======================================================================= ______ _ __ _ __ / ____/___ ___________(_)___ ____ _/ /_(_)___ ____ / / / /_ / __ `/ ___/ ___/ / __ \/ __ `/ __/ / __ \/ __ \/ / / __/ / /_/ (__ ) /__ / / / / /_/ / /_/ / /_/ / / / /_/ /_/ \__,_/____/\___/_/_/ /_/\__,_/\__/_/\____/_/ /_(_) T h e U n o f f i c i a l C i r q u e d u S o l e i l N e w s l e t t e r ------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.CirqueFascination.com ------------------------------------------------------------ ======================================================================= VOLUME 16, NUMBER 6 June 2016 ISSUE #149 ======================================================================= Welcome to the latest edition of Fascination, the Unofficial Cirque du Soleil Newsletter. While we promise to focus a little on LUZIA this issue (my 17-page review/overview of the show can be found in the FEATURES section), PARAMOUR continues to draw headlines. In fact, you'll also find some reviews of Cirque first Broadway production in the FEATURES section this month too - and they're not good. Be that as it may, revenues for the show are still looking good - PARAMOUR is bringing in over a $1 Million USD per week, when it can perform its normal schedule. Week This Week Potential Difference Seats % Cap Ending Gross Grosses in Dollars Sold --------------------------------------------------------------------- 17-Apr $190,773.60 $191,599.00 $0.00 1,897 100.05% 24-Apr $1,018,941.65 $1,149,594.00 $828,165.05 10,623 93.38% 01-May $1,065,771.30 $1,172,274.00 $46,829.65 11,043 97.07% 08-May $1,074,995.70 $1,367,653.00 $9,224.00 11,443 86.22% 15-May $464,021.20 $781,516.00 $610,975.50 6,197 81.34% 22-May $907,800.25 $976,895.00 $443,779.05 9,213 97.18% 29-May $1,126,943.25 $1,805,456.00 $219,143.00 13,731 90.53% 04-Jun $1,024,449.62 $1,805,456.00 $102,493.63 12,000 79.11% Hopefully I'll get to see PARAMOUR in the near future and make up my own mind, but in the interim, to get a new "high-flying" look at the show, look no further than: www.cirquefascination.com/?p=8323. But PARAMOUR and LUZIA aren't the only hot tickets this month. Leading entertainment design firm, Goddard Group has revealed details about the company’s upcoming projects across Asia, in Mexico, and around the world, including attractions currently under-construction. “Following the phenomenally-successful launch of the $3.2 billion dollar Studio City Macau this past October, we’re very excited to shift our focus to the next wave of game-changing destinations and attractions,” says Hollywood, California-based Goddard Group Founder & Chairman, Gary Goddard. “We are now focusing on a host of major new projects in locations around the world, each of them unique and original, and each of them iconic and immersive.” One such project is the Cirque du Soleil Resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico... Partnering with Mexican resort developer Vidanta, Goddard Group is creating the new attraction and it is the first project to come out of the Goddard Group/Cirque du Soleil joint venture. The new properties from Grupo Vidanta – The Cascades and Kingdom of the Sun – are on track and scheduled to open in late 2018. The properties will be intertwined with the Cirque du Soleil theme park, the only attraction of this kind in the world. The project’s first phase showcases what Goddard says is "the world’s greatest and most-innovative water park – a new kind of experience that could only be done with partners like the Cirque du Soleil." Here, travelers can move beyond spectatorship to become characters within the park’s interactive stage and experience Cirque as never before. The park will include several themed sections that feature live performances, entertaining rides with a unique cirque spin and adventuresome games and challenges. An onsite cirque school can take the participation even further. Here, travelers will be able to learn some of the physical and entertainment skills they see in the Cirque du Soleil shows from the performers themselves, ranging from acrobatic feats to learning how to apply other-worldly stage makeup. In doing so, travelers will get a taste of what it is like to actually be a part of a Cirque du Soleil performance! Kingdom of the Sun will be a golden palace providing luxury accommodations at the doorstep of the theme park and the unique cirque school. The Cascades will be a gorgeous spa resort that will provide immersive cirque experiences with each room overlooking the park itself. As previously reported, the land has been cleared and construction is underway! Check out a few new renderings of the project here: < http://www.cirquefascination.com/?p=8375 >. Exciting to be sure! However, on the evening of May 22nd, during the Teeterboard act, one of the artists had a fall. All the established safety protocols were put in place and he was immediately attended by Kooza's emergency response team. He was moved to a local hospital, where it was established that he was secure and had no serious injury. He has been released and the Kooza family is happy to report that he is doing well. All scheduled performances of KOOZA were presented so thankfully the injury was minor. Can't say the same over at LA NOUBA. Both the early and late shows at La Nouba were canceled on Tuesday, May 31st due to a fire. According to eye-witness reports (and fan follow-up), it appears one of the popcorn machines in the lobby caught fire, which in turn triggered the sprinklers which flooded the lobby area of the theater, including offices for stage management underneath. Power was also shut off to the building creating quite a watery mess. “As of now, We are on normal schedule for tomorrow. But it will all depend on how fast Disney can clean up and clean out. Then our people have to go in and triple check the show systems.” Costumes and props came out unscathed. It was more front of house stuff that was damaged. The water was fairly contained to the lobby and everything underneath that awning, which contains [the] front offices and stage management." All electrical and automation systems were checked-out and the show resumed its normal schedule the following day. It's been an interesting month! Now, without further ado... Let's get started! /----------------------------------------------------\ | | | Join us on the web at: | | < www.cirquefascination.com > | | | | At CirqueCast: | | < http://www.cirquecast.com/ > | | | | Realy Simple Syndication (RSS) Feed (News Only): | | < http://www.cirquefascination.com/?feed=rss2 > | | | \----------------------------------------------------/ - Ricky "Richasi" Russo =========== CONTENTS =========== o) Cirque Buzz -- News, Rumours & Sightings * La Presse -- General News for the Month * Q&A –- Quick Chats & Press Interviews * Special Engagement –- More In-depth Articles o) Itinéraire -- Tour/Show Information * BigTop Shows -- Under the Grand Chapiteau * Arena Shows -- In Stadium-like venues * Resident Shows -- Performed en Le Théâtre o) Outreach -- Updates from Cirque's Social Widgets * Webseries -- Official Online Featurettes * Fotos -- Images From Cirque & Other Photographs * Videos -- Official Peeks & Noted Fan Finds o) Fascination! Features * REVIEW /// "LUZIA: A Waking Dream" By: Ricky Russo - Atlanta, Georgia (USA) * "PARAMOUR - The Reviews Are In..." A Special Collection of Articles from the Press * "Q&A w/Criss Angel: Mindfreak Live is 'Ready to Go!'" By: Robin Leach, The Las Vegas Sun o) Subscription Information o) Copyright & Disclaimer ======================================================================= CIRQUE BUZZ -- NEWS, RUMOURS & SIGHTINGS ======================================================================= --------------------------------------------------- LA PRESSE – General News for the Month --------------------------------------------------- Dessy Di Lauro, Ric’key Pageot Debut as New Music Duo with ‘Hotel Cafe’ Residency {May.03.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- Singer-songwriter, neo-ragtime vocalist Dessy Di Lauro and musical director/producer Ric’key Pageot (touring keyboardist to Madonna and writer for Jill Scott and Earth Wind & Fire) announce their official partnership as recording duo Parlor Social with a Residency at L.A.’s Hotel Cafe this summer. Read their exclusive interview on this announcement with AXS here. Allen Foster of AXS remarks, “Parlor Social still wields the same evocative sound that earned award-winning vocalist Dessy Di Lauro the distinction of being named ‘Hot 100 Live Unsigned Artists and Bands’ by Music Connection Magazine.” Creating a sound inspired by jazz pioneers, Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway, Parlor Social uses the musical language of the Harlem Renaissance era fused with today’s urban beats, contemporary sounds and catchy R&B hooks. Upon returning to her native town, Montreal, from a long- standing residency with Cirque du Soleil in the United States, Di Lauro met her now producer/husband Ric’key Pageot. As writing partners, they created original songs for her soulful, latin-tinged debut EP, A Study Of A Woman’s Soul released in 2004. The Di Lauro/Pageot couple later moved to Los Angeles, where they curated their “neo-ragtime” sound in the L.A. club scene with notable residencies in the Santa Monica and Hollywood circuits. As a result, the release of the duo’s first full length album, This Is Neo-Ragtime (2013) was inspired. With critical acclaim from several tastemakers in the blogosphere, AFROPUNK reverences the duo’s”…Blend [of] hip-hop, soul, RnB, and ragtime into a sound and style that looks back on the last 100 years of black culture while simultaneously looking forward.” LA Weekly states, “Di Lauro’s honeyed vocals are smart, sassy and sensual.” Perez Hilton coins the act as a, “postmodern jukebox meets Blu Cantrell ” while Motown praises them as, “a unique visionary that transcends genres [and] eras of time..” Parlor Social’s latest effort entitled Say Hep Hep + This is Neo-Ragtime still perpetuates the dynamics and energy of their live shows as the other records have in the past. Essence Magazine sums up the album in one word– “funky.” Their upcoming residency with Hotel Cafe, entitled ‘Retrofuturism’ happens every Monday night in June at 9 PM. Visit Hotel Cafe’s web site for tickets and more information. For More Information: o) SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/parlorsocial o) WEBSITE: http://www.myppk.com/get/parlorsocial o) FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/dessydilauro/ o) TWITTER: https://twitter.com/dessydilauro { SOURCE: Broadway World | http://goo.gl/pDs2pQ } COFFEE WITH GOLDSTAR to Feature Cirque’s KURIOS {May.03.