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.

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!

By Year's End From Showbiz David: My 2024 Wrap --- From E-Mail, Tidbits and Notes, Epiphanies and Hallucinations, and All Manner of Three Dot Wonders and Blunders Held Back for Another Breathless Look ... You Could Be There!

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

WATER for ELEPHANTS BUCKET RUNING DRY? More Empty Seats Spell Trouble ... Rival Stage Versions of The Greatest Showman, So Very Barnumesque ... Gravity Circus Ditches Globe of Death ...

Update 8.14.24: Water patronage slip continues, down to 75.67%.  Show announces national tour starting in the fall of 2025.  Can they reverse declining attendance?

 Update: 8.8.24  Water for Elephants played to the smallest capacity (79.9%) of all shows on Broadway,  the only one in the 70% range.  

 *** Revised, 7.30.24   

 TODAY'S WONDERMENTS  begin with the  84% of seats being filled at  Water for the Elephants on Broadway.  Number looks good to me, but in fact it looms near the bottom of an official  tracking website. Only one or two shows sink lower.  Most  musicals are well in the 90% range, and many are packing them in  – just to give you a jolt of perspective.  70%? Virtually none.  One of the leads already has announced exiting in September. The end of summer could spell less patronage. They might hang on long enough to claim legitimacy for a national tour.

     FOREVER BARNUM:  Rival adaptations of The Greatest Showman are forming on both sides of the Pond, or are they? Over Here, the Mickey Mouse musicals division of Disney still has in the works, or so reported  Stage Spy in West End Theater last October, a stage adaptation of the Hugh Jackman film.  Rumors suggested an opening anywhere as far out as 2027.  But hold your animal crackers!

      OVER THERE,  for a fact, the same score is being featured in Come Alive!, an extravaganza  “inspired” by the Jackman film.  This one kept the songs, but ditched the largely fictional script for a new model.  And it’s slated to open under a 700-seat tent at the Empress museum in Earls Court of London on September 23. ***Disney, which owns 20th Century Fox, maker of the film , appears to be peripherally involved, having "sanctioned" the production. Which begs the question: Are they still at work on their own adaptation?  All suckers, to the front of the line.  How so true did this feel to the darker history of  P.T. renting out use of his name simultaneously to rival big tops.

     OUT, DAMN GLOBE OF DEATH!  From Italy to  the UK comes creatively rich Gravity Circus.   As noted by Douglas McPherson in his review of the show on on his blog, Circus Mania, “Circus thrives in the new.” At its best, surely it does.  At the top  Gravity’s roster of the new, they’ve 86d that tired old Globe of Death carny stunt.  Taking a cue, I’d guess, from a similar arch of flying motorcyclists on Circus Extreme, the riders here soar over “a ring full of dancers and jugglers passing the central fountain while fire erupts in rising balls of flame.” Whew!   Greyhound:  Have you a through bus to there?

      END RINGERS: Speaking of Barnum, latest issue of  Bandwagon delivers a Big Show in  Part 1 of Chris Berry’s spectacular story, “There Used 5o Be a Circus Here: Madison Square Garden."  Lavishly illustrated yarn is centered around P.T. and other major tenting tycoons who played a role.  I can’t wait for Berry to gets to the later years when I was around, assuming he does.

     ROYALLY SPEAKING:  Also In the same Bandwagon issue, James Royal is profiled by Lane Talbuet for his 10-year career in the UK, ringmastering, producing. and promoting.  He has a way of partnering with names in the Gold class. He joined with Philip and Carol Gandley to create the telemarketed Circus Britannia – The Circus With a Purpose. A few years later, they brought out Circus Star. I’m waiting to see what Jim has to say about his days in partnership with John Ringling North II

7.28.24.

SUNDAY MORNING NOW: A Challenging New Day at the Greatest Show on Earth: Hyperactive Set Design, Feeble Direction Suck the Life out of an Ageless Delight

 revised 7.15.24

Acrobatic Circus Review
Ringling Bros / The Greatest Show on Earth
On You Tube at Columbus, OH, 8 months ago

Preface. I had imagined being lyfted out to the Oakland  Coliseum, right up to the arena.  No, I would have been dropped off at a gate on the edge of a parking lot along one of the town’s deadliest streets. No thank you.

Once, again, as with Vargas last year, I am left muddled in a dizzy dichotomy between the acts and the production. So, let us take them one at a time:
        
THE ACTS

On balance, they are a sturdy, sufficiently accomplished  lot — when not hooked to lifelines, falling into nets, or grabbing hold of rigging between tricks. To my (jaded?) eyes, only a precious few rang my WOW bell.   Most of the action favors the customary staples: teeterboard, webs,  hand balancing, contortion,  juggling, flying trapeze, high wire, double wheel, Rola-bola, and the human canon.

The show lifts off now and then, and I wished there could have been more of the show-stopping mastery produced by two absolutely terrific risley acrobats. A+ in my book.  In fact, for me, the highlight of the program. 

