slate, and let the arists in the ring paint their pictures on it. Number 2. The circus, ever since jugglers began in Egypt ,acrobats in China, is forever changing. It is not a fixed form. So, by all means adhere to a golden cliche: judge each show on its own terms.

Which can be a shock to my system as well.

And sometimes, a thrill. Never know what awaits me when, pompously, I embark on another homework review project. Considering how quaintly irrelevant I am obviously viewed by my dissenters, I'm thinking of making my entrances on to the lot in cape and carriage, but the Witness Protection Program refused me that guise.

[photo, at Carson & Barnes Circus in Half Moon Bay, CA,1995, by my nephew Jeffrey Hoffman]

7.18.10

 

Circus and The New York Times: Don’t Always Expect the Most Knowing Reviews

Perhaps The New York Times go-to-the-circus critic, cultural reporter Alexis Soloski,  took far too seriously the goings on at the current show, which costumes and links circus acts to Gotham’s  “Hometown Playground” — tourists sites, iconic signage, fashions, et all. For she quibbles with the imagery as being out of date – such as poodles in Ziegfeld costumes.  They strike me as  charming.

“The acts are given vague tie-ins to the five boroughs. An acrobat performs an upside-down routine dressed as a construction worker.  Upside down they don’t cat call ... The poodles, all shelter rescues, arrive in a checkered cab.”

I assume they should have been  Lyfted in.   So does this mean it is okay to use only dogs from  rescue shelters in circuses?  How  weaselly hypocritical a justification, woke! woke!

Any critic who goes to a circus these days expecting high-grade integration of theme or story  is best advised to park their brains at the door, and let their do hearts do the watching.   

Strangest of all, Soloski takes issue with slack wire performer Mihret Mekonnen from Ethiopia, seen above, writing, “However challenging, it is no substitute for a high one – or very slightly out of date.’

That is the stupidest thing I have ever read in a circus review.  

“Big Apple Circus’s exercise in nostalgia feels paler than the real city just beyond the tent.”  

Still, our vacillating reviewer wraps on a feel good note: “Sometimes messy, sometime thrilling ... the show is a fine diversion for a fall afternoon.”

Which pales in comparison to the story's headline: "An underwhelming exercise in nostalgia."

Other reviews? I find only one,  in DC Theater --- a rave.  Frankly, it looks like a lot of fun to me, mixed imagery included.

Don’t be surprised if the Gray Lady spins out another annual accolade:  “A New York Times Lazy Critic’s Pick!”

Thank You, America, For Coming to Your Senses

What makes me the happiest? To know that most Americans through so many classes and cultures all over the country share my feelings. It makes me feel better about the country, and better about its future.  Even here in the State of  Insanity (CA), there is hope.

SINGING ON SATURDAY: New Brit Big Top Musical Puts Songs on the Marquee ... Might This Start A New Trend? ...

 

And how would you like your circus served today, sir?  Wrapped in ballet ... or steeped in theater?   You said  Cirque free?  A La Cart maybe?  And for music, will it be Karl King or Cole Porter? 

Of the various production elements that go into making a circus performance, by far the most powerful is music.  And the closer it comes to connecting with an audience, the greater its impact on the show. 

We need no better way to illustrate this than to take a look at the 1932 program magazine for  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. The holder of this particular copy appears to have written down the titles of favorite tunes played during many of the displays: That 1932 show played at least two songs hot off piano keys that year – “Just Anther Shanty in Old Shanty Town” for a display of aerialists, and  "Lord You Made the Night Too Long” for Wallenda pyramids scaling the high wire.   

Elephants cavorted to  “The Washboard Blues,”from 1925, and “Can’t We Talk It Over?” Family horse riding acts rode to “Keep on Smiling, “ and the clowns held down the track to “Yankee Doodle.”Alfredo Codona's trapeze artistry was serenaded by an 1882, ditty, “The Skaters Waltz."