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- Curious to learn just how the stars of Cirque du Soleil pull off those amazing physical feats on stage? On Thursday, May 5th, audiences logged on to YouTube and ask the performers questions in real time when Coffee With Goldstar returned with two stars from the popular Cirque show, KURIOS: Cabinet of Kuriosites. Broadcasting live from under the Big Top Tent in Atlanta, this episode of Coffee With Goldstar welcomes hand balancer Andrii Bondarenko and singer Eirini Tornesaki. Ukrainian born, Andrii Bondarenko, started his career in acrobatics at what other performers consider a late age – 10. In 2002, he won his first world Acrosports competition at the European Championships in Belgium. For the next three years he competed around the globe taking home first and second place prizes at every turn. After winning the prestigious World Games in Duisburg, Germany in 2005, he looked for other opportunities outside the Acrosports community. It was in 2006 that Cirque du Soleil came calling. Andrii got his start with the organization as the flyer in a four-man general formation team doing special events such as Mercedes Benz McLaren in Spain and Fiat Bravo in 2007, where he met director Michel Laprise. In 2010, Andrii’s dream of joining his favorite show, Quidam, was realized. For four years he toured the world with the show as part of the Banquine group. It was on this show that Andrii learned hand balancing on a platform and served as back up for Rola Bola. In 2014, Andrii was invited to be part of a brand new show created by Michel Lepris, KURIOS: Cabinet of Kuriosites. Eirini Tornesaki grew up in Heraklion, on Crete, Greece. She started classical piano lessons at the age of six with Alena Rendzejova, while also studying music theory at AR Music Conservatory. Later, she studied cello with Soren Lyng Hansen. After finishing high school, Eirini moved to the UK to study modern vocals at Brighton Institute of Modern Music, graduating in 2012 with honors. While in the UK, she worked as a singer – she collaborated with various artists of the British, Greek and international music scene, including Jona Lewie, Saw Doctors, Barry Manilow, Amy Winehouse’s backing band, Yannis Economides, Dimitri Vassilakis and more. Eirini appeared on Classico Latino’s album, ‘A Journey through Latin America,’ recorded in Abbey Road Studios and toured with the group in South America. Since January 2014, Eirini has been working with Cirque Du Soleil in the show KURIOS: Cabinet of Kuriosites, touring Canada and the USA. Eirini is the original singer of KURIOS and performed the vocals on the soundtrack album of the show, recorded in Montreal and released in November 2014. LINK /// Coffee with Goldstar: < https://www.youtube.com/user/GoldstarEvents/live > { SOURCE: Broadway World | http://goo.gl/nSVFeF } Globe and Mail: Luzia is a magical Mexican spectacle {May.03.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- Who else but Cirque du Soleil would cast a performer as a demigod and a cockroach in the same show? Those are just two of the roles taken by Benjamin Courtenay in the Cirque’s new Mexican-themed spectacle Luzia, which opens in Montreal on Wednesday after two weeks of previews. Courtenay is a straps acrobat, who was hired straight out of Montreal’s National Circus School to perform a moody-looking number set in a watery natural sinkhole known in Mexico as a cenote. The young Canadian is a rain god in that solo spot, but scampers through other parts of the show as a swimmer, soccer player and gigantic roach, whose appearance is all too realistic. “At one point I run off the stage and literally change my costume as I’m running back on,” Courtenay said. This kind of stagecraft was new to a performer whose primary focus until Cirque came calling was to build up the strength and finesse to excel at his very specialized calling. Like other Cirque vehicles built for years of touring, Luzia heaps a lot of responsibilities on its 44 performers, none of whom can simply do their set pieces and then chill in the dressing room. The show is compressed thematically too, frequently alluding to several Mexican themes in a single image. Near the opening, for example, a woman runs on a rotating conveyor belt, as other performers groom her six-foot gossamer wings. It’s a striking image, but I had to talk with creative director Patricia Ruel to discover that the wings referred to the monarch butterflies that migrate from Mexico to Canada every year, that the running was a nod to the long-distance abilities of the indigenous Tarahumara, and that the runner was a woman because Mexican culture has strong matriarchal aspects. It isn’t necessary for the audience to notice all those allusions, Ruel said. “We’re not trying to teach people about Mexico. We want them to get a feeling for it, to be inspired by it.” The show often has a surrealistic look, which she relates to the magic realism of Latin American fiction, and even to the peyote-inspired Mexican writings of French theatre guru Antonin Artaud. The concept for the show originated with Daniele Finzi Pasca, the Swiss-born director behind Cirque’s 2005 show Corteo, which toured for more than 10 years. But Pasca was obliged to withdraw due to a family illness, leaving actor-director Brigitte Poupart in charge of the action – the first Québécoise to direct a Cirque production. “Daniele left a skeleton for each act, a mosaic of things from different places in Mexico,” Poupart said. “I had to find a story to link all the parts of that mosaic.” Coming to circus for the first time, working with people not trained as actors, she said she felt a real affinity with the central clown character, who in the first scene, tumbles from a plane into a beautiful but foreign environment. Poupart said the essential thing for her was to find an emotional thread and a narrative in each of the acrobatic numbers. Courtenay’s straps solo, she said, was about moving from pain to some kind of relief, while attempting things – performing while soaking wet, for instance – that straps artists don’t normally do. Luzia has three acrobatic choreographers, including Cirque veteran Debra Brown, to help give dramatic flow to the routines. Water is a big theme in the show, said Ruel, because water and rain in Mexico are often a matter of extremes – a glut during rainy season and a stark absence in arid regions. A computer- controlled rain curtain frequently douses the perforated turntable stage and the performers. Luzia is the first big-top Cirque show to give a leading role to water, Ruel said, which meant providing a system to capture, clean, warm and recycle the water during the show’s run in each city. The creative team wanted to avoid clichés, Ruel said, which is why, for instance, each scene favours one colour, rather than the riot of tones seen in tourist brochures. A huge movable disc suspended at the back of the stage is used as a visual anchor point, at various times symbolizing the sun, the moon and the circular Mayan calendar. Composer Simon Carpentier met with musicians in Mexico while working on the score, including members of Nortec Collective, a dance-oriented group that he said “had an international sound but also carried the real Mexican vibe.” They helped steer the show away from a default mariachi sound – never a real option, Carpentier said – and even worked as co-producers on the Luzia soundtrack album. The show’s eight musicians include an East Indian singer, Mahesh Vinayakram, whose florid melismatic solo partway through the show feels like something from another world. The singer was Finzi Pasca’s idea, Carpentier said, adding that he had to work hard to find a way to integrate that sound into the show – or rather to find a creative way for it “to destabilize everything we have organized.” High-level acrobatics are all about finding dramatic ways to destabilize a situation, usually by making it more daring or complicated. The adagio routine performed by the sylph-like Naomi Zimmermann looks plenty daring, as three brawny porters catch her out of plunging dives, and hurl her up to new precarious positions above their heads. But just before she goes on stage, she said, she’s not thinking about the moves, which they’ve been rehearsing for months, but about the mood. The character she’s playing, she says, “is a little bit stuck in her world, in her nostalgia. What she sees are all memories, and things that she’s not sure whether she’s seeing them or not. Those three guys are people who have been very important in her life, and she knows that whatever she does, they’re always going to catch her.” We’re not sure at that point in the show what we’re looking at either, as the stage around Zimmermann and her partners fills with elegant-looking people, some of them with the heads of iguanas or fish. Mexico, in this circus evocation, is certainly a magical place, where nothing ordinary stays that way for long. { SOURCE: Globe and Mail | http://goo.gl/gcvl0p } Montreal Gazette: Luzia unveils a Mexican dreamscape {May.05.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- The smell of popcorn hangs in the air. A clown parachutes into the big top, turns a giant key et voilà: a new world is revealed, one populated by giant butterflies, hoop-jumping hummingbirds and a garden of real marigolds tended to by tin robots. Welcome to Cirque du Soleil’s vibrant new big-top show, Luzia. The première of a Cirque du Soleil production here in Quebec is always cause for curiosity – after all, the show we see today is what the rest of the world will be seeing for (potentially) years to come. Directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca, Luzia provides us with a glimpse into a dream-like Mexico that is simultaneously traditional and modern. What impressed me most of all about Luzia was actually the design: the set, costumes and lighting provided a strong unifying force to the show (both thematically and visually). While there were nods to Day of the Dead and Mexican wrestling, the design thankfully steered clear of cliché, offering instead a rich visual language animated with animals, rain, movement and flowers. From a performance perspective, there were several memorable highlights. Shelli Epstein, as the emblematic Running Woman, was superb – strong, beautiful and in possession of buckets of stage presence. The trapeze artist and Cyr Wheel performer both had flawless technique and the two disciplines worked well together onstage. A Cyr Wheel resembles a giant hula hoop and the performer holds its rim and propels it into motion, causing it to roll and spin gyroscopically. Performing on a Cyr Wheel and trapeze under a rain curtain seems an implausibly slippery feat, but I noticed they got around the traction issue by attaching a bicycle tire to the Cyr Wheel rim. Smart! The aesthetic of risk is a huge part of contemporary circus and its audience appeal, but you don’t want the implied danger of circus to become an actual one. They bumped the risk level up another notch in the second half, wheeling out the more extreme tricks: the swing 360, the straps, a contortionist and the death-defying leaps of the Russian swing-to-swing troupe. The aerial straps artist Benjamin Courtenay was a highlight (physique! artistry!), and the Russian contortionist Aleksei Goloborodko was very impressive, not least because we so rarely see male contortionists. The audience loved the luchador on the swing 360 – they whooped and gasped like children all around me. The juggler and some of the hoops performers had a rough night technically, however it didn’t diminish the show overall and in some ways attested to the veracity of the stunts (and the fact that this is a newly minted production). A word about the music: Luzia’s composer Simon Carpentier has written an excellent score with distinctive Latin American flavours: from the salsa-like rhythm of cumbia to huapango, a flamenco-based music style from the La Huasteca region. Singer Majo Cornejo is a near-constant presence throughout the show, and lends a finely-nuanced voice and personality to the mix. Luzia was an absolute pleasure to watch – not just for the high- octane tricks but as a spectacular and cohesive theatrical experience that was successful on every level. If you’ve skipped seeing the Cirque for a few years, this is truly a show to bring you back into the fold. Bravo. { SOURCE: The Montreal Gazette | http://goo.gl/nnbB8D } Mindfreak Live Delayed! {May.10.