Other notable high points include two criss-crossiing trapeze acts, which marks a refreshing interlude from the norm.  And there are two double wheels instead of one, offering a tad more tingle to what is regularly expected. These riders worked overtime.

In addition to the staples, show offers gaucho dancing and young bike-riding daredevils up and down ramps. 

At the top: America’s own Wesley Williams, who has a talent for being human, something this show could use a lot more of, scores big time with his sky high ride on a 35-foot high unicycle. I felt a genuine thrill even though he was life-lined; without which, a crash landing over the audience could spell catastrophe.  His act has been split into parts performed at intervals. A shame, but the show benefits from his ingratiating recurring presence.  Indeed, what is lacking the most in this strange antiseptic comeback is a personality.

Where was the robot dog? I might have missed him during Wesley's turn. The you Tube I saw appeared to contain the entire show from start to finish.

A couple of kind of charming clowns take up little space inconsequentially.

THE PRODUCTION:

As for Ringling’s over the top set – stay with me here --- I saw three hills (or platforms), roughly spaced as in the old three-ring layout. On and around them, the performers tend to look smaller and diminished, like ants lost in a maze of flashing light patterns that grab our attention, in effect dissipating the action. In effect, disrespecting the artist. Whatever was Kenneth Feld thinking?  Does he have so little faith in his talent pool which he claims to be world class?   Boooooooo!

On the  outer two ant hills of Ringling, other acts endeavor  to snare a little attention, one of them, a group jump-roping troupe that may go four-high.  I would love to have seen more of them.

Spectacle?  Dancers and hand clappers circle the arena periodically in an effort to rouse the audience, which can feel somewhat hollow and obligatory. 

A trend not worthy of the “Greatest show”–  The insidious invasion of mechanics are of no help here. These tell-tale safety wires can render the user a lazier, less skilled artist, no longer needing to rely on exacting technique in order to avoid a plunge. Thus, they now can get away with being sloppier, less tautly disciplined.  The performance suffers.

Music: An amorphous recorded soundscape with a cold  heavy beat left me in a fog.  Totally unmemorable.  This, from the Greatest Show on Earth?  This from a billionaire  circus owner?  

At the  very end of the performance, Wesley alone, in street clothes, comes running across the set -- a touching human image closing out a cold, impersonal enterprise.

All of the above notwithstanding, the crowd was large and responsive. For all we know, the show may be cleaning up, in which case look for more of the same to continue.  But why do I still see widespread hostility in Yelp Reviews, still  averaging 1-1/2 stars?  (Vargas is drawing 4).

Let me close with a recent Yelper from Brian, Willow Grove, PA, May 29:

 "Save your money. The American circus is officially dead. There is no Ringmaster. There are no clowns. There is no pageantry. There is no National Anthem. You cannot buy a pennant. There are no programs sold. They won't even say: "May All Your Days Be Circus Days." They lamely announce: "May All Your Days Be Ringling Days." This costs hundreds of dollars a ticket?"

 My Rating:

Acts B+

Production values: D

May all your days be better than this one.

What the Circus Can Teach Broadway, Oh Really?

Updated: 6.20.24

Yes, an odd question -- in the form of a headline rolling down the  Covington chute a while back.  Questioned was posed in a Theater Mania interview with the show’s director, Jessica Stone.  So, have we here a big hit, I wondered.  So big that others may want to learn from it?  Even, dare I say, imitate it?   

The very assertion in the headline -- Jessica Stone on what the circus can teach Broadway ---  may have raised hackles among Broadway pros,  taken aback by the gall in its being raised.  Upon closer examination, seems the question was launched by the article’s writer, Zachary Stewart, in his asking Stone,  "What is something that you’ve learned a tremendous deal about in this process?"  Here’s the best I can extract from Stone’s underwhelming reply:
    
 “I’ve learned so much about rigging. .... You need to know that the person holding their arms out is going to catch you, and that can only be built through play, community , and trust.  That’s something I will always take with me.”
            
How to rig?  How to be sure you know your partner well enough to trust them?

But can Water teach Broadway how to compose better scores?  Better choreography?  Better scripting?

There is a fundamental difference between circus and theater. The one is mainly all about acrobatics and the daring-do of performers.  The other, about the human condition. And they don’t easily mix in equal measure.   The hit musical Barnum dwelled more in the human, with a socko score and a good enough story. Nobody talked up its token acts. If fact, I can’t remember any other than Jim Dale as Barnum walking a low wire.  Water’s acclaimed circus artistry -- cited by some as the reason to go -- may only add to the impression of a feeble story flailing about between – not songs, but  acts.

In fact, with the possible exception of Billy Rose's Jumbo, this may be the first musical to share the stage with top-line circus acts -- assuming  that they are that good.

Now with not a single Tony to its name, can Water for Elephants yet bring off a dark-horse victory and prove its haters wrong – half the notices were scathing.  Or will it’s luster fade away with the passing of another Tony Season?.  Something about the good notices it did draw (a critics pick from the Times) and glowing customer gush (possibly shilled) gives me a feeling it just might surprise them all.  But I wouldn’t bet on it.  In Theatre Mania's most recent weekly box office report, some shows played to 90% or more capacity.  Water was not one on them. 

