World’s Greatest Flies Again ... Russian Horse Show Struggling in Texas ... S.F Tiger Taunters Win Big Bucks ... Symphony and Circus Share Stages ...

from 5/30/09

Roustabouts, hold your props! Vendors, cease all vending! Maestro Evans, softly into “Wedding of the Winds,” if you please! Ringmaster Ronk, your lines ...

“Now ladies and gentlemen, it is with profound pride and respect that we present, high over center ring, the return of the greatest flyer who ever lived — Miguel Vazquez!”

When I first viewed the photo above, that's how I felt. What a fantastic event the return of this big top icon would be. All that Miguel Vazquez, still evidently fit, would have to do is turn a double, even a laid back tipple. The announcement of his name and unmatched legacy alone would stir the crowds. After all, Americans still swoon to the spectacle of trapeze. The good news is that the quad king, who thrilled audiences through the 1980s and then vanished from view like a shooting star lost in space, is back, back here on Planet Earth, back being interviewed by and flying for Hollywood actor Philip Weyland.

Weyland is independently at work on a documentary about Vazquez's life, assisted by a group of high ender Hollywood pros, some with Emmys to their names: documentary producer and director Jake Gorst, and composers Richie Saccente and S. Cosmo Mallardi. "I've chosen this 'independent' route to give myself the freedom to make the film I want without any outside interference," explains Weyland.

Just getting the elusive Vazquez to talk should earn Weyland some sort of a prize. He did not know the flyer when he decided to undertake the project. "We never actually spoke until I arrived in Las Vegas and met him in person."

In March, Miguel flew for the first time in five years, with his brother Juan catching. "What a thrill it was," says Weyland, who witnessed the reunion in the air. "Miguel is in shape and is still one exciting and graceful athlete."

Another Weyland coup, in my awed opinion, I get goosebumps just gazing at the photo, to your left: yes, you are looking at two legends seated next to each other: Tito Gaona and Miguel Vazquez, along with Miguel's son, David. The road ahead for Weyland will be, I suppose, rough. When will the big tops ever get a decent documentary? Something more than another lame Celebrity Circus. Miguel, welcome back!

Tiger Tiger, Verdict Bad: The Dhaliwal brothers, who sued the San Francisco Zoo for injuries suffered when a tiger escaped its compound and attacked them, also killing one of their friends, have settled out of court to the tune of $900.000. Local radio talk show hosts push the taunting angle, sure the brothers were responsible for provoking Tatiana to jump a wall lower than national zoo standards and have at them. They downplay the same tiger attacking its keeper a year or so before. And despite conceding that the zoo itself was negligent, and without any evidence found that the brothers actually provoked the tiger's escape, Bay Area residents tend to view the brothers, who have had run-ins with the law, as thugs, Tatiana as the victim. A twisted media nightmare is over. Let's see, didn't a tiger in some other zoo just kill a keeper? Wonder if that keeper was a thug?

Another Troubled Horse Show: From Houston, where it first played in the U.S., to Dallas goes the Russian-based Artania horse and acrobatic show. Artistic director Mairbrek Kantemirov is banking on a lush U.S. tour, which I sorta kind of don’t see exactly happening. These horse show things are difficult sells. Two in recent years from Montreal came on with a bang, and faded out soon ... Show plays under white tents, with a cast of 50 performers and 19 horses. ... Turnout in Houston was “low.” Surprised, anybody? Artania then took on a new marketing firm, trying to recoup losses so far and turn the books from red to black. A Peterson peanut bailout, per chance? ... Tents go up on a street replete with bail bondsmen, liquor stores, and the county jail ...

Symphony and Sawdust: Concert orchestras are starting to send tumblers and aerialists aloft while Mahler and Ravel play on. Cirque du la Symphonie is the brainchild of one Bill Allen, who was inspired one day watching a Bolshoi circus performer warming up to a recording of Tzchaikovsky. In 2006, Allen started booking circus artists into concert halls. All over the country they have performed. En route to Modesto, California are six ring artists who will “fly across the stage, dance, juggle, tumble and perform feats of strength.” The musicians will share the same stage rather than retreat to the pit. “The orchestra plays harder when we’re out there doing our thing,” says Allen. Audiences will hear a mix of classical and modern selections, from Dvorak's “Carnival Overture” to music from Harry Potter.

[photos by Philip Weyland]

5/30/09

Boyi’s Big Top Stars: Icons Rise, Icons Fall ...

I like to talk about the circus to people from outside the circus. To people from other places and other backgrounds. Through their eyes, I see things I might not see through my own. Through their eyes, sometimes I gain fresh appreciation for elements I may have overlooked or simply taken for granted.

My friend Boyi, who was raised on a farm in the Chang Dong province of China and is now a college student, never saw a real circus in his country (other than side show-type stunt men working in the open air), and he has seen only one show here — Circus Chimera. The words "Cirque du Soleil" do not ring a bell with him.

But Boyi has a natural appreciation for many elements of circus, he is aware of the Chinese acrobatic traditions, and he has strong independent views of his own, as you shall see, and this I find refreshing.

While Boyi was looking at photographs of circus performers in my book, Fall of the Big Top, I asked him if he would score each on a scale of from 1 to 10. Since some of the photos, like the one of Miguel Vazquez sitting on a trapeze bar, are passive, I tried to give Boyi an idea of what these performers accomplished. But it is important to note, as Boyi himself would tell you, he is reacting only to the images themselves.

