Steve Fress of Portfolio.com takes an interesting look at Cirque du Soleil’s recent activities – its triumphs and its “failures” – and places them in perspective. From the article:
- For the first time, Cirque has a bona fide dud of a show in Las Vegas, attendance is underwhelming for its production in Macau, and critics are already sharpening their knives over two new shows due to open
this month, one in New York and another in Vegas. A development deal with Dubai World isn’t playing out as expected largely because Dubai World’s development activities have been, uh, complicated by its financial implosion.
Yet somehow—per the company’s name—it’s always sunny inside the office at Cirque’s international headquarters of cheerful Cirque CEO Daniel Lamarre. Not only is he undeterred by setbacks that he’s largely unwilling to acknowledge as setbacks, but he is laying plans for even more rapid growth for the company that could make the brand as ubiquitous as, say, Disney on Ice.
By the summer of 2011, the company expects to have opened resident shows for two of the world’s most famous venues, Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan and the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, and still the machine in Montreal will continue to churn at high gear.
“I can easily see Cirque developing two to three new shows a year,” said Lamarre, brought in as chief operations officer in 2001 by owner Guy Laliberte after helming Canada’s top TV network with the express mission of accelerating the company’s growth. “To produce three shows a year, it means I have to have nine shows in the making. Right now I’ve got 2010, 2011, and 2012 planned out.”
Read more of the article here.
{ SOURCE: Portfolio.com }
Ricky Russo - Orlando, Florida (USA) /// Founder and the Chief Conjurer and Director of Creation for the "Fascination!" Newsletter (a.k.a. the "Chief Architect"). He writes the newsletter, researches its many columns, and manages the newsletter's activities and schedule. {Aug 2001 - Present} 