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday’s start of previews for Criss Angel’s new “Mindfreak Live!” at the Luxor will require a little more time. Cirque du Soleil announced that “Mindfreak Live!” previews will begin May 25 (rescheduled from Wednesday the 11th), and the official premiere will be June 30th. As the first-of-its-kind show and because of the size, scope and dangers from the vast number of death-defying illusions, Clark County fire and engineering officials are still pouring over the Luxor stage to ensure that all safety measures are in place before they issue permits to allow insurance coverage in place. Cirque du Soleil hopes that it will receive a sign-off this week to announce the new start of previews. Experts are being extra cautious for his audiences and him since he winds up in the middle of them at one point of the show. Criss’s theater has been dark just a few weeks since he ended “Believe” in order to make the total transformation for “Mindfreak Live!” Criss says he’s ready to go with his new Strip spectacular. Jerry Nadal, Cirque’s senior vice president of resident shows said: “The decision to delay the ‘Mindfreak Live!’ previews is based on the cutting-edge technology in the show and the demands to ensure that our crew and artists are fully trained and versed in them. With substantial technological elements that have never been used before, we have asked Criss to take additional time to ensure a seamless integration.” { SOURCE: Robin Leach, Las Vegas Sun | https://goo.gl/tNVGEd } Cirque Employees to Showcase Art in THE COLLECTIVE Exhibition at Eden Gallery {May.10.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- EdenIn a continued effort to nurture artistic expression and development within its employees, the Global Citizenship Service at Cirque du Soleil will host its 11th annual art exhibition, The Collective, featuring artwork by the company’s performers, technicians and support staff in Las Vegas. Presented exclusively at the Eden Gallery inside the Arts Factory in Downtown Las Vegas, the extraordinary collection will be shown for a limited time from May 14 – June 14, available Thursdays through Mondays from 11 a.m. – 11 p.m. with a special reception on June 2 from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. All formats of artwork will be featured, giving way to an exhibition that displays a wide range of artistic approaches. In addition to the 33 works showcased this year, The Collective will also feature the square project from the Zarkana Theater, a collection of squares created by individual cast and crew members that, once brought together, represent the beauty, importance and impact of working together toward a common goal. The Cirque du Soleil employees whose artwork will be featured include: o) PAINTING - Brien McCrea, Performer, KÀ - Charisma Schwarze, Props, The Beatles LOVE - Chelsea Allen, Wardrobe, The Beatles LOVE - Gail Gilbert, Performer, KÀ - Juan Pedro Carrillo, Performer, Zarkana - Lisa Pyle, Wardrobe, Michael Jackson ONE - Otto Bolanos, Performer, The Beatles LOVE - Peter Arias, Rigger, The Beatles LOVE - RuBen Permel, Head of Wardrobe, Zarkana - Sergio Kiss, Rigger, Mystère o) PHOTOGRAPHY - Armand Thomas, General Stage Manager, Mystère - Christina Russo, Electrics, Mystère - Ginger Griep-Ruiz, Performer, Mystère - Maximiliano Torandell, Performer, Michael Jackson ONE - Melissa Dallon, Carpenter, KÀ - Sergey Kholodkov, Performer, Zarkana - Vira Syvorotkina, Performer, Zarkana o) SCULPTURE - Brent Sommerhauser, Props, Michael Jackson ONE - Linda Le Bourveau, Wardrobe, Zumanity o) VIDEO/SHORT FILM - Jonas Woolverton, Performer, Zumanity o) MIXED-MEDIA - Andrew Schmitz, Rigger, “O” - Annie Wilkins, Head of Props, Mystère - Brittany Baum, Wardrobe, “O” - Castile Ritter, Wardrobe, Michael Jackson ONE - Chi Ho Chan, Craft Technician, The Beatles LOVE - Evan Reisner, Lighting, MINDFREAK LIVE! - Jeremy Jagow, Technician, Zarkana - John “Jrock” Nelson, Performer, Michael Jackson ONE - Kent Caldwell, Performer, Mystère - Lillian Dennis, Wardrobe, Michael Jackson ONE - Marisa Townsend, Wardrobe, Michael Jackson ONE - Tiffany Turner, Wardrobe, “O” - Tumelo Michael Moloi, Performer, The Beatles LOVE - Ysobel Caleja, Retail, KÀ The Collective is free and open to the public. More information will be available on the Eden Gallery website at EdenArtStudioAndGallery.com beginning May 14. { SOURCE: Broadway World | http://goo.gl/wesvgD } The WNYC & Paramour: Cirque on the Great White Way {May.13.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- WNYC is following the creation of an ambitious new Broadway show, “Paramour,” from Cirque du Soleil. The production combines circus with elements of a traditional Broadway musical. And it’s full of risks: physical, personal, and artistic. All this and more in a three-part audio exposé: o) PART 1: “CIRQUE DU SOLEIL LAUNCHES ITSELF ONTO BROADWAY” Cirque du Soleil, the Canadian entertainment company, with outposts in Las Vegas and Dubai, now aims to plant a flag in New York City with a new show, “Paramour,” opening on May 25, 2016, at the Lyric Theatre on 42nd Street. The show features ambitious aerial acrobatics and showstopper musical numbers. But the most radical element may be this: it has a plot. In over 30 years, Cirque has never before made a show that is so heavy on dialogue and story. “In order to be respected on the ‘Great White Way,’ we know that a show with a narrative is the only way you will succeed long-term,” said Scott Zeiger, president of Cirque du Soleil Theatrical, a new, New York-based division focused on producing story-driven entertainment. Among the challenges for “Paramour”: developing a story that resonates with audiences, integrating a team of both actors and acrobats, and re-sizing the circus for a Broadway theater (Cirque’s artists usually perform under a tent or in purpose-built venues.) “It’s the riskiest thing I’ve done in my life,” Zeiger said. < http://www.wnyc.org/story/risky-business-cirque/ > o) PART 2: “RISKY BUSINESS” One of the biggest rolls of the dice came at the beginning of April, when the show’s creators decided to replace a lead actor. That left the new actor, Jeremy Kushnier, with only two weeks to learn the script, before the start of previews. “I must look like a crazy person on the subway every day,” Kushnier said. “The stuff I have memorized, I’ll start from the top and just start saying it out loud on my train ride in… And people are like, ‘Go ahead sir. You can have the seat,’” There are also physical risks in bringing big, expansive acrobatic acts into the relative confinement of a Broadway theater. The Lyric Theatre happens to be the same theater where another musical with grand acrobatic ambitions, “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark” crashed full-speed into a wall of injuries and infighting. “We all consider that injuries are part of the field of work,” said Eric Heppell, the show’s artistic and acrobatic director. “Cables and drums and shivs and pulleys and winches are inspected constantly, daily.” < http://www.wnyc.org/story/risky-business-cirque/ > o) PART 3: “CIRQUE’S PLOT TO CONQUER BROADWAY” Making a musical means getting actors, dancers, and musicians to all work together to tell a story. And “previews” is the time period when producers get to finally find out from audiences whether they like what they see. Cirque du Soleil’s first Broadway show, “Paramour,” is the story of a love triangle set in the golden age of Hollywood. And now that the musical is in previews, the creators freely admit that the story still needs work. Part of the problem, though, may be expectations. “Especially the international folks expected more Cirque and less Broadway,” said Scott Zeiger, president of Cirque du Soleil Theatrical. “The Broadway audience didn’t know what to expect.” By one measure, the show is already succeeding: it’s playing to packed houses and passed $1 million in revenues in the first week. But Zeiger said the show is far from finished. Every night, there are changes to the script and songs and stage cues. Jack Viertel, author of “The Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows Are Built,” said whether audiences can connect to the story often determines whether shows fail or succeed. “It’s hard to do one of these things without a good story. Almost no matter how much spectacle you put out there,” Viertel said. < http://www.wnyc.org/story/cirques-plot-conquer-broadway/ > Ambassador Theatre Group Founders Step Down {May.19.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- It’s more like a separation agreement than an all-out divorce, but Wednesday’s surprise management shakeup at London-based Ambassador Theatre Group is sending shockwaves through Broadway. Howard Panter and Rosemary Squire -– the husband-and-wife team who founded what has evolved into the world’s largest live- theater-owning company -– announced they are stepping off the ATG pyramid they’ve topped for 25 years. They’re remaining on the ATG board and taking a chunk of the company -– off-Broadway style producer Trafalgar Studios -– as their own new fiefdom. Panter (the creative one) and Squire (the finance one) are being replaced by a business executive with no connection to the world of live entertainment except possibly opening-night parties: Mark Cornell, a former executive of Champagne producers Moët Hennessy and Krug and a former managing director of auction house Sotheby’s. He’ll now take the reins of a company with 45 UK theaters and 3,500 employees. Most immediately significant on this side of the pond is the timing of the change for Broadway. ATG recently acquired two Times Square houses: one of the largest, the oft-renamed Lyric, with about 1,900 seats, and the long-defunct Hudson, used in recent years as a corporate event space and now being restored by ATG as an intimate playhouse. The Lyric is currently home to Paramour, Cirque du Soleil’s first made-for-Broadway sit-down show, in previews and slated for a May 25 opening. Previews have been selling well, with grosses before deductions of around $1 million per week. No comment yet from executive producer Scott Zeiger, who’s in Montreal, but watch this space. Panter and Squire have long been a welcome and much-admired presence, as much on Broadway as in the West End. “We are looking forward to devoting more time to our passion for creating great theatrical content and a vibrant London theater,” Panter and Squire said in a joint statement. “It is a good time for us to start new creative roles. We have thought long and hard before taking this decision but feel it is a time in our lives for an exciting new challenge.” Like Cirque, the Montreal-based troupe that became a global sensation and was taken over last year by an American-Chinese- Canadian financial conglomerate, ATG has gone from the Panter/Squire mom-and-pop operation to a company whose reach includes ownership of Sonia Friedman Productions and other producing channels and recently was taken over by private-equity firm Providence, based in Rhode Island. With such turnover comes increased pressure for profitability. In the ATG statement, Cornell said that ATG shows “significant potential for future growth” under his leadership, adding, “I am excited by the prospect of helping to shape and lead the next chapter in the life of this remarkable company.” { SOURCE: Deadline | http://goo.gl/UvdBNl } ABC Goes Behind the Scenes at La Nouba {May.25.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- La Nouba by Cirque du Soleil at Walt Disney World’s Disney Springs has been going strong since 1998. But even visitors who have seen the show haven’t seen it all. Notable new additions to the show include the B-Boys, a world-famous breakdancing act, and the Aerial Bamboo routine, a love story told through high- flying acrobatics. ABC News got a behind-the-scenes look at La Nouba and a lesson in “B-boying” as well as aerial acrobatics. Matthew Sparks, head coach of La Nouba, said the “pure physical performance show” has 20 minutes of entirely new content. “La Nouba keeps the spirit it has always had, but it’s really a brand-new show,” he told ABC News. CHECK OUT THE VIDEO HERE: < http://goo.gl/oXqOsM > VIDEO /// The Making of JOEL {May.31.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- Cirque Fan and Enigma “Golden Sun” posted a nice little “making of” video today on JOEL, the 45 DEGREES special event production in Russia over the winter holiday. Check it out! LINK /// < https://youtu.be/eCZhCg3oYo8 > Verity Studios Brings Drones to Broadway {May.31.