Can there be any disagreement that favorite  tunes will enhance our reaction to the acts before us?  For my own ears,  unforgettable are the zippytific Stephenson’s Dogs  scampering merrily to  “That’s Entertainment;” Gracious Charlie Bauman collaborating with his tiger friends to the music of "The Shadow of Your Smile;” Single trap daredevil supreme Gerald Soules diving dangerously close to the brink of extinction  as Cole Porter's’ “So In Love”charges the air.

In recent times, with live music missing from most shows, the owners have resorted to either playing  CDs that come with the acts, or producing original scores —the mixed results can veer between appealing and appalling.  

Won’t you play a simple melody?  Yes, please!  John Ringling North in 1956 featured the music of the famed Broadway composer of the musical Guys and Dolls, and billed this novelty  The Greatest Show on Earth, with songs by Frank Loesser.

 Which brings me  to a most interesting development over in  London town, where a new kind  of circus program  under a small tent is causing a promising buzz. Come Alive! The Greatest Showman Circus Spectacular  is making its primary pitch on the songs it sings from the Hugh Jackman film, The Greatest Showman.  Notwithstanding JRN's move above, this may mark a first in circus ballyhoo. 

I don’t know if they can fill out the entire show, but this I know:  I am rooting big time for the success of this venture.  Why?  Because, I can only hope that  it will help put the focus back  on popular songs and pull it away from other trendy embellishments pushed by theater and ballet elitists, which are dragging down and  diluting the primal power of circus.   

 

In fact, Come Alive! also comes loaded with a muddle of materials vaguely alluding to story-telling elements. From the London website Ham and High, which issued a great notice, also issued was a qualm that often dogs Cirque du Soliel reviews:  "Overall this showman mash up is great fun for all the family, just don't ask what it's about." lol.

Nonetheless,  score-wise, have we here the seeds of a new trend in the making?  Are there other films that might serve the same purpose?  Surely one would be  The Sound of Music movie which has been screened to audiences who sing along to its songs.

Movie fans having lunch before a Sound of Music movie sing-a-long at the Hollywood Bowl in 2008.

 So, how might its songs work for a circus performance?  Here are my suggested match-ups:

Title song: I can see a serene ensemble opening, performers moving in slow motion.

My Favorite things:  Teeterboard

Do Re Mi:  Dogs!

Lonely Goatherd:  Dressage

How Can Love Survive? (from the original cast album) Horse riders

No Way To Stop It: Jugglers

Climb Every Mountain:  High wire

Edelweiss  Trapeze flyers

Proposed matches for shows and music 

Circus Vargas / Hollywood movie musicals

Cirque du Soleil / Andrew Lloyd Webber

Big Apple Circus / Broadway show tunes, Cohan to Sondheim

Zippos Circus / The Beatles

UniverSoul Circus / Motowown  

Zoppe  Family / Festive Italian score and music from  Fellini's The Clowns.

Come Alive! may risk getting lost in an ill-defined structure, as seems to have been the plight of Water for Elephants on Broadway.   Would it be too much to ask  for simply some good songs to hear while a winning lineup rolls by?

Broadway Says No to Circus ... Might London Say Yes?

* Updated, 10.18

First, the lowdown.  Every year on Times Square, around a dozen new musicals hit the boards, all dreaming of Tony acclaim and turn away crowds. Roughly speaking, for every five new shows that open, four of them will go turkey before the season ends.  

Water for the Elephants was one of last year’s new contenders, and it opened to a wild array of warring notices, heaven-sent euphoria to hell-bent fury.  Variety proclaimed it “spellbinding.  The New York Times, no surprise, gave it a Critic's Pick.  It was thoroughly snubbed at the Tony's.  Among the testily insulted, Rex the Reid declared, "I thought I had seen the worst of what the 2024 season would bring. I was wrong. I had not seen Water for Elephants yet. Now I have. It can’t get any deadlier than this."

The more tempered notices in between suggested that,  even if the story lines were leaden and plodding, the circus acts,which wowed 'em, might be good enough to merit your patronage. 

Ah yes, and therein lies the two-word problem,“circus acts.’