Here are Boyi's marks:

Alfredo Codona holding trap bar, body extended upward: Score 8

Barbette’s Bird Cage Girls: Score: 5

Svetlana Shamsheeva and dog . Score: 10. “I love dogs!”

Gunther Gebel Williams straddling tiger atop an elephant. Score: 5 “All he is doing is sitting.”

Bird Millman wire walking high over New York. Score: 10

Clyde Beatty in chair and whip face off with a snarling tiger: Score: 5. “Tiger is not doing anything. I want to see the tiger do a trick.”

Clyde Beatty pecking away over a typewriter: "I'll give him a 10.”

Con Colleano in a dancerly jump over the wire. Score: 6

Unus one finger stand: Boyi studied the photo closely. I explained it to him. He asked, “Is that a globe he is balancing on?” Yes, I replied. Exclaimed he, “that is absolutely amazing!” Score: 10. This was his most enthusiastic response, and I did not want to break the illusion. Should I tell him the truth about Unus? I did. Said Boyi, unphased, “Still a 10.” Why, I asked? “The line.”

Ballet of the Elephants. Score: 10. Most impressed by so many elephants working smoothly together.

Francis Brunn juggling a multitude of objects: Score: 7. Boyi seemed under impressed by so many objects in motion and by, it seemed, a sense of formlessness. If only he could have seen Brunn in action.

John Strong with little dog jumping through a hoop. Score: 7 “for the dog, not the man.”

Soviet teeterboard act . Score: 10

Ring full of dancers posturing at a Soviet circus. Score: 6

Miguel Vazquez sitting on a trap bar. Score: 8. “I see people in the Olympics turning many somersaults.”

Cirque du Soleil teeterboard act from Dralion. Score: 8

Pinito Dell Oro in a free standing forward swing. Score: 6.

Gui Ming Meng with vase on head. Score: 1. “I can do it.”

The Cristianis . Score: 10. Great appreciation for the complexity of animals and humans working together.

Chris Lashua, German Wheel: Score: 5

Lou Jacobs walking a floppy dog. Score: 5

The four Asia Boys in contortion formation. Score: 9. Strong admiration for the intricate coordination displayed.

La Norma, one hand to trap bar, legs extended. Score: 7

Christian Atayde in one hand stand while dog does hind-leg stand on his back. Score: 8

Bonus Comment: Where to see a circus? Perhaps because of the enchantment he felt over a 1954 photo by Ted Sato of the Ringling big top in the nation's capital, framed by trees, Boyi later told me that he is against a circus performing in an arena "where you see movies or other things.” He knows of the technical advantages that are available for circuses indoors, but prefers a tent. “I want to see a circus in a special place, a place I’ve never been before.” He also likes the light streaming in through the peaks of the tent.

Now, what do I take away from Boyi's comments and marks?

First, I have long regarded Unus as something of a scared cow, mainly because his act was so ill-structured, with the big item (one finger stand) coming first, making the rest seem somewhat anti-climactic. However, I can't think of a circus poster/litho that totally astonished me upon first sight as much as the one of Unus, when it appeared in Santa Rosa advertising the Big Show's appearance in San Francisco. Merle Evans once told me that Unus was “the best man performer I ever played for.”

Another of Boyi’s likes — the intricate coordination in group gymnastics — gave me pause to consider why the two and three person contortion acts, which to me are on the slow side, are so appreciated in general by the American public.

As for Boyi’s strong endorsement of the Cristianis, there again, from fresh eyes I am inspired to reconsider how I view such an act. I have long focused on the humans, not giving so much thought to the horse. My belated Kudos, horse.

Thank you, Boyi!


[photos, from the top: Bird Millman, circa the 1920s; Svetlana Shamsheeva, courtesy of Bertrand Guay/Big Apple Circus; Ballet of the Elephants, 1942; the Doveico teeterboard troupe, Soviet Union, 1970s; the Cristianis, circa 1940; Unus, photo by Ted Sato -- None of the photos on the sidebar to your right are from my book.]

originally published 5/26/09

Tent Tix Tumble, See Cirque du Soleil for 25.00! ... It’s a Virtual Twofer thing ... Blasted “Believe” Drawing Customers ... Wanna Know Why? ...

Was never a breeze, stocking the seats. Takes willing customers. Or plenty of shills. Seasons came and went, showman trouped on the fly. Now with this semi-depression thing on our lots, even the mighty monarchs are resorting to those discount deals ... Cirque du Soleil offering $25.00 tickets to five of its Vegas darlings, at the moment hurting for fans, that is, if you enter with a full-paying friend. Hmmmm, didn't I just see an offer sorta like that on the Carson & Barnes website? Very interesting. So, I did a mock purchase, pretending I wanted to see Ka, and the CDS promise came true, plus a few extra dollars. Perhaps that pays for a comp bag of peanuts. Now, if they will can add free airfare, they might attract millions of new believers (pun intended)...

