“What Ifs and If Onlys, Part 6 of 7”
By: Ricky Russo – Atlanta, Georgia (USA)
Cirque du Soleil has been searching for a partner to enter the New York City market since at least 2000, when Guy Laliberté announced his dream project – “Complexes Cirque” – that would bring the company’s brand of entertainment to large cities around the globe. London was always offered up as the biggest of Cirque’s residence targets, but if London was its first choice, New York City was a very close second. Even so, Cirque du Soleil has found it quite difficult finding and keeping a residence in The Big Apple. It’s most successful turn – Wintuk – found the Cirque on tap for four winters (2007-2011) at WAMU Theater. It’s next attempt – Zarkana – found relative success for two summers (2012 & 2013) at Radio City Music Hall. Paramour, the company’s first attempt at a Broadway-style musical, performed for only one season (2016-2017) at the Lyric Theater before being asked to make way for Harry Potter. And then there’s Banana Shpeel – the show that spent just two months at the Beacon Theater (2010) before being yanked off stage, tossed out of the city, and thrown into the record books as Cirque’s first big flop.
None of these four attempts has officially given Cirque du Soleil what it’s wanted: a Mystère-length residency in New York City. And while the company has had some hits in the big city, there’ve been an equal number of misses too.
THE ROTTEN BIG APPLE
One of the earliest came in 2003. The Rockwell Group approached the Cirque’s long-range planners with the idea of including a home for them in the New York City architecture firm’s proposals to redevelop Lower Manhattan’s East River Park. “When they approached us we said, ‘Let’s see your idea,’ ” Cirque publicist Chantal Cote said. The Rockwell Group’s plans call for space for a hydroponic garden, an aquarium, a hotel and a permanent venue for the Cirque. The park project falls under New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Vision for Lower Manhattan scheme, a broad urban-renewal plan to redevelop parcels of the city in concert with the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site. The next step for the redevelopment proposals will be costing and environmental studies. “This is a kind of contest, there are many other proposals,” Cote said. “We expect there will be rounds and rounds of discussion before any decisions are made.”. Obviously that didn’t happen.
Prior to negotiating with Madison Square Garden, a number of attempts at a permanent residence in NYC came through Stephen Ross and his Relative Companies corporation. One, in 2004, saw the company become part of a redevelopment pitch at the South Street Seaport (Pier 17, located just below the Brooklyn Bridge on the East River in Lower Manhattan) that would see the buildings on the pier demolished and replaced with a theater for the Cirque, but General Growth Properties (the new owners of said Seaport; the idea was being explored with the previous owners) nixed the idea. Another in early 2005, had the company part of a 200,000 square foot addition at the foot of Brookfield Place in Battery Park City (a.k.a. The World Financial Center). This creative project would have doubled the current retail space and add foot traffic to an often-desolate area behind the Winter Garden. Brookfield, which owned the WFC and was exploring the development with Related, said the project was “very much in the pie-in-the-sky phase; there are a million steps between here and there.” The World Financial Center’s corporate tenants would ultimately nix the proposal for security reasons.
One of the most high profile of these cases was Ross and Relative’s plan to bring Cirque du Soleil to West 42nd Street in Manhattan in mid-2005. Ross proposed to demolish a couple of “underperforming” theaters in the district, remaking the space with a dozen buildings up to 160 feet tall. The Performing Arts Center proposal would include an 1,800-seat “state-of-the-art performance space” for Cirque du Soleil, a 12-screen cinema with 2,000 seats, a banquet hall for 3,500 guests – “attracting a variety of programs across all three meal times” – six huge gourmet restaurants, plus clubs, and 40,000 square feet of “destination” shopping, all just three blocks from Times Square. “For 10 years the owners have wanted to sell the property to a developer,” Eric Krebs, who leased the spaces and managed the affected theaters told Broadway.com at the time. “For five years I’ve been on a six-month notice basis, and it has finally come to pass. They’ve managed to sell.” The plan sparked a bitter drama worthy of the Broadway stage. On October 31, 2005, The Montreal Gazette described it as “a collision of art and commerce in a city where real-estate development is constantly making and remaking neighborhoods.”