I have long contended that people do not flock to to the Great White Way to see circus acts. They go to see Broadway Shows, and Broadway shows have virtually never achieved lift off over sawdust and spangles.  The one arguable exception was Barnum, but it drew its gusto from the Cy Coleman Score, Jim Dale's charming agility. Story lines?  Some may remember it for P.T's  wistful infatuation with his star attraction away from circus, singer Jenny Lind.  Circus action was incidental.

Over to  you, London ...

Over there, across the bony pond, songs may hold star power.  In London town under a 700 seat tent, a new kind of singing show centered in or around circus, inspired by the Hugh Jackman flick, The Greatest Showman, is winning early crowd enthusiasm.  Called Come Alive! The Greatest Showman Circus Spectacular,  from a five-minute video sampler, it appears to be drilling down into the film’s highly popular score, whose cast album won a Grammy and  sold 5.3 million copies worldwide. Show has been extended through next March

* The reviews?  With Broadway World giving them, overall, a 67% positive rating, they veer towards the tepid.  None are close to scathing,  and a few give the show's circus content the highest marks.  I can see here what might be called circus acts with popular songs, which can work.   In 1956, John Ringling North featured many of the songs of Broadway composer Frank Loesser, spread throughout the wide-ranging score. 

And, yet, there's more:  Following this theater-circus thread, Disney over here still has in the works an adaptation of  The Greatest Showman.  One might wonder how true they will remain to a largely  fictional take on Barnum’s real life that was roundly and rightly panned by knowing critics.  If they try restoring history, they risk producing something  that ill-fits the film's premise and songs.  They should give as much serious consideration to the fate (to be) of Come Alive! as they no doubt have to Water for Elephants.

Big tops will go up, and new Broadway shows will unfold, each in their own sphere.

WATER FOR ELEPHANTS BITES THE DUST ... BROADWAY BIG TOP GOES DOWN DECEMBER 8 ...

VANISHING WATER FOR ELEPHANTS ... Bucket's Now Half Empty ...

When last I updated, they were comfortably back in the 70% range, and so I though maybe they are finding a hook to keep going.

Latest figure: 56.9%.

From Broadway World, two days ago: "What an embarrassing number even in a week where many shows took a big hit. I expect a closing notice for Water For Elephants sometime soon too

 

Book Quiz Contest Results!

A huge crowd here last Friday, but not a one of them could produce the correct answer to the question: Who was the first and still only performer to land a Gold Clown for the type of act they performed at Monte Carlo? The next day came the answer:

JUGGLER ANTHONY GATTO

The winner:

BONNIE O'CONNOR

Congrats, Bonnie! I will e-mail you to facilitate my sending you your copy.

Two Phone Calls, One About Scott O'Donnell Leaving Circus World, the Other About Ringling Crowd Sizes in L.A.

Sometimes today when we are drowning in AI, bots, and even the "Operator" no longer being there,it is possible to get through.  I just start dialing numbers, hoping that one will still work, better yet, might deliver me to a living human being from the age of He and She.

FIRST CALL: Why did  CEO Scott O'Donnell, as the official story goes, which he confirmed when I reached him by phone, "resign" from circus world?  Scott would only say that he and his overlords (aka: Wisconsin Historical Society) did not share the same vision for the future.

So, dialing for balance by reaching out to WHS and leaving  messages with, among others, Colleen in Media Relations, she did return my call!  I asked her if she could explain how they had come to loggerheads. She promised to consult with others and get back to me.  This she did, but with not a single word answering my specific query.  She sent me the same press release that I already had, which  I quoted from in the story I earlier  posted.  An expert in the ways of the business world might be able to decode this, but I am not going there. 

SECOND CALL:  To Crypto Center (previously Staples) in L.A, about Ringling's recent three day stop there.  To the guy, Lewis, who answered the phone, I said that I was hoping to get an estimation from them of the average number of customers in the seats per performance.  He did not waste an empty second in evasion or passing the buck, but answered: "Between six and eight thousand." The arena seats 20.000. 