Next on Midway Times Square?   Disney has been workshopping a musical based on the Hugh Jackman movie, The Greatest Showman. They might have better luck. The movie has a score that dazzles, especially younger ears, and circus performing is incidental.

Brits Sing 80th Anniversay Wishes to Rodgers and Hammerstein in Staid Tribute ... The Best, the Worst, and the Strangest ...

Review: My Favorite Things: Rodgers and Hammerstein's 80th Anniversary on PBS Great Performances  / 90 minutes /  at Theater Royal Drury Lane, May 31.

The most moving moment in this overly sentimental -- to the point of maudlin -- 80th Anniversary tribute to the musical theater giants: Anther giant, Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber, appearing at the end, having a hard time holding back  tears of genuine love for the team, of how, without them, there might not have been the musicals he composed. 

THE BEST: The songs are powered by some of the finest talents.   Among the towering treasures, "Younger Than Springtime"gave me the indescribable thrill I felt when first hearing this song in my youth.

THE WORST: Marisha Wallace's self-indulgent, vulgarized rendition of I Can't Say No from Oklahoma. There is a delicate line between character interpretation and culture signalling.

THE STRANGEST: Totally out of place on a program alleging to celebrate the collaborations of Dick and Oscar.  A numbingly oddball song called Something Good, feebly floating the idea of a "wicked childhood"in Maria's background.  This torturous ditty was NOT created by R&H, but by the composer, writing his own words, and inserted in the movie version of The Sound of Music, to replace a lovely ballad, An Ordinary Couple.  Rodgers was said to have never liked the number, so with Oscar gone, he pounced.

SAME OLD. SAME OLD:  The 90 minute PBS version ignores one of the six successful R&H stage musicals, Flower Drum Song. And the entire lot of songs on the CD leaves out numbers more dark and sophisticated, such as A Lonely Room from Oklahoma, and How Can Love Survive from The Sound of Music. (See it brilliantly choreographed in The Sound of Music, Live, 2015.) Another absolute gem is the very anti-sentimental Shall I Tell You What I Think of You? from The King and I.

All of which, suggests poor, inept oversight.  The world of R&H, forever lionized for its virtues, is, the deeper you go, shaded with realism and off beat emotions, sometimes subtly.There is a very quiet number in Flower Drum Song, daringly quiet, I am Going to Like It Here.  Whenever I play the album, I marvel at how the calming atmosphere it evokes affects me, readjusting my mood to slow down for something so utterly simple, and to find in it rare beauty.

The 42-song CD will give you at least one song from all their scores. 

Singing: A

Minimal Dancing: B-

Range of the canon represented: D

Chapter Titles For My New Book Revealed

 Coming from BearManor Media on July 4th

KEEP THAT DAY JOB!

HOW TO ENJOY CHASING SHOWBIZ WITHOUT GOING MAD

Not Born in a Trunk

On Stage in an Orange Crate 

The Sink in My Salad 

Antenna Acrobat to Cash Man at the People’s Window 

 
Be A Clown, Be a Sledgehammer 

Furniture, Dogs, and the Moon on Credit 

Broadway Bound at College 

Park Avenue Calls

Why, You Don’t Look Like a Circus Press Agent to Me!  

No, I Don’t Give Private Lessons for Roller Derby 

 

Pitching Elephants to ABC from a Payphone

 
Cast and Framed for Restroom Duty 

Clerking for Egg Heads and Hard Hats 

 File Me Out of This Flop 

 Hollywood Takes on Ringling

Dream Boss from Central Casting 

 

 Just Another Day in Quake City 

 
 Law Land Follies  

Still Merrily Stranded Out of Town

Curtains Rise, Curtains Fall

A True Trapeze Queen Shamefully Ignored By History

 

 Update, 5/28

Our winner had checked in!  He posted under The Magic Guys, but somehow, his full message did not come through.  His answers was:

Latvian aerialist Lena Jourdan, of the Flying Jordans

Congrats, Magic Guys!

End of update. 

Still ignored by writers and historians who should know better: Lena Jordan, not Ernest Clarke, was the first flyer to turn a triple somersault on the trapeze.  Most sources place the feat on Jordan Bros. Circus in Australia, 1897. But according to the Guinness Book of Records, Jordan actually turned the first triple in New York city with the Flying Jordans, an American troupe, in 1896, at Koster & Bial's Theatre 

Not so fast, says Wikipedia, claiming that the New York record has not been officially recognized. Rather,  In May 1897, Jordan, aged 16, "became the first recorded person to perform a triple somersault during a routine in Sydney, Australia."

The Circus Ring of Fame in Sarasota propounded the myth by ignoring  Jordan altogether, in order to give  Antoinette Concello credit for first female to turn the triple. 

How does the Circus Historical Society check in on this?  I once followed a thread on their history message board, all the way to a contributor who confirmed that, indeed, the honor goes to Jordan.