The biz springboards up and down, it does. Yes, I know, you’ve heard me go on about this before. Well it’s fun, and, hey, have you anything better to do at the moment? So let’s wonder out loud about what this all means. I still see Cirque saturation backfiring on Guy Laliberte, who, the gambler he is, can’t seem to stop signing contracts right and left to install more shows in more venues.. Tie-ins with McDonalds? KFC? Feld Entertainment Presents Kooza? ... Cirque du Soleil Presents Feld’s Motor Sports? Who do you think will end up solvent? In the end, the money man outlasts the artist producer. Demolition Derby lives on. I feel here, Covington Connected, like a juggler journalist.

Big Apple is pushing half price tickets on Memorial Day. And the Russians, remember them, are ruing aloud, why oh why won’t the government support us as like it once did? This from current Russian State Circus Company director Mstislav Zapashny, a nice man, very talented wild animal trainer whom I recall interviewing back in 1979 during a two week whirlwind interviewing spree through four Soviet cities. Twas so different then, security, guaranteed wages, regular work, the respect of an astonished world. The great Moscow Circus it was. Envy of the globe ... There's Russian clown Slava durng a production of Snowshow.

Now what? Discount diva Barbara Byrd may be able to rent her services to the upscale tycoons hurting, she being one of a tradition of American tent show owners who somehow can keep a touring tent on the road when the road is bereft of customers. I still don’t know how she does it. Maybe with secret subsidies. Or Pledge Breaks. Carson & Barnes are coming back to the Bay Area, and that tells me they either did okay last year or are determined to crack a cold hearted market full of naval gazers, tarot card types and those precious thinkers with “issues” about you know what. C&B will again pitch canvas over the Cow Palace parking lot, an amazing occurrence considering how indifferently received they were last time around. Or was the scarcely attended show I went to an aberration? There’s always the second date, and the third ...

But not at the Santa Rosa fairgrounds, where I had hoped they would perform. Those Byrds in berets are evidently tenting up at a cultural performing arts center on the tony north end of town ...

About this part of the world, seems that Katherine Ringling North, daughter of JRN II, who does design work, is now a resident of Baghdad by the Bay. Strange that a Ringling should end up in my ex home town. We’ve yet to hear from John Ringling North III. Might Russian Hill, where Ms. North now resides, become the new West Coast production headquarters for Kelly Miller Circus?

Memo to all Med Schools: Banned are twins Marty and Jake LaSalle, (seen in the photo above) known to juggle for the Big Apple Circus. If the picture herein posted is an indication of the type of act they perform, I am hereby, in concert with the Big Top Brethren, issuing orders to all med schools to deny them admittance. How dare they desert the big top! So there. On this midway, poetry not biology rules. Now, that felt good ...

End ringers: Logan Jacot, over at his Sawdust Nights, high on a little circus called Nebbia, that he adores for its simplicity. I, a simple type, was likewise charmed, also by an air of whimsy about comical features. Would love to see that one. Sometimes, a slight nuance in another direction is just what the public might want ...

And why might the public be patronizing, in fair turnouts, the critically blasted Believe? At least, per a newspaper report I read. I have an idea here, so go with me if you will: Believe has a real live face, familiar to the public that might flock to the show. Face belongs to an illusionist named Chris Somebody, (okay, Angel) and that might be just what CDS needs, to come out from behind the masks and be a little more human ... Hold that face, Chris ...

Let there be discounts and let there be affordable dry ice. Now, San Francisco, have you an issue with that?

On Broadway, A Season of Redemption?

When the critics rave, beware. When they rage, beware. I’ve always been intrigued if not amused by the not infrequent disconnect between shows getting adored by reviewers, ignored by ticket buyers. Has anybody heard of The Golden Apple? One of dozens of ambitious shows that litter the junkyard of failure. Critical darlings, box office floporamas.

This season, Broadway is hosting two new raved-about musicals: Elton John’s direct-from-London Billy Elliott, which looks like it could run for years, and the more complexly questionable Next To Normal, which might not turn out to be so audience friendly. Very deep interior stuff bordering on group therapy. Got lots of high-five notices. The rare dissenters suggest these dysfunctional hoofers are so lost in their problems, we feel left out. I am reminded of the admiration granted the “ground breaking” Spring Awakening, a serious rocker that half-way rocked me with its now and then socko songs. It landed tons of Tonys, did not enjoy a super long run.

Last season, no, make that this season, Guys and Dolls got clobbered by the Big Pens, but West Side Story moved all of them. If I go back to Theatre Central, I’d be tempted to check out the new and improved Jets and Sharks.

When Wicked opened, what a nasty pro reception it received. So what? Hordes of instant fans lined up to be wickedly entertained. I suffered through Wicked’s bloated second act, as did the scribes, but the first act is so good, next time, if there is to be a next time for me, I will make my anonymous exit during intermission and perhaps have time to catch a Kelly-Miller roll in the mud around the corner or a Cirque du Soliel acro-seance at Carnegie Hall.

Let’s get real: the whole country needs Broadway hits (even flops) to keep the regionals and communities stocked with new stuff. To put fresh titles onto season subscription flyers. To keep the buzz alive. Was telling my brother, Dick, what fizzles on Broadway sizzles in Peoria. As long as it comes with a “made in the Big apple” label, the world is ready to embrace it, full force. Pity all of us would-be writers with our wannabe scripts and scores who can only dream of the coveted one-performance run in a Manhattan House. Because that one-perf run can last forever outside the city limits of New York. Oh, to have been there for but a single night!