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- In Cirque du Soleil’s first Broadway show, “Paramour,” it’s not just the acrobats who take flight. It’s the lampshades. In a romantic moment when two characters declare their feelings for each other, their love gets a visual expression when an octet of circular lampshades rise into the air and execute airborne choreography. Turns out they’re not lampshades at all -– they’re drones. Its tech more closely associated with warfare and paparazzi, and the use of it onstage marks a first both for Broadway and for Cirque. It also stands as one small manifestation of Cirque’s broader mission statement on Broadway: combining the bones of traditional musical theater with the nouveau-circus stagecraft for which the brand is known. That means high-flying acrobatics, a distinctive musical vocabulary and the kind of envelope- pushing scenery, makeup and technical elements that audiences haven’t seen before -– like those flying machines. “We are thrilled to provide this artistic contribution to the show and bring our machines to life on Broadway,” said Raffaello D’Andrea, founder of Verity Studios and creator of the flying machine choreography. “Creating flying machines that are reliable enough, and that have the performance ability to operate day after day in such a challenging live theatre environment is the fruition of more than a decade of research and development.” Verity Studios’ flying machines will perform eight times a week – without nets – in front of an audience of up to two thousand people. “This kind of thing is almost expected when you buy a ticket to a Cirque du Soleil show,” said Scott Zeiger, president and managing director of Cirque du Soleil Theatrical. “For the three minutes they’re watching those lampshades, the audience is witnessing a $500,000 moment. They may love it or they may hate it, but they can’t see it anywhere else on Broadway.” The overall production costs of “Paramour,” a love triangle set in Hollywood’s golden age, rings in at $25 million, which is expensive for Broadway but cheap for Cirque. That half-million lampshade moment aims to translate an intimate character beat into an unexpected visual motif, magical enough to fill the Lyric, a 1,900-seat venue that Broadway types often describe as “cavernous.” The sequence grew out of an earlier, experimental collaboration between Cirque and Verity Studios. In 2014 the two groups collaborated (along with ETH Zurich) to produce SPARKED, a short film featuring ten quadrocopters in a flying dance performance with a human actor. SPARKED was named a Winner of the 2016 New York City Drone Film Festival. As in the “Paramour” number, the sequence is performed by autonomous flying machines that, according to Verity’s Raffaello D’Andrea, follow pre-programmed choreography but make their own decisions based on their relation to each other and where they are in space. The technical challenge of incorporating robots into live performance has meant that, until now, most theatre robots have been remotely controlled – essentially puppets, with humans working behind stage to operate them. But to manually control the flight paths of a troupe of quadrocopters in a tightly choreographed sequence that also involves human performers would be technically impossible. “It would be impossible for human beings to pilot these machines to do what you’re seeing, in terms of unison, timing, and choreography,” he said. Verity Studios’ flying machines use distributed intelligence and sophisticated algorithms to achieve the kind of robust performance and safety standards required for live public performance. “From the flying machines’ own built-in intelligence to interference-proof communications, our systems are designed around safety, reliability, and robustness,” said Markus Hehn, technical lead at Verity Studios. “The only remote commands the flying machines receive are high level ones, such as takeoff or land.” There were plenty of challenges in getting those machines to the stage. For one thing, there was tech to be adapted for flying indoors without the aid of GPS, and lighting design had to be modulated so that their flight would read for audiences members all the way at the back of the house. Then there was the fire department to contend with. “It’s pretty rare that you have to have the fire marshal come to approve a number in your show that doesn’t involve fire,” Zeiger said. The marshal, in fact, nixed the original plan of having one or more of the machines fly out over the audience. But with the all those hurdles overcome, the drones now perform eight times a week in a number that aims to imbue the mundane with a little wonder. “A lampshade is an everyday object,” D’Andrea said. “To see them fly, it’s like magic.” (The engineer-artist added that similar tech could be used onstage any time creatives want to move something in an arbitrary way in 3D space.) And this is not the first time robots have appeared on Broadway: Karel Capek’s science fiction play R.U.R. (infamous for introducing the term ‘robot’ to the English language) ran for 184 performances at the Garrick Theatre in 1922. { SOURCE: Broadway World, Variety } --------------------------------------------------- Q&A –- Quick Chats & Press Interviews --------------------------------------------------- Lamarre: ‘I don’t have a job; I have a lifestyle’ {May.02.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- Daniel Lamarre, 62, is the president and chief executive officer of Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil, which has about 4,000 employees working on more than 20 shows in about 50 countries. Lamarre was born and raised in Grand-Mere, Quebec, about 170 kilometres northeast of Montreal. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Ottawa, which later honoured him with a doctorate. He was the CEO of Burson-Marsteller and then co- founded National Public Relations with Luc Beauregard. He went on to be the CEO at TVA Broadcast Group for four years before he joined the circus in January 2001. In addition to his day job, he spends a lot of time with the One Drop Foundation, a non- profit organization to help improve access to water, and the Montreal Heart Institute. He also has a personal foundation to support various causes. When he’s not traveling Lamarre calls Montreal home, where he lives with his wife, the photographer Emmanuelle Dupérré, and her two sons. He also has two grown children and five grandchildren. Lamarre spoke to Karl Moore, a professor of strategy and organization at the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University. # # # I began my career as a journalist, and at the time, I would have bet quite a bit of money on staying a journalist for the rest of my life. I was passionate, and that was my ultimate goal. I was tired of just listening and not doing something myself. An opportunity to become a public relations practitioner knocked me off the course of journalism, and I dove right into the business world. I started working for a major corporation as a consultant, and I immensely enjoyed discovering different types of business. I was learning a lot. When I became the CEO of TVA [a privately owned French language television network], Guy Laliberté had been generous enough to give me the opportunity to get the TV rights of the Cirque du Soleil. Then we got in touch on a more regular basis and he just called me one day out of the blue and he said, “I had this amazing flash last night that you’re going to join the circus.” I burst out laughing and a few weeks later I was running with the circus. Guy is a rock star. He has his entourage and his fans and when he walks somewhere, everybody knows that he’s there. I’m more like the behind-the-scenes guy. My job working with Guy is to make his crazy ideas happen. He’ll come with a lot of different ideas and I help him select the right one. My job is to put together the right conditions. I’m there to say: “Yes, maybe. Let’s see, let’s explore.” I think I have a strong presence, not by talking a lot but by asking the right questions. As a journalist, I had to be good at interviewing people and listening to people. In management it’s very, very useful because when I meet with my employees, normally I do what the journalist is good at doing: listening. And I learned a lot. As you know, people like to talk, and sometimes I would spend quite a bit of time listening to people and the meeting would end and I had barely spoken, I just listen. But people love it, and because they love it then it’s easier after that to understand where they’re coming from, what they’re looking for. For me, I think it’s a great management tool. To listen to people. People say that I’m tough to read, but those are the people who don’t really know me. People that are working with me on a day- to-day basis get my signals. I don’t need to impose myself. I don’t scream or lose my temper, because for me that’s a sign of weakness. When you lose your temper, then you lose control of the situation. If you are a leader and you lose control of a situation, then a lot of people around you get really insecure. You shouldn’t trust yourself too much when you are selling shows to consumers. We do a lot of research to test if our crazy ideas are something that can work with the public. It’s important that we understand how the tastes of people are growing in different manners. And make sure that we meet their expectations. In the case of Cirque du Soleil, their expectations are getting higher and higher. It puts a lot of pressure on our creative team. I’ve become more creative in my 15 years with the Cirque. I learned a lot from the creators and the artists, and of course, Guy, about their minds, their sensitivities, their passions and how they could go from a white sheet of paper to a developed concept that can work. You have to get up in the morning and think, “What can I reinvent today?” That’s what we’re doing all the time; we’re always on the lookout for new ideas because it’s important that we can continue to surprise our public. Our big reinvention this year was Avatar. Everyone was concerned about what we could do with such an amazing IP [intellectual property] brought to us by James Cameron, who’s probably the most successful movie-maker in the history of that industry. I was so happy when I read in the Montreal paper the day after the premiere, “Cirque du Soleil is going somewhere else.” I felt so, so good about it. Silicon Valley and China are so important to the Cirque. Silicon Valley, first and foremost, because in the future live shows are going to be influenced by new technologies. There are 3D technologies, there are virtual characters, there are virtual environments today and I want our shows to be at the forefront of that development. And China is an amazing market to capture. Having a Chinese partner gives me an opportunity. I’ve been traveling in China for 15 years and I was having great meetings with people but I wasn’t getting results. I’ve been there five times in the last four months and now a lot of people are saying yes to us because we’re a part of them. Chinese management style is very different to that of the Silicon Valley. We are French-Canadian, we are French-speaking North American people, so it’s easy for us to do business in the U.S. We’ve been doing that all of our life, we speak the same language, which is the business language. In China, it’s different because you talk business a lot but you have to remember that there is always, behind-the-scenes, the government. I’m not making a judgment about whether it’s good or bad, but you have to be conscious that the government is present in any decision there. I don’t have a job; I have a lifestyle. I love my lifestyle. I love travelling. I’m fortunate that my wife can travel with me. I work a lot of hours, and there is no such thing as the weekend because there are always shows performing. I am in communication with the organization all the time. But you have to develop your own way to remain sane in an environment that can get you crazy if you’re not careful. Working out is a good way for me to