Canine charisma at the Big Apple Circus.
FEELING LITTLE DESIRE to post an end-of-the-year looking back piece — what is there to look back upon over a landscape as baron as Germany after the war? Without Ringling and without Cole, that’s how it feels to me. And so, I came close to not posting at all, but then by luck, I stumbled onto a remarkably contrary review by April Stamm in Broadway Blog of the new Big Apple Circus. I had a hook in. Ms. Stamm stakes out her position thus:
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“IN THE MIDST OF ALL the trapeze, acrobatic, and clowning fever [in Manhattan] you’d think that an actual circus in its 41st performing year would at the pinnacle of the trend.” She found this not to be the case, describing the Big Apple acts as executing cleanly but lacking “an apparent degree of difficulty ... The juggling came out without a hitch but wasn’t gasp worthy.” Most of all, what she found missing was “heart and storytelling.” She talks up acts in the more experimental troupes that “craft not only a well-told story, but also explore emotions and relationships."
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OH, GOOD GRIEF! They are now in our faces -- fringe circus advocates no longer hoping for but now nearly demanding equal time for theatre. That word equal. I have seen plenty of legit critics disparaging artsy allusions to narrative by Cirque du Soleil and others of its ilk. Virtually none of them took story telling to task other than to wish it wasn’t there.
Solid thrills from the returning Tunizianis.
HOWEVER, WHEN STAMM points to groups like 7 Fingers as examples of pushing boundaries, I can and have to appreciate her point of reference — a little. In fact, at the last visit I paid to 7 Fingers, I was swept away by at least two absolutely terrific acts on the bill, one from Alexandra Royer on pole vaulting (I’d never seen anything like it); the other, Ugo Dario and Maxim Laurin deftly working off a single teeterboard. Both flat out thrilling. If only there had been more of this, and a lot less of the humanizing angle. Really, I don’t care to know what a juggler has for breakfast.
HOLDING THE VERY opposite view of the Big Apple Circus is Michale Sommers of The New York Stage, writing, “This seasons’ theme-free program wastes no time on presenting extraneous fiddle-faddle and simply gets on with the show ...keenly talented artists.”
WITH A SHARP EYE for nuance, Alexis Soloski of The New York Times clearly enjoyed this year’s show more than she did last year’s. Even then, her notice leaks telling qualms that give some credence to Ms. Shamm’s own regrets. The show, wrote smith, is “high flying, but also more low key ..... The marquee acts are fewer.” The horizontal juggling: “visually ravishing --- but unastounding.” Upright ladders: “astounding discipline, but isn’t much to look at until he adds a soccer ball.” Curiously, Ms. Soloski believes that the public expects flying trapeze acts to perform without safety nets, which they never do. She writes, " I’ve always found the alternative too stressful." Indeed!
Failing to impress: New ringmaster Stephanie Monseu
OVERALL, THE IMPRESSION I glean from various reviews is that Jenny Vidbel’s potbellied pig is the star, clowning is weak, new ringmaster Stephanie Monseu, with little to do, is rendered ineffectual, and most of the acts are moderately entertaining, with a few thrills on the side. And Grandma is still missed.
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COCKTAILS AND COTTON CANDY: The revamped Big Apple Circus website, in gorgeous yellow, opens, not with a tease of those acts, but with snazzy videos of customers meeting the cast in a cool-looking VIP Tent, and dining at cozy tables. Booze is now on the bill.. Streaming excerpts from reviews draw on last year’s as well as, shamefully, still including bogus excerpts from a Wall Street Journal review that never was. The ruthless fabrication quotes from a pre-opening Journal story last year quoting BAC describing its own show! Astonishing.
Below, the quotes as turned into a bogus Journal review of the show, on its website.
HOW CORRUPT to the core might this new Apple be? Another matter emboldening my question is a lawsuit alleging breech of contract against new Big Apple Circus owners, Compass Partners, filed by Larry and Rita Solheim. As reported October 15 in the New York Law Journal, the Solheim’s claim they were instrumental in persuading the old Big Circus board to sell to Compass. The new group promised the Solheim’s key executive positions on the show (Solehim had been VP and general manager of BAC since 2015), but they were gradually pushed aside, and then fired. I’ll have more on this ahead.
A RESPECTED NEWSPAPER allowing its reporting to be so corrupted? Kids, let me lay it out plain as A B C: Look up there ---The Big Apple Circus is conning the public into believing that the Wall Street Journal filed a rave review of the show. Not just last year, but this year, too. I have never witnessed such fraudulent advertising. I doubt that even P.T. Barnum would have stooped this low. But as for the Journal apparently condoning it? That's the bigger story.
END RINGERS: The other significant milestone in 2018 is New Jersey being the first state to ban all wild animal acts, and were any of us not ready for that? ... Paul Binder, now hanging out on Facebook, but going circusless, seems to be banning himself from posting anything about the circus he founded – or any others --and I can only wonder why Paul is so mum, and stay mum myself ... Another inactive impresario, Guy Laliberte, maybe angling for a way way back into artistic control of the Cirque du Soleil he co-founded and brilliantly developed, telling The Canadian Press he is always always involved in "creative thinking" within the company ... And yet another retired big top tycoon, Kenneth Feld, riding high on his new Monster Jam roller coaster, pitching it to theme parks.
BINDER, FELD, LALIBERTE: What if, just what if, all three of them were to suddenly spring back into action? Can you imagine?
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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