Then American musical theatre will worship you, no questions asked. And out there are plenty of already fans arguing that you were misunderstood, the critics were unfair. And you will hear from hinterland directors telling you, "I know how to fix your show so it will work.” Sure, but why not try fixing mine up, Mr. Would-Be Director, while you are at it?

They say, if you can make it there (and we all know where “there” is), you can make it anywhere. No, no, this is how it should read: If you can open there, you can open anywhere. Who cares about the closing part. Just make it through the first night and you’re on. In. Certified. The Real Thing. Believe it or not, there are some contributors to 42nd Street turkeys still turning out more turkeys that get picked up from Bangor to Bakersfield. Cluck cluck.

One show I liked, even respected, in tune with the audience was I, was Mama Mia. Never could understand why it got such a bum wrap from the experts. Solid coherent book. Good engaging story easy and immediate to grasp upon lift off, so why all the dissing and hissing? They called it a "juke box musical," and they’ve got, this season, another new song sampler from the 80s (recycling the tunes of such groups as Bon Jovi, Journey, Poison) called Rock of Ages. It landed a glowing pass from the judges, who threw up their arms and said, in effect, heck, at least it does not pretend to be anything other than the juke box contrivance it is, so sit back and enjoy the music!

BTW: Anybody know who Poison is? Jack? ... Amy? ...

{photos: from Next to Normal and Rock of Ages]

Out of the Past: Showbiz Grabbag: Pizza Pitches to Vinyl's Comeback ...

Commercial Relief: Have you heard this on TV: “Alright, okay, so you’re saying you feel different ...” That’s the Pizza Whisperer guy, moving into The Meat Ball Marvel pitch, and what a laugh he is! I predict big things for this actor ... Why is it that sometimes the ads are better than the shows? I tried to get involved in this latest American Idol, but I keep waiting to see a contestant sing (remember the contestant???), and all they give us are the extras, like an opening Ringling spec shouting out, “We are the greatest!”

Now, over to Coney Island: How great will Ringling's summer tent-in be? Kenneth Feld is trying to make, I take it, a big splash out there where the Cyclone roller coaster cries out for passengers, and under only the second spread of canvas to host a Ringling-Barnum parade in over fifty years. So he brings out his Gold Unit, which, from reports, might be more copper than Gold. Still, it’s a start ... I hope he makes a better first impression than did Carson and Barnes on one Marcus Bethea, who left a comment here on my last year's 2-1/2 star C&B review, saying he saw the show in San Diego (recently, I assume) and felt exactly the same way I did (about last season’s opus—ooooo). Said Marcus, he and his wife “hated” the show, his kids “loved it.” It left the father more turned off than on by this big top: "I was thinking Ringling Bros. or Barnum & Bailey would be better, but now I am scared of any kind of circus." One reason might be that it ended up costing Marcus "over $200." I’m going up to Santa Rosa in June to check it out. In all fairness to the Byrds (who evidently are not donning Montreal berets in their scaled down one ringer), last year I did hear a kid chirping to parent or peer, “Let’s go again!” Those Hugo tenting tycoons, who can let me down, know their market, and it’s not me ...

Vinyl to CDs, no! Has anybody out there ever purchased an overpriced CD only to despise over half of the junk that comes with it? I recall a bloated Santana disc that delivered 3 or 4 good tunes. The latest attempt by Rodgers and Hammerstein, the "Organization" that is, to divvy up some respect for their also-ran 1947 flop, Allegro, is a 2-disc 100-minutes yawner that might have made a dandy splash on a single CD. No wonder those vulturous record companies have lost out to cybertunes. I have maybe a dozen CDs, total ... Still have all my vinyls. I played Frank Sinatra’s A Swinging Affair, simultaneously from my CD player and my turntable, and went back and forth, comparing. There IS a difference, and the future is yesterday ... And now, according to The New York Times, those wonderful old Vinyl stores for collectors are making a grand comeback ... And the young kids continue to discover the superiority of the LP album, too ...

First and still first: Two great actors who made impressive transitions back and forth between dramatic works and musicals were James Mitchell, he of my favorite movie musical, The Bandwagon, and Ricardo Mantalban (left), whom I once saw in perhaps my favorite of all musicals (and surely he was a reason), The King and I. Mitchell of late seems to be living out his last days on a soap I once watched (before it ended up mostly in hospital beds) All My Sluts (excuse me, All My Children). ... Back in the fifties, both actors met up in a recent TCM discovery, Border Incident, about the passage of illegals across the border. What a fine flick find ...

Public to private and back. Discovered a no-nonsense jazz outlet on Comcast, so much better than the local college-based FM station that seems bent on force feeding us artists of a certain obscure ilk. Comcast gives us the greats and some younger voices too without PC posturing, thank you ... The "media" up here is so into the bash Oakland crime stats agenda (as if nothing ever bad happens across the bay in precious SF, sure), that I’ve tired of talk show hosts, like the gifted intellectual whore Gene Burns playing to script, and have, in revolt, driven myself back to Terry Gross, when she isn’t interviewing somebody about medicine or Middle East. And I just learned that our local NPR radio outlet KQED is actually drawing more people than the highest rated local KGO-AM. Kudos, NPR!

Sinking into Asphalt? Why would Cirque du Soleil move two of its touring tent shows indoors? There goes Saltimbanco and Alegria, into arenas. Is CDS hurting for the loot they need to set up their designer tops, I wonder ... Saltimbanco under a hard top in Nashville and then North Charleston, NC, and then onto Florida dates. What a downer ...