escape. There is nothing better than having a good bottle of wine on a Friday evening at home or wherever you are. At the end of the day, you want to be profitable, but that’s not the meaning of life. I was in New York recently because we’re opening our first Broadway show in May. I walked in front of the theatre and saw the billboard on 42nd Street and I was like a kid, I was excited. It brings me a lot of adrenalin. It’s very tough for an artist to earn a good living. Cirque du Soleil is providing a good living to more than 2,000 artists, and if I could supply jobs for 4,000 artists, I’d feel even better. That’s what drives me. I cannot be driven by money alone; that would be a boring life. But to see an artist performing and travelling around the world, oh my God I feel good about that. I’m from the TV generation. Millennials don’t know what a TV set is any more; they are now working from their screens. We were behind in social media and weren’t reaching out to the millennials before, but we’ve hired a bunch of millennials and kids, literally, to rework our marketing. It’s very important to recognize the fact that you’re not 20 years old any more. and you’re not 40 any more. So, you need to leave younger people to take more room. When I started my career there were older people giving me opportunities. Now it’s my turn to give younger people opportunities. I think you get very, very old if you are not open to other people’s ideas. I think what’s keeping you young is listening to young people and leaving them room to grow in your organization. Being bilingual is crucial. You just cannot work internationally if you don’t speak English. And speaking French was an advantage because it brought some colour. It’s funny how little people know about French-Canadians outside of Canada. It’s always kind of exotic for people, They’re kind of confused, “Are you French, are you American?” And I’ll say, “We’re all of the above.” # # # This interview has been condensed and edited from the CEO Series, which can be heard on CJAD and other Bell Media stations across Canada. For the full interview, go to the CEO Series on: http://www.cjad.com/TheCEOSeries/aspx { SOURCE: The Globe and Mail | http://goo.gl/4rpBMw } Meet Benjamin Courtney, LUZIA Straps Artist {May.02.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- He moves through space quick and agile, rising, dropping, through the air like a cross between a colourful hummingbird diving through the air and a playful otter. There is no other land creature that moves like this. There are few humans who can move like Benjamin Courtney. He has trained most of his life to become a professional acrobat, and now, the young man will be performing in the new Cirque du Soleil show, Luzia, A Waking Dream of Mexico, that opens April 21 in Montreal. “I started doing gymnastics with the Bowen Island Gymnastic Club when I was four,” says Courtney the Montreal apartment he shares with a friend. “ I trained at a few different gyms and then got tired of gymnastics. I found Circus West, the circus school and started doing acrobatics. It was great.” At the circus school Courtney could ride unicycles, hang from a trapeze, tumble from straps dangling from the ceiling. From there on in, Courtney trained as an acrobat in East Vancouver though living on Bowen, and going to school in West Vancouver. Like a true circus performer, Courtney became adept and juggling all aspects of his life, between commuting, school and athletics. Building on his gymnastics training, he added acrobatics, and built up his strength, flexibility and precision. Along with all his training, he was acutely focused on improving his skills and had the drive that would shoot him into an audition for the National Circus School when he was 17. The school set up auditions in Vancouver “but,” says Courtney, “I didn’t really think I had a chance.” The try-outs lasted three hours where he was asked to give the circus the best performance of his life. He did push-ups, chin ups, handsprings, answered questions, showed his confidence and stage presence. To his happy surprise, the teen was invited to move to Montreal to begin training. “At first I lived in residence at the school,” he says, adding that there was so much to take in and learn that there was very little time to be homesick. The Circus School provides academic training along with circus training, and food and accommodation. The first year in Montreal was a trial period for the athletes and Courtney adapted easily from his quiet home life on the island to life in the circus. “Most of the other people in the Cirque don’t speak English, and some don’t speak English or French, but we are like a family.” Courtney trains with coaches for various parts of his performances, from the acrobatics to the choreography and sometimes, acting. “I have a couple characters,” who he says he will portray in the upcoming Cirque du Soleil shows. The Cirque du Soleil first made its mark in the world of circus performances in 1983, with a character driven show, completely eliminating animal performers. With the Cirque, though he has trainers and specific characters, “we are encouraged to go outside the box, to push boundaries.” Courtney says that creativity and imagination are key to the success of each performer. “We don’t have names for our moves, like a front roll in gymnastics because we are always creating new movements.” Though he can’t talk much about the upcoming Cirque show, he says that there is a water element, and that it’s a Mexican theme. Otherwise, the performer is tight-lipped. Luzia will not open in Vancouver, but will go to Seattle this summer. Courtney’s mom Julia says she’s never missed an Opening of her son’s shows, and she’ll be flying out to Montreal for Opening night. “I couldn’t have done this without all the support from my parents,” says Courtney. Ben Courtney says that kids should never be discouraged from following their dreams. “If you aren’t doing what you love, you aren’t really living.” { SOURCE: Bowen Island Undercurrent | http://goo.gl/qjeSEr } How Cirque’s Daredevils Keep Their Bodies So Perfect {May.18.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- Supported only by straps and each other, the Atherton twins fly above the stage, twisting and turning in a gripping display of grace, strength and washboard abs -– fueled, one guesses, by a diet of protein shakes and power bars. Not entirely true. “We believe in eating what you enjoy, in moderation,” say Andrew and Kevin Atherton, the identical-twin aerialists of Cirque du Soleil’s “Paramour,” opening May 25 at the Lyric Theatre. “We don’t have a diet, just a lifestyle.” Growing up in Manchester, England, Andi and Kev lived above a convenience store, where they could have any snack or sandwich whenever they wanted. Once they turned 7 and started gymnastics, they swiftly learned to ration their food -– it’s hard to soar and flip on a full stomach. Now 40, the 5-foot-7 British gymnastic champions are both a trim 145 pounds, the same weight they were as teenagers. “We worked with a nutritionist and we read a lot of Men’s Health magazines,” say the twins, who credit the Bill Phillips book “Body for Life” for distilling their secret for staying healthy and fit: eating five or six smaller meals a day to boost their metabolism. Breakfast is typically oatmeal with flaxseed or two scrambled egg whites, multigrain toast with peanut butter, coffee and a banana. For a midmorning snack, they’ll whip up smoothies in their dressing room made with Costco’s whey protein powder, frozen fruit, skim milk and flaxseed. Lunch is always the same: salad with grilled chicken or salmon, either brought from home or the nearby Europa Café. “If we could eat nothing else in our life, we’d eat that,” they say. They like a simple mix of greens and vegetables, topped with chicken or fish, avocado, cilantro and almonds. The dressing’s the same, too: “Simple olive oil and balsamic vinegar.” Their afternoon snack is often a Kind cereal bar -– or a square or two of Trader Joe’s chocolate that they keep in their dressing room fridge. For dinner, it’s another salad, or, on some nights, Andrew’s Kazakhstan-born wife, Gasya, will whip up a Russian comfort food called plov. “It’s usually beef, rice and carrots, but she makes it for me with chicken,” he says. They rarely have time to dine out, but when they do, they always ask for an extra plate. “If the food’s there in front of you, you’ll eat it,” Andrew says. “So we ask for a smaller plate, fill it with what we want, and return the big plate with the rest.” Even their cravings are in sync. One balmy, post-rehearsal evening, Andi went out with his wife and kids for a burger and beer at Alfie’s in Hell’s Kitchen, and texted a pic of his food to his brother. “I was sitting about 20 blocks away, at Black Iron Burger,” Kev says, “and I’d just ordered the same thing!” { SOURCE: New York Post | http://goo.gl/2xTAv5 } --------------------------------------------------- SPECIAL ENGAGEMENT –- More In-depth Articles --------------------------------------------------- Criss Angel’s Magical $70 Million Profit Machine {May.04.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos, aka Criss Angel, the biggest name in Las Vegas magic, lives in the desert foothills 20 minutes from the Strip in a $22 million, 25,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style estate he calls Serenity. The 48-year-old illusionist, instantly recognizable to fans for his black eyeliner, spiky black hair, and heavy-metal jewelry, parks his Rolls-Royce Phantom, Lamborghini Murciélago, and Cadillac Escalade out front. The décor inside suggests a Gothic-accented Greek Orthodox church. The walls are adorned with stylized crosses and portraits of the crucified Jesus, one of which features drops of Angel’s own blood on the floor below. Angel can afford Rolls-Royces and Lamborghinis and Jesuses because Believe, the spectacular he put on at the Luxor Las Vegas in partnership with Cirque du Soleil, together with his other ventures, has been generating about $70 million a year for him, say people familiar with Angel’s finances. That sum comprises millions of dollars from television, including foreign rights; road show versions of his act; magic kits and other merchandise; and sponsorships. More than a mere magician, Angel is a miniconglomerate with a remarkably diversified-–and vital-– brand. As the Strip faced increased competition from legalized gambling elsewhere in the country and, later, fallout from the 2008 Wall Street meltdown, casinos bridged the revenue gap with nightclubs, Blue Man Group, Celine Dion-–and Angel. As much as anyone, he embodies the kind of entertainment that’s kept Sin City glowing. Last year, Vegas welcomed 42 million visitors, up 2 percent from 2014, but casino revenue on the Strip fell 2.5 percent, to $5.8 billion, according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board. These figures confirm a long-standing trend: Twenty years ago gambling accounted for 60 percent of Vegas tourism revenue, says William Thompson, professor emeritus at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. In 2015 the figure was 35 percent. “Entertainment has been our lifeline,” Thompson says, “and magic-–Penn & Teller, David Copperfield, Criss Angel-–is a big part of that.” “Criss came in with ideas [to which] we’d say, ‘No f-–ing way you can do that on TV,’ and then he’d do it” It’s a lifeline Luxor’s tapping into again. On May 11, Angel begins previews of a show called Mindfreak Live! He says that after seven years, Believe is “a dinosaur” compared with this one. Live! will feature illusions, sure, but also musicians and DJs, 3D special effects, and more autobiographical material. Angel promises a summer blockbuster (tickets run to $142), and Luxor, of course, hopes he’s right. But the launch of any show is a tightrope walk. In 2008, Believe sold mountains of advance tickets based mostly on Angel’s popularity on the A&E network, but