The project has touched off an imbroglio that pits the developer against theater enthusiasts, the local community board, and some city officials. It also seeks to plumb the definition of “legitimate theatre” – a murky rubric that has come to embrace drama, musicals and even puppets. Ross wants to take advantage of a city zoning regulation, a “theater bonus” created [in 2004] to encourage the building and preservation of theatrical space on the stretch of 42nd St. just west of Theatre Row. The bonus would enable him to build a taller tower than would normally be allowed and reap the sales of ever more valuable apartments, in exchange for building a $140-million, 1,800-seat theatre for Cirque. But critics say the zoning bonus was intended to nurture struggling, and often homeless, off-Broadway theatre companies, not a commercial juggernaut like Cirque du Soleil. And, they say, the large complex Ross has in mind does not belong in the residential neighborhood that is emerging there.
As soon as the theaters were vacant, Related had the 199-seat Douglas Fairbanks Theatre (located at 432 West 42nd Street; in operation for 23 years) and the 286-seat John Houseman Theatre (located at 450 West 42nd Street; in operation for 18 years) demolished, which did not help the situation. It also didn’t help that the proposal was constantly changing. Anna Hayes Levin, a co-chairperson of the land use committee at Community Board 4, which covers 42nd St., said the board had initially supported Related’s application for a theatre zoning bonus based on its original proposal: to replace the two small theatres it demolished and build a “classical music center” that would be overseen by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. That project also had the city’s blessing. But in a move that Levin described as a case of “bait and switch,” Related soon abandoned that idea, proposing instead to create space for House of Blues, a large nightclub and music hall. When that proposal ran into opposition from the city planning department and the community board, she said, Related quietly began talking about building a large theatre for Cirque, as well as the classical music center in order to utilize the “theater bonus” clause.
Related executives contended that they never committed to replacing the off-Broadway theaters. On October 6th, Ross and executives from Clear Channel, his partner, took the Cirque project to the planning department directly. City officials and real estate executives who had spoken to Ross say Related planned a tower with about 800 apartments and had hired the architectural firm Arquitectronica to design it.
They said Ross wanted the zoning bonus so he could build additional commercial space. Officials began debating whether Cirque could be classified as “legitimate theatre,” as zoning regulations require, and whether it should get the benefit.
The city has long wanted to find a permanent home for Cirque, which has performed under a tent at Battery Park City and on Randal’s Island. But determining whether Cirque qualifies for the bonus on 42nd St. is all the more difficult because the zoning regulations do not define the term “legitimate theater.” Critics contend that Cirque productions are wonderfully entertaining shows of high-wire and trapeze acts, clowns and contortionists, not theater. Further, Cirque is a robust profit-making entity. “The idea of theater bonuses is a key to the quality of life in the city,” said Fred Papert, president of the 42nd St. Development Corp., a non-profit organization that has overseen the development of Theatre Row. “But the idea that Related, Cirque and Clear Channel would get a bonus is plain flat-out greed, corporate charity, and simply an appalling idea.”
Cirque du Soleil remained relatively quiet through the ordeal. That silence was broken on November 9, 2005, when the Calgary Harold published a small statement from Renee-Claude Menard, Cirque’s communications director: “We have 11 current productions which are all very distinctive. Our style is a fusion of everything, not just theatre or dance or circus or music, but a mixture of all of the above.” Some shows have storylines, which the planners may view as “legitimate” theatre. But Ms. Menard said Cirque would not surrender artistic license by committing itself to any particular format. “We’re a legitimate art form and we very much want to be in New York City,” she said. “But it’s not the location that’s going to dictate the content.”
Alas, it was not meant to be. On February 9, 2006, the city handed down its decision on the zoning bonus — NO. “We’d love to have Cirque in the city,” said Amanda Burden, chairwoman of the Planning Department. But, she added, “at this location they simply do not qualify for a bonus.” Jeff Blau, the president of Related Companies, said: “You can’t win them all. But we respect the city’s decision. We have to redo our plans and decide what to do.”
And they did. Today the MiMA Building (a stylized abbreviation of “Middle of Manhattan”, a mixed-use building, stands in the middle of Hell’s Kitchen. Ground was broken in 2007 and topped out in August 2010. It was designed by the previously-mentioned Miami-based architecture firm of Arquitectonica, and has 43 floors of luxury rentals on floors 7 to 50, twelve floors of condominiums on floors 51 to 63, and a hotel on the lower levels. At 638 feet (194 m), it is the 101st tallest building in New York. The Related Companies stated that the project “has been well received because of the amenity package…”, which includes a private health club, an outdoor movie theatre, a dog run and full pet spa. In 2012, the Signature Theatre Company opened The Pershing Square Signature Center inside the MiMA Building. The center consists of three theatre spaces, two studios, a shared lobby with a café and bar, bookshop, and concierge desk, and administrative offices that span 70,000 contiguous square feet. There is, however, no Cirque du Soleil.