Tonight in the tea tent over Jade Spring, I was showing Boyi my book Fall of the Big Top, feeling a tad high for it actually earned an Amazon review (four stars — I'll gratefully take what I can get --- I have never asked anybody to shill for me), and Boyi thumbed through the pages from photo to photo. His reactions to them were so interesting that I asked him to assign each photo of an act a score from 1 to 10. What is refreshing about student Boyi, from a China where he never saw a circus, is his ability to tell it exactly like he sees it, so we got caught up in a discussion about the performers, and I refrained from trying to color his reactions, because I love hearing what other people have to say about tanbark talents. Boyi remembered seeing Circus Chimera in Hayward some years back; he enjoyed describing to me the clown working a vacuum cleaner and the toilet paper that flew sky high out over the audience. On that very funny turn, we shared a common amusement. And, so, when next you and I meet, Boyi's photo scores will be up on the platform here on this meandering midway. You might be surprised. One of yesterday's "greats" that I have sometimes regarded as a kind of sacred cow, well, took Boyi's breath away ... Maybe Maestro Merle Evans was right.

First published 5.8.09

In the Church of Rodgers and Hammerstein: Allegro, their first flop, is no Show Boat.

Broadway CD Review

A fine new, lovingly packaged concert recording of the 1947 Allegro, issued in a 2-CD set, does little, unfortunately, to bolster the show’s inferior reputation.

Following the great success of their first two blockbusters, Oklahoma and Carousel, Rodgers and Hammerstein embarked on an original idea to dramatize, in a more experimental form (with ersatz Greek chorus) the life of a man who grows up to be a doctor, makes a name for himself in a big city, becomes disillusioned with rich folk who consume pills like candy, and returns to the small town of his birth to practice medicine among "real" people.

Allegro generated a phenomenal advance ticket sale, opened to wildly mixed notices, and was gone in 10 months. Brooks Atkinson found its first act "full of a kind of unexpected glory." What followed intermission left him wanting. That's exactly how I felt when I saw a very good college production of the show in southern California back in the 1980s.

Allegro was somewhat daring in its experimental structure — it inspired a young Stephen Sondheim to follow its “concept musical” approach. But its feel-good execution fell glaringly short of a fully realized work -- short by at least half a book and half a score. A half dozen top-drawer R&H songs include "A Fellow Needs a Girl," "So Far," "The Gentlemen is a Dope," "Money Isn’t Everything," and two high-energy gems that did not make it onto the original cast album, "It’s A Darn Nice Campus," and "What A Lovely Day for a Weeding." Here, they are a joy to rediscover. Here, we get the magical supremacy of R&H at work. Even then, disparage as they may the original cast LP, the renditions it offers of my two favorite numbers, "So Far" and "Money," are somewhat more appealing than those delivered on the technically advanced CD.

No matter, those six gems must share the stage with half a dozen also-rans, among the plodding ditties, "One Foot, Other Foot," and "I Know it Can Happen Again." There are too many reprises of these weaker tunes, making us wish that that it wouldn't happen again.

The interpolation by Rodgers of his "Mountain Greenery" from an old show he wrote with Larry Hart only adds to the impression of a creatively straining work. And yet, ironically, out of Allegro came one of the most loved of all the R&H songs -- but not until the tune, originally known as "My Wife" before it was dropped on the road, appeared in another show with a brand new lyric, "Younger Than Springtime."

Perhaps the biggest bonus is the welcome inclusion of the remarkable "Allegro Ballet" music, which incorporates Stravinskyian dissonance and dynamics. Through it all, we can see and hear what Dick and Oscar had in mind that so entranced the show's fans and that has left a lasting legacy for Allegro's admirable reach.

Overall, do we really need a two-disc salute to a second drawer tuner? What was good for melody-rich Show Boat over 20 years ago feels padded and gratuitous for the thinly talented Allegro. I would have welcomed one disc packed with the best of the bunch. Not another "one foot, other foot," please.

The libretto suffered, and here you may get a sense of why, from Hammerstein’s overly simplistic portrayal contrasting glibly hedonistic city life with the alleged innocence of a small town community. So spiritually inclined is this work, that it feels almost like a church service conducted by Dick and Oscar. They had intended to follow their central character, Joseph Taylor, Jr., all the way through to his death. They only got as far as his heroic return to the town of his birth, there to rejoin the real human race as opposed to the fake human race.

And there, never to face the problems that might have made Allegro so much more interesting, so much more engagingly dramatic. When Rodgers and Hammerstein returned to Broadway two years later, gone was the Greek chorus. And what they delivered was easily three times better: South Pacific.

Rodgers and Hammerstein fans will surely welcome this new and impeccably produced release. They also might, in time, return to the original cast album to save a lot of down time.

[photos from Allegro CD set, starting at top: the original New York cast; crowds line up for tickets outset the Majestic Theatre; Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II during Boston tryouts, September, 1947]

New York: You’ve Got Circus! ... Steve and Ryan, You've Got My Au Revoir ...

Live in New York and still not circused out? Wait a few days, maybe only a few hours, and another troupe will come spangling into view. Beware of pachyderm poo. Look both ways when crossing Broadway; Thespians now share the street with jugglers. More circuses are on the way whether you like it or not. They are coming because, suddenly, the Big Apple is the Big Prize for big tops.