the show turned out to be a muddle of exotic costumes and hand-waving that many reviewers panned initially. It needed a lot of work to become a hit. “There’s always some risk” in revamping a Vegas show, says Jerry Nadal, senior vice president of Cirque, which remains a partner on Live! “But if anyone can pull it off, it’s Criss.” There’s no questioning Angel’s desire to succeed. In 1998, as a 30-year-old, he performed a 12-minute routine from morning to night, 50 times a day, at a Halloween convention in New York’s Madison Square Garden. In 2001 his mother, Dimitra, took out a $360,000 mortgage on her house to help him mount an off-Broadway show, the original Mindfreak. After a 14-month, 600-performance run, Angel says he repaid the mortgage and banked more than $1 million. In 2003 he moved to Vegas to focus on TV. After landing specials on several networks, he introduced a series on A&E in 2005, also called Mindfreak. It incorporated solemn, psychedelic scenes of Angel wandering in the Nevada desert like a peyote shaman with six-pack abs. Many of the actual tricks, though, took place on Vegas sidewalks, where the star appeared to levitate and vanish. The show took off. “Criss came in with ideas [to which] we’d say, ‘No f-–ing way you can do that on TV,’ and then he’d do it,” says Elaine Frontain Bryant, a senior A&E executive. She points to a trick called “In Two”: Angel appeared to pull a young woman apart at the waist on a park bench, as observers screamed in dismay. “It was so visceral, amazing, no box or cloak,” she says. Other times he seemed to walk on water-–a YouTube version of this has gotten 52 million views-–and made an elephant seem to disappear. But Angel’s ascent stalled with Believe. “I got my ass handed to me,” he says of the bad reviews. At the end of one performance in 2009, he hurled obscenities at blogger Perez Hilton, who was in attendance. Word had reached Angel backstage that Hilton was telling his followers that he’d “rather be getting a root canal”-–not a unique reaction. Believe received an overhaul. “We changed the balance to make it much more about Criss and his illusions and less about Cirque characters,” Nadal says. Reviews turned positive in 2010 and remained that way through this year. (The show wrapped in mid-April.) Angel oversees details as minor as the price of fixing a straitjacket used onstage, hitting the roof when he learns it will cost $250, twice the price of a new one. In 2013, Angel returned to TV for a series of hourlong shows on Spike guest- starring the likes of rapper-actors Ludacris and Ice T, professional wrestler Randy Couture, and former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal. More than 100 episodes of Angel’s programming have been licensed for airing overseas. Beyond Las Vegas, he produces and directs The Supernaturalists, a traveling revue he opened last summer that showcases nine lesser-known performers. This Halloween he’ll be back on A&E with an hourlong special. In the U.S., “the TV shows drive people to the Las Vegas shows and sell the merchandise,” he says. Angel manages the TV ventures, stage shows, and merchandising-– Angel Inc., or as it’s officially known, Angel Productions Worldwide-–on three to four hours of sleep a night. He gets help from his brother, Costa; Dimitra, 81, a Greek immigrant, lives with him part-time. He credits his business acumen to his late father, John, who operated coffee shops on Long Island, N.Y., where Angel grew up. For example, rather than license his signature magic kits to a toy company, he outsources manufacturing to China and sells them, along with T-shirts and DVDs, from his own warehouse. Since 2005 he’s sold more than $35 million in magic kits alone. He oversees details as minor as the price of fixing a straitjacket used onstage, hitting the roof when he learns it will cost $250, twice the price of a new one. The performer speaks lovingly and often about his 2-year-old son, Johnny Crisstopher, who has leukemia, now in remission. The boy lives in Australia with his mother, Shaunyl Benson, from whom Angel is estranged. Despite an earnest family devotion, Angel often generates TMZ-worthy gossip in his personal life. Over the years he’s dated actresses Cameron Diaz and Minnie Driver and pop singer Britney Spears, as well as ex-Playboy bunny and reality-TV star Holly Madison. Angel’s ventures don’t necessarily win him fans among rivals and aficionados. Penn Jillette, the tall, talkative member of the Penn & Teller duo, once told a radio interviewer: “Criss Angel does tricks on TV, which means he’s not in the category of David Copperfield. He’s in the category of Samantha Stephens on Bewitched.” Mike Caveney, a magic historian in Southern California who co-authored the book Magic: 1400s-1950s, says, “Criss Angel has done more to harm and damage magic than any other person I can think of. The stuff he does on television and the Internet-–walk up the side of a building, walk across the swimming pool-–is just silly, and it generates cynicism about the art.” One recent morning, Angel leads a tour of the 60,000-square-foot factory where his team of engineers and welders are building the multimillion-dollar infrastructure for Mindfreak Live! Although it continues his franchise, “it’s a brand-new approach to everything I do,” he says, showing off a massive buzz-saw contraption. Some might argue that the classic sawing in two of a comely assistant is a tired stunt, but Angel says his version will be more realistic-looking and shocking. The show is scheduled to run for the final three years of his 10-year contract with MGM Resorts International, the Luxor’s owner, and Cirque. This summer he’s scheduled to do a dozen performances in Dubai, under a contract that he says covers all his expenses and pays him $2 million. “There will always be critics,” he says, “but I’m proving that my performances appeal to the widest possible audiences, not just in Vegas but around the country and the world. I want to own the magic space.” { SOURCE: Bloomberg Businessweek | http://goo.gl/jXuS7b } 45 DEGREES: T.O by Lipton campaign wins a Silver Award for Best Production Design {May.12.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- For this campaign, director Saam Farahmand at Rogue and production designer David Lee have come together to create a revolutionary advertisement for Lipton’s new TO Tea machine for Tribal Worldwide London in collaboration with adam&eveDDB. The advert combines cutting-edge filming techniques with beautiful in-air and underwater performances by Cirque du Soleil. Through a complex process of tank building, liquid formations, set design and execution – what unfolded was an impressive underwater production that has never been done before. An underwater performance representing specific flavours – each one behaving as the tea leaves, capturing the spirit and essence of brewing process. Congratulations to the entire team! CHECK OUT A VIDEO OF THE ADVERTISEMENT HERE: < https://goo.gl/2O0hyd > # # # So, what is the T.O. By Lipton? Unilever (Lipton) introduced a colorful and innovative home tea brewer in France last week to compete with Nespresso’s Special.T. The $200 T.O. by Lipton was designed in collaboration with Bodum, integrates a Brita water filter and is manufactured by Krups. It uses newly designed single-serve capsules of premium tea that are sold online in packs of 10 for $4.50 (€3.90). There are tea kettles on the market licensed to carry the Lipton brand, such as the Ariete cordless, but the T.O. is a brewing system conceived by 5.5 designstudio that adjusts temperature settings and variable steep times essential in brewing specialty teas and tisanes. The tea leaves and tisane inclusions are visible in a unique brewing chamber where the tea is agitated before it is discharged. The capsule then acts as a tea strainer capturing the leaves as the water exits. This brewer can make a cup of tea in 30 seconds. “The lines of the T.O. tea maker resemble a statuesque pediment with a backdrop for the infusion chamber that forms the nerve center of the device,” according to a post by 5.5 designstudio. “Similar to a traditional glass teapot in which the tea leaves release their flavor, the machine embodies the swirling bubbles and aromas,” according to the designers. The brewer design team writes that the brewers are manufactured in four metallic colors “to acknowledge to the four main types of tea – white, red, green, and black. This diverse range of colors gives ’T.O.’ a decorative quality ideal for kitchens as well as lounges.” Lipton has offered tea capsules that are compatible with Nespresso equipment since last Spring. The newly designed T.O. capsules are larger are only sold online. The teas are available in seven flavors including vanilla caramel, green Marrakesh mint, Earl Grey, and blood orange mandarin. The Special.T brewer ($79) costs less than half as much the T.O. It has been marketed in France since 2010. Like the T.O. it uses a specially designed tea capsule, priced similarly to the new Lipton capsules. In the U.S. Lipton markets its tea in Keurig licensed capsules that are widely available at retail outlets. The company did not say whether it would market the new brewer in North America. The French newspaper Le Monde, reported that “in France, sales of tea, dominated largely by Lipton and Twinings distribution has stagnated.More and more people prefer upmarket teas. This trend benefits the specialized brands, like Mariage Frères, the Palace of teas, Dammann Frères and Kusmi Tea.” Lipton first introduced a single-serve machine for food service in 2014 at the London Caffé Culture Show where it was reviewed by Euromonitor analyst Hope Lee. “Premiumisation in tea has taken off in Western Europe despite the resilience of private label,” writes Lee. “This is very much a manufacturer driven-trend, with brand owners seeking to drive volume and value sales through the introduction of new flavors, tea types and packaging formats…. Single-serve tea capsules and pyramid tea bags with leaf tea appear to be niches with bright prospects,” according to Lee. Jacinthe Brillet, executive director of T.O. by Lipton, told La Figaro the company anticipates capsule and brewer sales of $130 million (€115 million) annually by 2020. “That seems ambitious given that sales in France of all Lipton products are $125 million (€110 million), according to the report: “To achieve this objective Unilever could also sell its system to restaurants.” Unilever’s refreshment division, which includes Lipton, reported revenue of $6.2 billion (€5.5 billion) for the first half of the year according to Bloomberg. { SOURCE: 45 DEGREES, World Tea News | http://goo.gl/ezuRDP } Cirque du Soleil’s “New Bet” On Its Future? {May.17.