In either case, later in the summer of 2006, angry Coney Island residents forced developer Joe Sitt to scrap plans for a Cirque du Soleil theater inside his massive makeover project along Surf Avenue there; one New York City official dismissed the concept as “too Bellagio.”
In fact, the architect for the rejected project was Stanton Eckstut, the master planner for the City Center Project in Las Vegas. And his plan was bold. There were drawings of high-tech arcades, a glass-enclosed water park, hotels, restaurants and waterfront condominiums. Skit described an entertainment complex that featured the most far out, “over the top” attractions, from an indoor ski hill and a giant Ferris wheel to a dirigible and helicopter landing station atop a tower.
He plans to build a glittering resort paradise right next to the Coney Island boardwalk—a retail and entertainment colossus every bit as outrageous and flamboyant as the Bahamas’ Atlantis. The plan includes megaplexes. An indoor water park. A 500-room, four-star hotel and, at the center of it all, an enormous, psychedelic carousel laced with visual cues to a Coney Island that Timothy Leary could have dreamed up. Equally spectacular, Sitt hopes, will be a blimp that will take off from the complex’s roof, carrying tourists on joyrides every ten-minutes over the city as it flashes the resort’s name in giant Technicolor letters: THE BOARDWALK AT CONEY ISLAND. The total price tag: $1 billion.
Sitt also hoped to entice Cirque du Soleil, the House of Blues, and other name-brand draws to the project, but like most redevelopments in New York City, it wasn’t meant to be. After complaints from residents and city officials, Sitt scrapped his dirigible plans for an indoor mall with warehouse-style stores and a theater for Cirque du Soleil in favor of designs that were more open to the neighborhood and in line with Coney Island. Those fell apart too.
And lastly, in December 2006, Cirque du Soleil and Related were together again on a proposal for the redevelopment of Pier 40, at the western end of Houston Street in Hudson River Park. Pier 40 was originally one of five “finger” piers numbered 37 through 41, which were owned by the government of New York City, and were used by various transport companies. In 1956, the city announced a plan to consolidate the five piers into a single large passenger and cargo terminal serving the Holland America Line. Construction began in 1958 and the terminal was opened in 1962. When the Holland America Line moved to the New York Passenger Ship Terminal in 1974, the pier continued to be used by ships until 1983. Afterward, the New York State Department of Transportation purchased the pier and used it as a parking complex for cars, busses and trucks, as well as commercial warehousing. Bus, truck, and warehousing activity ended in 2004. The pier reopened in 2005 as a neighborhood sporting complex. However, despite its popularity, the pier is dilapidated and sinking into the Hudson River. Thus the plans to rescue, fix, and redevelop the area.
Cirque du Soleil’s letter of interest was part of a proposal by Related Companies for the redevelopment of Pier 40, said Renee-Claude Menard, Cirque’s director of public relations. “If Related does get the bid, we would be interested in pursuing it,” Menard said. But she said actually opening a show is probably “close to two years down the road,” and the exact scope of Cirque’s plans remained uncertain.
With a decision due by February 2007, the Hudson River Trust declined to disclose details about any of the four proposals submitted to them, but some neighborhood groups were worried that any development would hurt access to the heavily-used 3.5-acre athletic field in the courtyard of the giant building that ringed the pier.
And Related Companies’ plan (which they’ve described as a “Downtown Lincoln Center”) was a doozey: a 600,000 square-foot, 10,000-seat, nearly $700 million multi-venue mega-entertainment complex to not only house a permanent home to Cirque du Soleil, but include a space for the TriBeCa Film Festival, and rooftop athletic fields. With repairs that were estimated to run about $280 million, Related was offering to pay $5 million in rent a year to the Trust, and rehab the pier. But some wealthy neighborhood residents banded together to derail that plan, and they proposed raising private funds to do their own rehab, create rental space for artists, and “keep the park a park.” They dubbed Related’s proposal “Vegas on the Hudson”, worried that the development would overwhelm both the Hudson River Park and the surrounding West Village, Hudson Square, and SoHo neighborhoods, attracting an almost-entirely tourist clientele which would arrive largely by automobile thereby choking out the residents.