Guy Laliberte, King of Montreal, just won’t go away, even if (or maybe because) you have yet to show him the love he takes for granted in other cities. Reports in The New York Times are that Cirque du Soleil’s Wintuk at Madison Square Garden theatre over the holidays drew 20 percent less biz than the previous year. And whatever Ringling-Barnum managed to bring off at the Garden, Kenneth Feld is another you’re-not-done-with-me-yet producer. He’ll be back come June. Back at Coney Island under a tent. This is part of a big Bloomberg vision – something about the sawdust ring reviving a broken down seasize boardwalk that once drew millions, including me. Feld Entertainment "hopes" for a three- to five-year run. A circus saving a carnival? Anybody want to bet me a bag of Peterson peanuts?

Back to Mr. Guy. Our globally obsessed mogul just can’t get enough shows up to quench his thirst for ubiquity. Some insiders are wondering if he is not running the risk of overextending his hand. Doesn't matter. This man is burning up inside to make Metropolis a Second Home. Seems that his Dubai visions have stalled. Laliberte tried grabbing a hunk of real estate at Pier 40. Escrow was no go. “Dead,” he told the Times in a remarkable fit of candor. “So instead, you come in by the back door, or even a window.” So, homeless in Manhattan, Mr. Guy is settling for rentals (with that I can identify), to wit, his Grand Interim Plan:

February, 2010: CDS opens a vaudeville show at the Beacon Theatre, to be directed by David Shiner, with a book and score by pros, and slated to run more than a few weeks, assuming the public doesn’t run away.

2011: CDS tumblers and ticklers cavort at Radio City Music Hall over a four-month frame. Another ambitious “annual” outing. Half of each year will see the troupe touring Paris or London, if not Hugo.

Up there interviewing in the Laliberte latitudes, NYT reporter Glen Collins did learn from Cirque’s Genius-in-Chief that sinking biz in Vegas is “a scary crisis.”

Heck, with our two biggest big tops battling it out for Big Apple Bragging Rights, and what with all the lesser lights (Birdhouse Factory, Casual Cal, etc.) vying for a shred of the I'll-Take-Manhattan market, not to mention the well established Big Apple Circus (remember them?), maybe poor old Kelly-Miller can find a vacant clump of mud on a street corner and break some daily bread.

Speaking of which, going end ring here, (yeah, this one’s ending sooner than you might have expected, but you’ve still got popcorn and tea, I trust) ... Other morning on a walk, I was struck by an epiphany. I’d just got my daily Steve Copeland fix and it just struck me, I’ve been there done that a thousand times, and I get the dude’s drift, and so why do I keep returning to the blog? What kicked my hollow habit was Copeland’s rants. He’s a clown who just can’t resist critiquing audience reactions, mainly those that come at he and partner Ryan Combs. But when he ranted on about a convention of cellphone addicts coming between the crowds and the show, that did it for me. I had to leave the tent, and haven't been back since ... One more wonderment and then I’ll hang up this touchy issue for a while: Why would a circus allow one of its performer-bloggers to define (if not sully) any positive advance imagery they are endeavoring to cast? And why do they even allow customers to twitter and twat while the show goes on? I have my own Big Idea: Why not a blog from John Ringling North II? Why not a circus owner telling it like it is from his point of view? Now, would that get me up even earlier!

Where was I before getting twittered into a snit? Oh yes, Mr. Lalaiberte was, while chain smoking, granting the Times a glimpse of his burning ambition to take the Big Apple once and for all. I told Don Convington, who links me to a lot of these news breaks, how I envy him being in the middle of it all. Answering back, said Don, “we are living in interesting times."

[photo above: Artist's rendering of the Ringling Coney Island set up]

Kenneth Feld’s Dubious Coney Gamble Could Dramatically Reverse Ringling History ...

Showbiz David Speculates

Kenneth Feld, finally, has found a tent in which he can feel at home. I am thinking the one on its way from Europe to America, to be pitched over Coney Island when Feld's smaller Gold Unit will appear during the summer at the sagging seaside resort.

Forget Kalaidoscape. As good as this Cirque du Soleil spin-off struck some as being, the man who for a moment wanted to go upscale and grab a part of the CDS market soon lost heart. Mr. Feld, I believe, simply realized how little patience or flair he has for such artfully crafted things, and how far better he is at the art of populist marketing. When recently, talking to a reporter, Feld described his operation, not without a touch of pride, as the Wall Mart of the circus world, I think the statement showed that he has come to terms with both the limitations and advantages of his native commercial instincts. He is a shrewd corporate animal, partly carved from his father’s example. Of late, he has demonstrated an interesting, if not always impressive, ability to shake things up as never he did before, and to tinker with a radical redesign of the Ringling performance format. Part of this is no doubt driven by the changing look of circuses world wide; part by shrinking crowds, arguably driven off by the constant PETA protests. Kenneth Feld's bolder moves may lead to novel excitement.

Now as for the Coney Island gig, I doubt this will work out long term. The location and time of the year strike me as wrong wrong wrong. Yes, Big Apple Circus does well each Holiday season, so perhaps Ringling can find a viable market across the hot summer months, assuming the tent is air-cooled. Somehow, I don’t see it happening. And New York may be saturated out, what with Ringling’s annual Madison Square Garden date preceded by the Big Apple and the Cirque Wintuk multi-month runs over the Holiday season. Come summer time, who is going to be in the mood to take in yet another circus?