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- L’actualité, a Canadian French-language news and general interest magazine published in Montreal, has released an interesting article today, detailing Cirque du Soleil’s “new bet” on its future. The article itself was published in French only; however, a cursory sweep through Google Translate has offered up a few interesting nuggets… o) Cirque2017 is shaping up to be an extreme sports show. “Cirque 2017, which will be presented under the big top of the Old Port of Montreal, ‘will use a lot of extreme sports’ including BMX, Jean-François Bouchard explains enthusiastically.” o) According to Daniel Lamarre, CEO, Cirque will experience a “huge growth” over the next five years, increasing the number of shows from 18 to “at least 25”. o) As we eluded to in Fascination a few months back, Cirque is considering cloning some of its shows for other markets. “O, Michael Jackson One, The Beatles Love, and KA could be produced in other markets.” o) Cirque du Soleil is looking to expand in China, New York, London, Dubai, Mexico, and Hawaii. o) Within five years, Cirque hopes to have at least two permanent shows in China, with the addition of touring shows. Many hopes are with TORUK, which will begin touring China in 2017. TORUK’s success will lay the groundwork for the first permanent show, scheduled in Hangzhou at the end of 2018. And who knows, perhaps a clone of ‘O’. o) Paramour will remain in the “Big Apple” as long as the tickets have a market. If ticket sales take a hit, the show could go on the road and tour as other Broadway productions do. o) Cirque is also scheduled to open a resident show in New Jersey by early 2018. This show will focus on the theme of fashion and will be installed in a new theater, built-in shopping and entertainment center currently under construction. o) Daniel Lamarre still optimistic he could port LOVE to London. Also considering PARAMOUR. Not to mention the dinner theater show he wants to install there in three years. o) With revenues of $25 million, 45 Degrees is still a small part of the Group du Soleil, but, president Yasmine Khali’s plan, is to make the move to $100 million within five years. Mitch Garber, President of the Board of Cirque du Soleil, confirms the Group’s ambitions. “45 Degrees is definitely one of the important growth paths of Cirque du Soleil.” o) The customer must have a budget of at least $350,000 to appeal to 45 Degrees. And it is they who bear the financial risk, not Cirque du Soleil. Of the 1,500 unsolicited requests it receives a year, it accepts only 10% of them. o) The dinner show JOYA created “many, many requests” from other developers, and so it seems Dubai will host a version in 2018, then Hawaii. “Very preliminary” discussions are also underway for JOYA-like dinner shows for London, Brazil, and elsewhere. o) The team is also working to develop “parks” for Club Med (Fosun properties) and permanent shows with the European cruise line MSC. You can read the English-translated (via Google Translate) version of the article below. Or, if you’re interested in the original French version, check out the SOURCE notation at the end. # # # When Jean-François Bouchard, largely responsible for the creation of Cirque du Soleil, finally arrives in the office of his boss, the head office of Montreal is the whirlwind. He laughs, cries, apologizes for being late. In a move rarely seen in the office, he at length hugged the president and CEO, Daniel Lamarre. With pats on the back and everything. Chosen by Guy Laliberté himself to succeed him as creative guide of Cirque du Soleil, Jean-François Bouchard, seagulls patterned shirt and gold belt, clearly carbide with crazy ideas. At one year of the first show named yet Cirque 2017, which will be presented under the big top of the Old Port of Montreal, the great curly 55 years has given the green light to the main numbers acrobatics, music and the design stage. The show “will use a lot of extreme sports” including BMX, he explains enthusiastically. The withdrawal of Guy Laliberté day business of Cirque du Soleil is the most visible aspect of the sale of the company – a transaction of $ 1.5 billion in the summer of 2015. The US group TPG Capital now has 60% of the shares, the Chinese group Fosun 20% and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec 10%. The founder, still owns 10% of shares, just add a touch, but it is there “on time very, very partial,” said Mitch Garber, who chairs the board. “Before, everything was going through Guy, he said. Nothing important was happening without Guy. And suddenly, there is more of Guy … ” Unlike Laliberté, investors, including large portfolios do not count other entertainment enterprises, do not mix creation. They have brought against growth ambitions and greater discipline. “We now have an incredible range of development!” Said Daniel Lamarre, CEO since 2006. Cirque experience a “huge growth” over the next five years, he said. The number of performances from 18 to “at least 25”. Revenues and profits increase by 15% annually. The number of jobs also. “When I talk about growth, not just hope, stressed the leader of 62 years. These are real, concrete projects. I see them!” No way however from scattering. The unrelated to the show activities, such as catering in Ibiza and the nightclubs in Las Vegas, were abandoned immediately after the transaction. The new projects are now assessed based on a clear direction: rationally target the most promising markets and identify the best ways to conquer them. “I do not know how the financial discipline investors could help us,” said Daniel Lamarre. If the effect on the financial results do not yet being felt, it has already acted on morale. The sale, two years after significant cuts – 400 positions eliminated, especially in Montreal – had made them nervous employees. Over the months, they found that the positions were saved, that the mission and creativity were not sacrificed. “There was a normal period of transition, but now seems frankly moral good,” according to Louis Patrick Leroux, professor at Concordia University and director of the circus in search of Montreal Group. In March that spins too quickly for his taste, Jean-François Bouchard multiplies trips between Montreal and New York to refine Luzia (the Mexican-inspired spectacle the first of which took place in April in Old Port of Montreal) and Paramour (in May at Broadway). But the first item on the agenda of his meeting with Daniel Lamarre is Cirque 2017. The productions launched in the Old Port of Montreal can live long if they do fly. Varekai (2002), Kooza (2007) and Totem (2010), for example, still roam the world. Other less popular, were withdrawn after a few years of touring. “Montreal is the most difficult market for us,” says Daniel Lamarre few weeks of the first of Luzia. “Quebecers are also critical of the Cirque du Soleil than to the Montreal Canadiens. We hope to have a better season than them!” Laughs the CEO. So far, the Cirque had a show in one city at a time. Now, it is often with two, three or even four simultaneous productions in an entertainment company maximizes its profits. “We were the only ones not to, and there it is viewed,” said Daniel Lamarre. And O , Michael Jackson One , The Beatles Love and KA, every success in Las Vegas, could be produced in other markets. Las Vegas has long been the engine of growth, but if he wants to grow 15% per year, Cirque du Soleil will drill in China, New York and London. In these priority markets add Dubai, Mexico, Hawaii … After a few months on the board, Christian Dubé, Vice- President of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, is confident: “The prospects that we have been presented at the beginning [of the transaction] are quite there, positive, encouraging and above all, achievable. ” The Middle Kingdom, which already has 10,000 troops circus, is in the sights of the group for years. “Cirque du Soleil had not yet found the way to break through it, but now has a very combative strategy,” says Louis Patrick Leroux, circus Montreal Research Group. The arrival of Fosun as shareholder has changed the situation, says Daniel Lamarre. Chinese conglomerate, with a market value equivalent to 16 billion Canadian dollars, entries everywhere he uses to Cirque du Soleil. When Daniel Lamarre visits China, people of Fosun translate her body language and the reality of business. Thus, the CEO realized recently how the political factor comes into play. Luckily, the Chinese government wants the new housing estates have a cultural component. The Caisse de depot et placement account also enjoy the presence of its real estate arm Ivanhoe Cambridge in China to help Cirque. “We put our dollars, but it supports more than just a capital” insists Christian Dubé. Within five years, the Cirque hopes to have at least two permanent shows on Chinese soil, in addition to many long tours. Many hopes are based on toruk , inspired by the film Avatar, who will begin his China tour in 2017: its success lays the ground work for the first permanent show, scheduled in Hangzhou at the end of 2018. And who knows, in a project recovery of aquatic creation O. In the shorter term, Cirque puts the package to conquer Broadway with Paramour , a mixture of acrobatics and music hall. Construction of a theater, systems integration, co-design with a local team … Paramour will remain on display in the “Big Apple” as long as the tickets have a market. If hit, teams could also walk the show around the world, as do other Broadway productions. The New York market has not always been easy for the Cirque du Soleil. The failure in 2009 of Banana Shpeel , a vaudeville- style show, with jokes and humor, had great sound. “It was a little show,” insists Daniel Lamarre, who much prefer to talk about success touring and rock opera Zarkana , for which one million tickets were sold in two summers at Radio City Music Hall in 2011 and 2012. “I have a selective memory,” he acknowledged with a smile. Furthermore Paramour, Cirque du Soleil will open a permanent show in New Jersey, the other side of New York at the turn of 2018. This production will focus on the theme of fashion and will be installed in a new theater, built-in center shopping and entertainment five billion currently under construction. A little puzzle, by cons, draw the plans in London, another priority market. For years, Daniel Lamarre dream install it Love, the Beatles tribute. An obstacle gets in his way: the lack of a place to scratch. The West End theaters, the central sector, are historical, thus difficult or impossible to change. And available land are rare. Whatever, the CEO regularly travels the UK capital, control analyzes. In addition to Love, the Cirque hopes to export it Paramour. Not to mention the dinner theater that wants to install in three years. To increase its chances to execute its ambitious business plan, Cirque du Soleil has reshuffled its management team in early 2016. Jonathan Tétrault, previously responsible for the Montreal office of McKinsey consultants box, replaced Charles Décarie as Chief operating Officer. Stéphane Lefebvre took over the management of finances, after leading those of CAE simulator manufacturer. These hirings and other changes in administrative teams will “install this level of rigor and business experience [desired by investors],” said Mitch Garber. In addition, said Daniel Lamarre, these new recruits are “speaking Quebecers from here”, which has significantly calmed the “legitimate concerns” of employees. “I’m doing speeches, but there is nothing like the action. Here the message is clear that Quebecers remain with management and the head office remains in Montreal.” { SOURCE: http://goo.gl/0JDIr5 | L’actualité } VIDEO \\\ What’s New With OVO 2.0? Projections! {May.18.2016} ------------------------------------------------------- OVO is back and brighter than ever thanks to new light projection technology from 4U2C… In the video above, Oliver Goulet, 4U2C Producer, discusses the new technology his company employed for OVO’s final acrobatic number and more. CHECK OUT THE VIDEO HERE: < https://www.facebook.com/OVO/videos/10154295994169614/ > WAIT, WHO IS 4U2C? Founded in 2013, 4U2C specializes in the design of visual elements. Combining scenography, lighting, video and 3D effects/mapping, the company has earned a prominent place on the local and international scene. Since its debut, 4U2C has developed more than 100 projects for sporting events and festivals such as the pre-game festivities for the Montreal Canadians, Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors, OSHEAGA, Heavy Montreal, Igloofest as well as permanent architectural installations and the visual content for the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Central America and Caribbean Games. 4U2C continues to enjoy the support of its shareholders, Solotech and Cirque du Soleil. Their tools are lights, stagecraft and video production, but their product is emotion. That’s what they deliver, no matter the medium or the venue. 4U2C creates powerful connections between audiences and performers, brands and fans. When you’re immersed in one of the unique audiovisual experiences that they’ve helped create, it’s an unforgettable moment! 