Would that have been a disappointment to Crypto, I asked my source.  "No," he replied. 

You can look at the figure in two ways:  What a flop!  Not even half houses!

Or, you can look at the figure in context.  Is there another circus out there anywhere in the world that draws that number of bodies in the seats?

EYES ON THE SCENE: And how did Ringling show?  I have a deep state source who was on the scene and noted that the ends of the arena were blocked out.  Pyrotechnics "were greatly reduced" and the large overhead screens were not in use.The show, he reported, was a "scaled" down version of what he had seen at an earlier date months ago, which amounted to him as a "thinning of the herd." (I like that) For example, an Ethiopian father and son foot juggling was not on the bill.  Some of those in his party, he noted,  were critical of the show, but he stood by the excellent review he had given the show when he saw it earlier in the season.

End of on-the-ground reporting the older fashioned way.

MIDWAY FLASH! MIDWAY FLASH! Scott O'Donnell to Leave Circus World ... Dave Salutos, Another Exit ..

updated: 9:21 AM

The sudden exit of CEO Scott O'Donnell from the ringmaster's desk at Circus World took me by total surprise.

News of his exit came through a Don Covington link.  Naturally my first thoughts where, why? Had he been let go?  So I called CW this morning, to inquire, and they put me through to Scott, which marked the first time we have ever spoken. 

Was it his decision, I asked him?

Yes, he answered. 

Why?

He said he does not share a new vision held by  the state government, which now owns Circus World Museum. For most of its  existence, CW operated as a virtual private enterprise.  But that changed about four years ago, when the Wisconsin State Historical Society came in with much needed funding and assumed  greater control.   Evidently, they now want more power at the Top.  

Momentous achievements on the job, not good enough?  A press release from Circus World overflows in citing O'Donnell's "countless transformative contributions," including preservation of Ringlingville, creation of a master plan "that will enhance the visitor experience for generations to come," and the "driving force" behind the Society's acquisition of the Al Ringling Theatre.  This and more, in but eleven seasons?  Something is wrong with this picture.   

I asked Scott if he will miss being there.

"I put my heart and soul into Circus World" he answered. Clearly, as I heard him speak, the job meant a great deal to him, and yet he is leaving without rancor, ready for an "encore" somewhere else.

Scott's departure will be in tandem with Dave Salutos, who is  retiring at the end of the current season, following a 40 year run.  Ominously, this adds another layer of implicit intrigue to a back story.

Sheer speculation on my part, we may find out what was really going on when we learn who will next assume the CEO desk.

There are some things in life that just don't make sense.  This feels like one of them to me.

 Sad to see you go, Scott.

Step Right Up! Snappy Snippets in Sawdust and Spangles! -- And It's All Free on the Inside!

The circus plays a big role in my new book Keep That Day Job!  Here are some excerpts:              

 The Dark Side of a Spangle

Wallace Bros hired me to usher.  A few weeks later, they recruited me to replace a fired clown.  Now I was “with it and for it,” and now being one of them myself, soon — all too soon —   reality’s wry sense of humor struck, when  I was introduced to a real life sledgehammer.  Sure, such a pleasure to meet you! 

Dining, Haute-off-the-lot at Wallace Bros. Circus

 $25.00 a week ... Not bad given the sweet free extras that come  with the glories of performing — your flat bunk in the truck you share with the band, and the three full-course adventures served you each day in the “gut foundry” as some called it — while others preferred  “ptomaine joint,” for cookhouse. One of our musicians regaled us over his having ordered  chicken fracases for dinner and being served “fried flower” 

      Pitching Elephants to ABC from a Payphone

I am off skates, on a pay phone at the Greyhound bus depot in Chicago, having just arrived with a list of media contacts in hand.  Time is of the essence, only three days before the circus of Sid Kellner, now titled George Matthew’s Great London, is to open in the suburb of Oak Terrace.   I shove a lot of change into the phone, and start frantically dialing up local TV and radio stations, hoping to land free coverage

Typing through Tears

Up to my clerk's  desk at a chemical company in Century City, steps the office manger, handing me a just published rave review in Variety of my musical, Those Ringlings. After reading it, I continue pecking dutifully away  as a flood of tears come rolling down my face.  No town like this town.