The neighborhood association won out. In early 2008, the Hudson River Park Trust voted to reject the Related Companies’ proposal. By 2009, Guy Laliberté himself said the project was “dead”. But he added he had arrived in NYC via “the back door or window.” That window was Madison Square Garden Entertainment, which represented both the Beacon and Radio City Music Hall, and provided Cirque’s theatre for Wintuk. So there’s some consolation anyway.
CIRQUE IN DUBAI… AGAIN?
If you’ve been following Fascination for a long time, news of Cirque du Soleil planning to reside within the borders of the United Arab Emirates shouldn’t come as a surprise. We’ve been hearing about Cirque in Dubai off-and-on for years. The first, you may recall, back in May 2007 when Arabian Business Online confirmed rumors that Cirque du Soleil signed a multi-million dollar, 15-year deal for a show at the heart of the Palm Jumeirah (an artificial archipelago created using land reclamation by Nakheel) following the smashing success of Quidam in the country earlier that year. The two companies were to jointly design and build an 1,800-seat theater to be home to the first ever Cirque resident show to be staged outside of the United States and the Far East. The show, expected to begin its creation process by January 2008, would then open by first quarter of 2010, with an official gala premiere to occur later in December of that year.
But the process became complicated before it ever got off the ground.
On the 24th anniversary of Cirque du Soleil’s founding (June 16, 2008), rumors began circulating that Cirque had been approached by Dubai-based Istithmar, a leveraged-buyout firm affiliated with Nakheel, for a £1 billion investment (or buy-out) of its operation, which would give the fund a “significant” stake in the company. An unidentified Cirque representative said at the time it was “rumor and speculation” and that Cirque du Soleil was not for sale. “The Cirque du Soleil is a very attractive business and we regularly receive offers from individuals or companies,” Renee-Claude Menard, director of Montreal-based Cirque’s public relations later said. “So occasionally, rumours and speculation of our sale abound. In this case, it is just that, rumour and speculation,” Menard said.
But less than two months later Cirque du Soleil announced that the company had indeed sold a 20% stake to Nakheel and Istithmar, part of Dubai World (August 6, 2008). The agreement kept control of the Montreal-based entertainment company in the hands of founder Guy Laliberté, putting to rest conjecture that the troupe would be sold outright, but speculation still abounded. “This partnership is the best of both worlds for me and my management team,” Laliberte said in a joint statement. “We can keep control of our creative challenges and operations while accelerating our growth doing projects all over the world.”
The investment did little to help the Dubai project get off the ground, however. By late 2008 the premiere date for the still unnamed, un-themed show had slipped past 2010 and into 2011; by March 2009 that date slipped again into 2012, thanks in large part to the global economic crisis which had just gotten underway. Dubai’s stake in the MGM City Center project and its subsequent development problems and cost-overruns didn’t help matters either. Brett Judd, Head of Entertainment and Leisure at Nakheel told Emirates Business at the time: “As with any other company, [the financial crisis] has made us reassess our projects, but the show is going ahead [for 2012].”
Unfortunately that was not to be the case. On June 6, 2011, plans for a base on Palm Jumeirah for the Cirque were set aside. “There is no plan for a Cirque du Soleil permanent [presence] in Dubai at all right now,” company’s Corporate PR Manager Chantal Côté said. “This project has been set aside.”
Asked if Cirque was in talks with any other companies in the UAE to host a permanent show, Côté replied: “We are not speaking to any other party in the UAE.” And asked if Nakheel or Istithmar were in talks to sell their stakes, Côté said: “They cannot sell their stake without the consent of Cirque du Soleil’s founder Guy Laliberté. There are no discussions to that effect at the moment. They still own 20 per cent of Cirque du Soleil.”
Confirmation that Cirque du Soleil would not pursue the Dubai show did not come as a surprise. News about the show had been scarce since the initial declaration and most had given up on the concept ever seeing an audience. The only thing we’d learned about the show came from an interview we did with Martin Lord Ferguson and Ella Allaire, who eluded that they had written demo songs for the show (and that François Barbeau was working on costume sketches).