What may happen, however, is an eventual move — are you ready? — for Big Bertha (remember her?) back to the big top.

Okay, stand up and cheer; or stay seated and jeer my naivete.

The American return to a single ring has posed problems for the producers who rent huge auditoriums. Pity the arena circus. As crowds thin out (and here I am assuming they are from what I have seen), these shows look lonelier than ever, what with so much space to fill and so little with which to fill it.

Feld’s first ringless circus, the oddball 2006 outing, was fairly pathetic, drawing valid negative notices from big city critics. But the producer listened to his patrons -- one of his reigning traits -- and continues to make audience-appealing changes.

Might Mr. Feld eventually decide that he will have to return to the tents in order to stay viable economically? I’m not sure. But I would not rule out such a dramatic reversal of Ringling circus history.

When John Ringling North, over fifty years ago, declared the tented circus as it then existed, to be “a thing of the past,” what weighted on Mr. North’s mind was being able to maintain the lavish three-ring format that he had elevated to such visual rapture. Under a hard top, he could afford what he could no longer afford under acres of costly canvas.

But that was then. Now, five decades later, we are down to one ring. Now, those huge arenas no longer seem as necessary or nearly as flattering, not when so few of the seats get taken.

Look beyond Coney to a possible new -- or older day -- for Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey.

Friday Nite L’Amyx: An Obit Made in Feld Heaven? ... Kelly Miler’s Asphalt-Averse Flyers? ... Cirque’s Insects in Spandex ... By the Byrds Blessed ...

Where do we start after all this time away? Let’s salute Barbara Byrd’s routing inspirations. Last year she pitched the last American three ring tented circus in the city of my dubious birth, San Francisco, out there at the Cow Palace. Now Lady Byrd is bringing her new one-ring Carson and Barnes compact to another of my boyhood settings, fifty miles north in Santa Rosa.. At the fairgrounds come June, and maybe on sacred sawdust: the very spot, I hope, where Clyde Beatty threw up bannerlines when I was oh-so-young. What symmetry!

What is it about John Ringling North II’s lack of an advance sense that gives me pause? Take a look at Kelly-Miller's revamped blog and you’ll see a mishmash of photos both old and new, and a pull down window to check upcoming cities that turn out to be yesterday’s towns. From Steve Copeland’s breezy diary in blog form, seems this show feasts on muddy lots. And that’s the only place where you’ll see the flyers fly, for over asphalt they haven’t the rigging they need. The show can‘t plant stakes into cement, so instead of a flying return, customers get a flat trampoline workout. Now, is this anyway to run a circus that supposedly prides itself on offering a full-course program? I’d say it isn’t ... I’ve expressed high hopes for the return of the house of Ringling, but I am starting to feel like this one may be half empty. Pray for Milwaukee mud ...

UPDATE CLARIFICATION from Kelly-Miller's manager Jim Royal: "Our flying act, the Fernandes Family, can work on asphalt. It is when (perhaps twice a season) when we are on concrete and the owner of said concrete, won't allow us to drive stakes that we have problems." What can I say; evidently, I got the wrong impression from several references that Copeland has made to the issue.

Bad times for circus biz? Not so for Cirque du Soleil or Ringling-Barnum, both claiming to be doing just fine despite a depressionary climate. Cirque's Daniel Lamarre states "Crowds are still coming out to be entertained." As for the financial crisis, "it's certainly not hurting us." Over to Kenneth Feld, who told the Atlanta Business Journal, "it's the biggest year we've ever had." ... These entertainment giants are, to be sure, offering steeply discounted tickets here and there. ... And what to make of the three-month Ringling run under canvas at Coney Island? Says I, there is more to this than meets the midway, so I’m taking it to center ring a town or two up the road ...

Cirque Du Soleil insects, starring in the new OVO, can be seen in video snippets on Sawdust Nights. So perfectly skilled as disguised acrobats, and yet, in their insect spandex, somehow they look strangely sterile and so lifeless as to make it feel like Cirque is disappearing into an abstract void. I hope not, for I admire the show’s courage to take big artistic chances ...

Default to the Feld Press Kit, Continued ...About the unfortunate recent passing of Tim Holst, at only 61, I know little about the man, except that his Mormon background seems to have given him the humanity that was obviously loved by many on the Ringling payrolls. I only know he was an outstanding ringmaster, whose red hat I wished he had never turned in for a desk job. Now, about the obituary in The New York Times, why do I sense the omnipotent hand of the Felds at work pulling strings in the background? We learn through a direct quote attributed to William B. Hall III, who should if anybody know better, that Mr. Holst was the man who first recruited soviet bloc artists into the rings of Ringling. Pardon me for once again bringing out John Ringling North, who in prolific concert with one Trolle Rhodin, began importing acts in 1965. Those gave the show a massive jolt of fresh blood, and the critics from NY to LA were wowed, and the show did great at the box office. This strikes me as a ploy to add another fake feather to the Feld scrapbook of fictions ... Am I the only one who cares?

