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7.9.24
Monday, July 15, 2024
Sunday, July 14, 2024
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.
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