By 2013, Guy himself quietly reclaimed the 20% stake in the Cirque from the Emirati investors he’d sold to just five years before, and that’s the way things remained until mid-2015, when rumors – whispers really – began to surface about Cirque in Dubai once again. This concept, we were told, would be a much smaller effort though – a boutique show in a black-box theater (a simple, somewhat unadorned performance space, usually a large square room with black walls and a flat floor). But it wisped out of existence like a mirage. The next attempt was a little flashier…
On May 14, 2017, Dubai Holdings announced Marsa Al Arab, a mega-project spread over a 4 million sq ft area to be developed at a cost of Dh6.3 billion ($1.71 billion). Adding 2.2 km of beach frontage, the comprehensive tourist destination aimed to elevate the family tourism proposition in Dubai, provide supporting foundations to host Expo 2020 Dubai, as well as reinforce Jumeirah Group’s leading position locally and globally as one of the driving forces behind the growth and prosperity of the tourism sector. The project was supposed to break ground in June of 2017 and be completed by late 2020.
Marsa Al Arab was to be comprised of two islands on both sides of Burj Al Arab Jumeirah (the hotel that resembles the sail of a ship). One would be dedicated to entertainment and family tourism, while the other an exclusive luxury resort. Nestled between would be a dedicated theater with a capacity of 1,700 seats to become home to the world-renowned Cirque du Soleil for the first time in the Middle East. Daniel Lamarre said of the partnership: “Dubai’s unique geographical position between East and West, along with its regionally unparalleled infrastructure and sophisticated hospitality offering means that demand is strong for a beloved and enduring institution such as Cirque du Soleil, and we look forward to raising the curtain for new fans in this new facility with new shows designed specifically for Dubai. Cirque du Soleil already enjoys great patronage from residents and visitors alike and we are pleased to now have a permanent base in the new epicenter of global tourism.”
Alas, construction never really got started; therefore, the show was never created. Marsa Al Arab does still appear to be a project the Jumeirah Group is undertaking, just scaled way, way back. It will be interesting to see if Cirque du Soleil ever does reside in Dubai some day, but I won’t hold my breath.
WELCOME TO PARADISO
Like I said, Cirque du Soleil’s track record in creating variety content specifically for television is mixed at best, but that would not stop the company from signing deals to get more of its product on the small screen. Like this one on April 4, 2006:
Cirque du Soleil is set to be revamped for UK television, after signing a three-year deal with INITIAL, a subsidiary of independent production giant Endemol, which makes Big Brother. The Canadian performance group will work with the television producer on a series of 60-minute programs expected to be filmed at the O2 Arena, previously known as the Millennium Dome, and broadcast in 2007 and 2008. Cirque will lead all creative content aspects of the stage shows but Initial will develop the television production side. Andy Ward, director of special projects at INITIAL, said: “Cirque du Soleil are the most exciting, visual and popular artists in the world and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to work with them to translate their spirit to television.”
Alas, nothing seems to have come of this venture, unless we count DELIRIUM, which was indeed filmed at the O2 arena in April 2008 and later screened in theaters as a HOT TICKET EVENT (similar to Fathom Events), but that’s stretching it. Luckily, more would come out of the next joint venture…
On August 28, 2012, Bell Canada and Cirque du Soleil announced they had formed a new, far-reaching joint venture to develop Québec-based media content for television, film, digital, and gaming platforms by leveraging Cirque’s creative resources, consumer insight, and infrastructure with Bell Media’s production experience, media platforms, and diverse distribution capabilities. Four months later that new venture would be called Cirque du Soleil Média (CDSM) with Cirque du Soleil’s Jacques Méthé installed as the new division’s President.
Things remained relatively quiet until news broke on February 9, 2014 that CDSM and Saban Brands had entered into a pact to develop a children’s entertainment property based on Cirque’s productions. The deal included a new television series, web content, interactive content, and merchandise. Then on June 9, 2014, Toronto-based Marblemedia announced that it would work with CDSM to develop and produce a TV mini-series, a one-hour drama, and a live musical event for television. And then, on January 15, 2015, CDSM inked a first-look deal with 20th Century Fox Television to develop live-action prime-time scripted projects that went beyond the Cirque du Soleil brand and its live shows.
“Our goal with [these partnerships] is not to televise our live performances, but rather create properties in the primetime scripted arena that will elevate the genre by drawing from Cirque’s creative vision,” Jacques Méthé said in a statement. “Cirque du Soleil is recognized for its incredible, high-quality, artistic live entertainment. I am confident that by joining forces, we will propel our brand to new heights by creating distinctive high-quality television productions.”