Touched by a little concern, a little praise: Some e-mailed me, wondering what was going on since I haven’t been posting for weeks. One visitor to this blog reminded me of how I felt when I likewise wrote a while back to the missing-in-action Sawdust Kid (aka Logan Jacot), asking him if he was okay. In fact, I am gratefully, humbly, even, truth be told, fearfully blessed with pill-free health; Got caught up digging out the first draft of a new book. This blog was and will always be a hobby, to which I must now and then practice not being a slave ... Oddly enough, the stats haven’t dropped much. Well, when you’ve got the loyal 7 visitors that I have, what a loyal seven they are, even when I ignore them!

And that’s a late Friday night wrap from the tea tent where Boyi and Will, showering me with friendly attention during an empty house, suddenly were bombarded with teaaholics and swung back into tea tender mode ... Which is a good thing, because the place doesn't stock Peterson Peanuts or Ringling designer snow cones ...

Lonely Ahead of the Big Show: Ticket Seller Bill Taggart is Sent to Sell Advance Tickets for Ringling in 1955; Engaging Bandwagon Account Takes Us Back to Another Time, Another Place

Ringling-Barnum set new records at Madison Square Garden

Marilyn Monroe's famous appearance opening night at the Garden

 Ready for another day in the yellow ticket wagon: Bill Taggart. Bandwagon photo.

He was the ticket seller everybody liked.  Midway in Bill Taggart's 1955 season with Ringling, he  reaches an unexpected detour in the road. He is assigned to go on the advance ticket sales to fill in for another ticket seller on the sick bay.

The circus  employed seven men that season, who each leapfrogged, handling select dates, setting up a booth in a local store, staying there from a few days to sometimes over a week.

Taggart’s first town was an eight-day stint in Jonesboro, Arkansas, where he stayed at the Noble Hotel.  What a far cry from how the advance is worked today.

The Holidays spec, designed by Miles White.  Ted Sato photo.

Only 24-years-old,  the amiable young Ringling representative took the temporary stint in stride, yet he missed the action back on the lot, where he enjoyed the friendship of so many Big Show people, among them, the young Alfred Burton, Deiter Tasso and the Fredonia family. 

On Honolulu Bay featured the incomparable Pinito Del Oro

His account takes us into the cities, into its hotels and cafes, and he recalls the scarce presence of African Americans, who lived in the shadows, in fear.  On Ringling, the canvas went up and down, says Taggart, mainly because of the black men upon whom it critically relied. 

“I was well aware of the fact that I was in the segregated south, and you did not see blacks on the street at night and few in the daytime.  I remember the black porter who worked at the store where the advance sale was.  He was friendly, but shy.  No black ever bought advance sale tickets.”

Once the circus reached up with Bill, the next day he was sent ahead to his next stop, to handle the advance in Barrett’s drug store in Greenwood, Miss.  “I liked eating at the post office cafe ... There were lots of interest in the 1955 edition of the Greatest Show on Earth, and I was proud to be working ahead of the show.  I remember lots of middle aged and older people checking out my big top seating plan and by late in the afternoon I had a good first day ...”

Looking for a camera at the Greenwood Camera store, he made friends with a "sales chap," and at the drug store, with a young medical student it employed.  “Once in a while he joined me at the hotel for dinner and drinks.”                                                                                

At the last moment, the show changed lots -- moving west on Cutting Blvd. to Pt. Richmond. 

I’ve anxiously waited this particular season from  Taggart’s pen just to see how he  would treat the Richmond, CA date.  It was there where I saw Ringling-Barnum under the big top for the one and only time in my life.  His details are regretfully few.  In a season of many so-so days, few marked by great overflowing crowds, Taggart remembers strong customer turnout in Richmond. So do I.

“We had a fair matinee and a good house that night.”  Yes, it was very good at night. That was the performance I attended, and the tent seemed nearly full to me.

Bill's story has a quiet appeal for any good and hopeless Ringlingphile;  Because we are traveling on the Big Show, every little encounter can seem bigger than life. 

After working a few towns, Bill got to return to the show itself and resume his regular duties, some in the yellow ticket wagon.  But he proved to be a very fine goodwill ambassador ahead of the circus.   In one city, he was invited to talk about the circus several evenings on a local radio station.  It “helped to boost my ticket sale at the drug store.  I had dreams of becoming a pres agent like Frank Braden or a radio man like Bev Kelly.”

Off axis from Sweden: Everto, of Evy and Everto, on his Anglo-Cycle

And, then, in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Bill was so liked by one Mr. and Mrs. Fincher, who dropped by the store to purchase reserved seat tickets, that a dinner invitation  ensued.  “Wow, I thought to myself, I was actually going to be in a real house.”  He became good friends with the Finchers, and they corresponded for many years.

Another meal in Ft. Lauderdale would prove to have historic meaning.

“No one could have possibly imagined that this was the last Thanksgiving dinner served by the great Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey cookhouse.”

The last full season was soon coming to an end.  Taggart’s graceful account, attractively illustrated in Bandwagon, with some of Severe Braathen’s brilliant color photography,  leaves us all with an up close and personal route book, complied by a young man liked by many who harbored visions of a career under the greatest of big tops. A career that, sadly, came to a sudden end when the big top came down for the last time, the following July, in Pittsburgh, PA.

[the color photography you see here, not ideally reproduced, first appeared in a lavish Life magazine spread "New Shine for the Circus" -- and, who knows, might not appear here for long]

posted circa 2010