The Ringlings, as Cast in Hollywood

Jeffrey Rockwell, who played Al Ringling  was the son of Robert, who had played Mr. Boynton on the TV version of Our Miss Brooks.   Hal Landon, Sr., who played August Ringling, was in real life the father of Hal Landon, Jr. The closest  geographical link to Ringling history was Wisconsin native Joseph Lustig, who took on the role of Alf T.    

Wishing I Could Be with Sid

At my first Kaiser Steel Christmas dinner on Lakeshore Avenue in Oakland, while walking back to a private dining room the firm had secured,  I spotted a former boss,  Sid Kellner, sitting on a bar stool chatting with a woman of looks sitting next to him. How I wished I could be sitting with Sid instead. But Sid was from another time.  And he could have been so much more, as I would profile in my book Behind the Big Top.

Buy your  big show tickets now at the Amazon Annex!

Show Me Some Dogs, and I'll Call You a Circus; Big Apple, Welcome Back!

 

Show's next Lincoln Center annual promises a more down-to-earth party.  Best of all, I see doggies on the show's new poster. Do you?  Are the current owners, whomever they are, daring to be a touch more authentic again? Golly molly, wonder of wonders, it looks like a circus is coming!  Best of all, it still calls itself a circus!

Pardon my unintended sarcasm, but I am looking to circus to stave off the end of human civilization, as more and more, the digital world is competing to replace it with a nightmare alternate universe composed of what are called called "bots."  I finally got around to googling out what those ugly four letters spell.  Oh, you already know?  ROBOTS. I am always, it seems, a few upgrades behind the latest gizmo.   More and more, these clever invaders are making more humans feel less connected, needed, valued. More and more, we are coming closer to the inevitable showdown between us and them.  I'd love to see a sci-fi flick in which the bot bastards go to war with each other and blow themselves up into impotent digital dinosaurs imploding over and onto each other. Crash and collapse! 

Over in San Franfreako, here in the State of Insanity across the polluted bay, the new driver-less taxis are getting hissed at and attacked, smashed and left feeble, possibly by the Uber and Lyft drivers they are designed to render obsolete.  How sorry I feel for those drivers.  When I talk to them, I can feel the hurt in their voices, the void in their hearts.  Many of them value what they are doing.  And I recall Chinese premiere, Xie issuing an order to a few regions: If humans can do what your robots are doing, hire the humans. "Hire humans."  How revolutionary.  A preview of what may have to come?

Which, for me, makes real circus as opposed to the human and bots variety, a welcome retreat to the real. 

The mere sight of some jumpy dogs getting to perform with humans tells me that, gradually, the public may come to see what has been lost under our tents in the name of progress.  And then maybe a horse act, and then, maybe some riders, and then, maybe a pig down a slide. One step backward at a time.

There are still animals, plenty of them, in the Russian shows, and in many European shows too.  And over here, among a few heroic hold outs, there is the Zoppe Family.  As I have previously noted, the Zoppes play to a more sophisticated clientele down in the Redwood city main library parking lot, in the the heart of Silicon Valley. 

Whatever happened to Jenny Vidbel? She deserves an apologetic encore. Bring back her magical menagerie, and let the circus be circus again! 

Keep That Day Job! Hits Number #1 in Amazon New Performing Arts Titles

 

 7.17.24

“A joyful pursuit! ... Readers will be delighted and surprised. Not just an excellent, inspirational recommendation for struggling artists, but perfect fodder for book club discussions ... Thoroughly engrossing.” -- Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Review.

JUST PUBLISHED!

 BUY NOW ON AMAZON

  https://amzn.to/3XVKLwB  

Or direct from the publisher:  bearmanormedia. com

7.9.24