And so the stage was set.
And though Cirque du Soleil Média did work on and have successes with MOVI KANTI REVO (an interactive online experience created for Google Chrome) in 2012, CHILD OF LIGHT (a video game produced by Ubisoft, in which CDSM collaborated on the creative design) in 2014, INSIDE THE BOX OF KURIOS (an 8-minute live-action VR experience) in 2016, the documentary TORUK: THE FIRST FLIGHT (a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of TORUK) also in 2016, and with LUNA PETUNIA (an animated children’s show with Saban Brands which aired thirty-three episodes on NETFLIX from 2016 to 2018), but what of the other two television deals? As far as I can tell they’ve dropped off the Bar at the Edge of the Earth.
Not long after 20th Television and CDSM inked their deal, Jonnie Davis (President of Creative Affairs at 20th TV) said they were “already searching for writers who can tap into their world to create scripted series that are as distinctive and exciting as the world famous Cirque live events.” By September 2015, according to Deadline, FOX ordered a script from this venture…
PARADISO, a drama from Cirque du Soleil Média, has been set up at FOX with a script commitment plus penalty, meaning the network will have to pay a fee to Cirque if the show doesn’t move forward. Inspired by the dreamlike style of Cirque du Soleil’s live shows, Paradiso explores what would happen if a character like Amelie from Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s movie went into a place like the Moulin Rouge, with exhilarating performances every week. Written by Yaniv Raz, Paradiso is a heightened soap that follows a girl pursuing her dream of performing at the Paradiso, the most glamorous nightclub in San Lorenzo (a fictional but contemporary city based on 1950s Havana). Once there, her bold personality will win her both friends and enemies in this politically charged world. Raz, who has extensive stage experience, executive produces with Cirque Média’s Jacques Méthé and Gillian Ferrabee.
PARADISO was planned to air during the 2016-2017 TV season – it didn’t – and we’ve never heard any more about it or the deal since. Marblemedia was also working on a primetime series – their first – called ALCHEMY, co-produced with Cirque du Soleil Média. ALCHEMY was billed as “a supernatural feast for the senses, wrapped in an unnerving and very human urban mystery that would leave the contemporary genre fans reveling in spectacle, gasping at the edge-of-your-seat action and begging for more.” Sounds interesting… but that’s all we ever heard about the project before it too disappeared into the aether.
Why did some of these projects work out and others just simply disappear? Although no clear reason has ever been given publicly, the disappearances have simply come down to changes in strategy over the years. Take the production deals in mid-2014 to early 2015 as an example: Cirque du Soleil sold to TPG in April 2015 and within months of closing the deal, radical changes at the Cirque began to unroll. Prior to the sale, Cirque du Soleil had organized its business into 10 different subsidiaries to give potential suitors a clearer sense of where Cirque du Soleil was active and expanding. After the sale, the new owners were not beating around the bush about where their intent laid: they wanted to focus heavily on what was currently working and expand/duplicate those options globally. And that meant closing some of the subsidiaries, folding the remnants into other divisions, and generally reorganizing the business to focus on the elements that the new owners thought was the most important.
SANDBOX, the company’s Hospitality division, was one of the first closed in October 2015. The PARKS AND EXPERIENCES division was folded into 45 DEGREES (think CREACTIVE and NFL EXPERIENCE). The plug was effectively pulled on C-LAB, the company’s experimental lab. And beginning in 2017, Cirque du Soleil MUSIQUE ceased to exist as a music label, and as an imprint of the Cirque du Soleil business entity all-together; music releases now come under Cirque du Soleil IMAGES. And that leads me back to Cirque du Soleil Média. In October 2016, Média’s President Jacques Méthé left the company; the following month Producer Gillian Ferrabee also left. And any future television projects – namely the kids show BIG TOP ACADEMY – were undertaken by the Cirque du Soleil IMAGES label, rather than Média. As have the more recent VR experiences. So while the partnership with Bell may not be dissolved, it certainly doesn’t appear to be very active today.
Interestingly enough, ALCHEMY does still appear to be on Marblemedia’s development slate in development with Showcase (Corus Entertainment), but who knows what may happen to it at this point.
To be Concluded…