4U2C is a one-stop shop for the creative and production needs of any multimedia event. They are built around the notion of integrated creation: the desire to provide a creative environment where lighting, architectural design, media content and technology are seamlessly combined. “Our approach is that of a creative production designer who oversees every aspect of the visual design of a live event production. We believe multimedia means a production that brings together the various disciplines of visual design in a cohesive whole, and at 4U2C we encompass creative director, production designer and technical director.” WHAT DOES 4U2C DO? o) Stage & Event Design -– Count on us to create innovative visual worlds for live and special events, both large and small. Scenic design, stage design, special effects and technical expertise combine to offer you a truly memorable experience. o) Lighting Design -– Whether we’re designing stunning lighting for a building facade, or supercharging a live event with hundreds of moving lights and audience-worn LED bracelets, you can always trust us to show you in your best light. o) Visual Content and Production -– Our in-house studio offers everything you need to create engaging imagery, including concept research and storyboarding, HD filming and editing, 2D and 3D animation, motion design, special effects, green- screen shooting, compositing and post-production. o) Coordination and Project Managemet -– Brilliant artistic productions don’t just happen on their own. It takes leadership. In addition to world-class creative direction, you’ll have a content producer and an executive producer who coordinate production and ensure that our multidisciplinary team delivers a flawless experience. MEET THE ARTISANS o) Yves Aucoin, President -– Thirty years of experience have earned Yves an international reputation as an original and talented artistic director. While creating stunning shows for renowned clients like Celine Dion, the Cirque du Soleil LOVE the Beatles or Johnny Hallyday. Yves, as the creative director, brings undeniable creativity and award-winning expertise to the table. o) Stéphane Mongeau, Executive Vice President -– As executive producer and VP of production, Stéphane spent the last decade supervising the creation of over a dozen box-office hits for the renowned Cirque du Soleil. Before the Cirque, he brought his virtuosity in lighting design and production management to hundreds of stage productions by acclaimed directors such as Robert Lepage, Diane Paulus or Denis Marleau. o) Olivier Goulet, Content Producer -– Olivier began working as a freelancer with Théâtre Ubu, PIGI Canada and La Cité de L’Énergie de Shawiningan. In 2005, he co-founded Geodezik and made his entry into the international rock‘n roll scene by working with artists such as Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, The Black Keys, and Rihanna among others, who turned to him to enrich their shows with video scenographic content. To learn more about 4U2C, visit their website at: < http://4u2c.com/ > ======================================================================= ITINÉRAIRE -- TOUR/SHOW INFORMATION ======================================================================= o) BIGTOP - Under the Grand Chapiteau {Amaluna, Koozå, Kurios, Luzia & Totem} o) ARENA - In Stadium-like venues {Varekai, TORUK & OVO} o) RESIDENT - Performed en Le Théâtre {Mystère, "O", La Nouba, Zumanity, KÀ, LOVE, MJ ONE & JOYÀ} NOTE: .) While we make every effort to provide complete and accurate touring dates and locations available, the information in this section is subject to change without notice. As such, the Fascination! Newsletter does not accept responsibility for the accuracy of these listings. For current, up-to-the-moment information on Cirque's whereabouts, please visit Cirque's website: < http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/ >, or for a more comprehensive tour listing, visit our Itinéraire section online at: < http://www.cirquefascination.com/?page_id=6898 >. ------------------------------------ BIGTOP - Under the Grand Chapiteau ------------------------------------ Amaluna: Frankfurt, DE -- May 11, 2016 to Jun 12, 2016 Knokke-Heist, BE -- Jul 14, 2016 to Aug 7, 2016 Manchester, UK -- Sep 7, 2016 to Oct 2, 2016 Dusseldorf, DE -- Nov 17, 2016 to Dec 18, 2016 London, UK -- Jan 12, 2017 to Feb 4, 2017 Vienna, AT -- Mar 9, 2017 to Apr 2, 2017 Koozå: Buenos Aires, AR -- Apr 21, 2016 to Jun 12, 2016 Santiago, CL -- Jul 19, 2016, 2016 to Jul 31, 2016 Sydney, AU -- Aug 25, 2016 to Nov 13, 2016 Brisbane, AU -- Nov 24, 2016 to Jan 8, 2017 Melbourne, AU -- Jan 20, 2017 to Mar 26, 2017 Perth, AU -- TBA Kurios: Boston, MA -- May 26, 2016 to Jul 10, 2016 Washington, DC -- Jul 21, 2016 to Sep 18, 2016 New York City, NY -- Sep 29, 2016 to Nov 27, 2016 Miami, FL -- TBA Luzia: Montreal, QC -- Apr 21, 2016 to Jul 17, 2016 Toronto, ON -- Jul 27, 2016 to Oct 16, 2016 San Francisco, CA -- Nov 17, 2016 to Jan 29, 2017 San Jose, CA -- Feb 9, 2017 to Mar 19, 2017 Seattle, WA -- Mar 30, 2017 to May 21, 2017 Denver, CO -- Jun 1, 2017 to Jul 9, 2017 Chicago, IL -- Jul 21, 2017 to Sep 3, 2017 Phoenix, AZ -- Sep 22, 2017 to Oct 22, 2017 Totem: Tokyo, JP -– Feb 03, 2016 to Jun 26, 2016 Osaka, JP –- Jul 14, 2016 to Oct 12, 2016 Nagoya, JP –- Nov 10, 2016 to Jan 15, 2017 Fukuoka, JP –- Feb 3, 2017 to Mar 19, 2017 Sendai, JP -– Apr 6, 2017 to May 21, 2017 ------------------------------------ ARENA - In Stadium-Like Venues ------------------------------------ Varekai: Sochi, RU -– Jun 2, 2016 to Jun 5, 2016 Zaragoza, ES -– Jun 29, 2016 to Jul 3, 2016 Santander, ES -– Jul 6, 2016 to Jul 10, 2016 Granada, ES -– Jul 13, 2016 to Jul 17, 2016 Murcia, ES -– Jul 20, 2016 to Jul 24, 2016 Beirut, LB -– Sep 7, 2016 to Sep 11, 2016 Dubai, UAE -– Sep 16, 2016 to Sep 24, 2016 Istanbul, TR -– Oct 5, 2016 to Oct 9, 2016 Milan, IT -– Oct 20 2016 to Oct 23, 2016 Florence, IT -– Oct 27, 2016 to Oct 30, 2016 Bologna, IT -– Nov 03, 2016 to Nov 06, 2016 Turin, IT -– Nov 10, 2016 to Nov 13, 2016 Nantes, FR -– Nov 16, 2016 to Nov 20, 2016 Toulouse, FR -– Nov 23, 2016 to Nov 27, 2016 Strasbourg, FR -– Nov 30, 2016 to Dec 4, 2016 Paris, FR -– Dec 7, 2016 to Dec 11, 2016 Lille, FR -– Dec 14, 2016 to Dec 18, 2016 Lisbon, PT -– Jan 5, 2017 to Jan 15, 2017 Gijon, ES -– Jan 25, 2017 to Jan 29, 2017 Lyon, FR -– Apr 13, 2017 to Apr 16, 2017 Budapest, HU -– May 12, 2017 to May 14, 2017 TORUK - The First Flight: Providence, RI -– Jun 1, 2016 to Jun 5, 2016 Baltimore, MD -– Jun 9, 2016 to Jun 12, 2016 Duluth, GA -– Jun 15, 2016 to Jun 19, 2016 Pittsburgh, PA -– Jun 22, 2016 to Jun 26, 2016 Ottawa, ON -– Jun 29, 2016 to Jul 3, 2016 Denver, CO -– Jul 21, 2016 to Jul 24, 2016 Lincoln, NE -– Jul 27, 2016 to Jul 31, 2016 Chicago, IL -– Aug 3, 2016 to Aug 7, 2016 Indianapolis, IN -– Aug 10, 2016 to Aug 14, 2016 Birmingham, AL -– Aug 19, 2016 to Aug 21, 2016 Nashville, TN -– Aug 24, 2016 to Aug 28, 2016 Evansville, IN -– Sep 1, 2016 to Sep 4, 2016 Brooklyn, NY -– Sep 7, 2016 to Sep 11, 2016 Newark, NJ -– Sep 15, 2016 to Sep 18, 2016 Milwaukee, WI -– Sep 22, 2016 to Sep 25, 2016 Minneapolis, MN -– Sep 28, 2016 to Oct 2, 2016 Winnipeg, MB -– Oct 5, 2016 to Oct 9, 2016 Philadelphia, PA -– Mar 8, 2017 to Mar 12, 2017 OVO: Bangor, ME -– Jun 2, 2016 to Jun 5, 2016 Bridgeport, CT -– Jun 8, 2016 to Jun 12, 2016 Hartford, CT -– Jun 15, 2016 to Jun 19, 2016 Atlantic City, NJ -– Jun 22, 2016 to Jun 26, 2016 Windsor, ON -– Jun 29, 2016 to Jul 3, 2016 Memphis, TN -– Jul 8, 2016 to Jul 10, 2016 Greenville, SC -– Jul 13, 2016 to Jul 17, 2016 Chattanooga, TN -– Jul 20, 2016 to Jul 24, 2016 Huntsville, AL -– Jul 27, 2016 to Jul 31, 2016 St. Louis, MO -– Aug 3, 2016 to Aug 7, 2016 Manchester, NH -– Aug 25, 2016 to Aug 28, 2016 Hershey, PA -– Aug 31, 2016 to Sep 4, 2016 Hampton, VA -– Sep 7, 2016 to Sep 11, 2016 Roanoke, VA -– Sep 14, 2016 to Sep 18, 2016 Orlando, FL -– Sep 21, 2016 to Sep 25, 2016 Estero, FL -– Sep 28, 2016 to Oct 2, 2016 Jacksonville, FL -– Oct 5, 2016 to Oct 8, 2016 Erie, PA -– Nov 17, 2016 to Nov 20, 2016 Detroit, MI -– TBA --------------------------------- RESIDENT - en Le Théâtre --------------------------------- Mystère: Location: Treasure Island, Las Vegas (USA) Performs: Saturday through Wednesday, Dark: Thursday/Friday Two shows Nightly - 7:00pm & 9:30pm 2016 Dark Dates: o July 6 o September 10 – 14 o November 9 Special / Limited Performances: o June 18, 2016 (Only 7pm performance) o June 19, 2016 (Only 7pm performance) o December 29, 2016 (Two Shows) "O": Location: Bellagio, Las Vegas (USA) Performs: Wednesday through Sunday, Dark: Monday/Tuesday Two shows Nightly - 7:30pm and 9:30pm (as of Aug 12, 2015) 2016 Dark Dates: o June 12-24 o July 2-5 o August 1-9 La Nouba: Location: Walt Disney World, Orlando (USA) Performs: Tuesday through Saturday, Dark: Sunday/Monday Two shows Nightly - 6:00pm and 9:00pm Zumanity: Location: New York-New York, Las Vegas (USA) Performs: Tuesday through Saturday, Dark Sunday/Monday Two Shows Nightly - 7:00pm and 9:30pm (Only 7:00pm on the following days in 2015: January 20, May 8, May 15, May 19, May 20, and December 31) KÀ: Location: MGM Grand, Las Vegas (USA) Performs: Saturday through Wednesday, Dark Thursday/Friday Two Shows Nightly - 7:00pm and 9:30pm (Only 7 pm performances on May 9, 16 and June 21) 2016 Dark Dates: o July 13 o September 15 - 23 o November 23 LOVE: Location: Mirage, Las Vegas (USA) Performs: Thursday through Monday, Dark: Tuesday/Wednesday Two Shows Nightly - 7:00pm and 9:30pm (Only 7:00p.m. on May 15-16, June 19-21, December 31) (Only 4:30p.m. & 7:00p.m. performances on July 4) MICHAEL JACKSON ONE: Location: Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas (USA) Performs: Two Shows Nightly - Dark: Wednesday/Thursday Schedule: 7:00pm & 9:30pm on Friday, Saturday, Monday & Tuesday 4:30pm & 7:00pm on Sunday JOYÀ: Location: Riviera Maya, Mexico Performs: Tuesday through Saturday, Dark: Sunday/Monday One/Two Shows Nightly: 9:00pm (Weekdays) 7:00pm & 10:15pm (Fri, Sat & Holidays) ======================================================================= OUTREACH - UPDATES FROM CIRQUE's SOCIAL WIDGETS ======================================================================= o) FOTOS -- Images From Cirque & Other Photographs o) VIDEOS -- Official Peeks & Noted Fan Finds --------------------------------------------------- FOTOS: Images From Cirque & Other Photo Links --------------------------------------------------- KOOZA -- https://goo.gl/fEup46 -- At the Fair! KOOZA -- https://goo.gl/itzIJJ -- At South Riverside KURIOS -- https://goo.gl/gBjqN8 -- Artists Promoting the Show LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/7D9HFC -- Backstage Selfies! LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/IzMQH2 -- Futbol Artist Salute #1! LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/mmJAPb -- Futbol Artist Salute #2! MYSTERE -- https://goo.gl/TCv5PR -- At Cupcake Wars! MYSTERE -- https://goo.gl/LV9Yrj -- A View from Above... OVO -- https://goo.gl/OuEkmi -- Thank You Cleveland! OVO -- https://goo.gl/K858v5 -- Now in Philly! OVO -- https://goo.gl/rmKqzE -- Arena Tour Cast! OVO -- https://goo.gl/RW7j53 -- Throwback Photoshoot OVO -- https://goo.gl/AgyScm -- No Mirrors? No Problem! SODA -- https://goo.gl/oX9iZ9 -- First Sketches #1 SODA -- https://goo.gl/KJFIYX -- First Sketches #2 LOVE -- https://goo.gl/9JKn8G -- Something New: Blue Meanies! TORUK -- https://goo.gl/qz4ENW -- At Cincinnati Reds Game TOTEM -- https://goo.gl/HFL5xL -- Meet Totem's Cute Characters! TOTEM -- https://goo.gl/Z7vS3p -- Osaka Press Conference #1 TOTEM -- https://goo.gl/04e0oP -- Osaka Press Conference #2 TOTEM -- https://goo.gl/kKTp6v -- Osaka Press Conference #3 VAREKAI -- https://goo.gl/Ydl2i6 -- In Chelyabinsk VAREKAI -- https://goo.gl/3HDvf1 -- Cyr Wheel --------------------------------------------------- VIDEOS: Official Peeks & Noted Fan Finds --------------------------------------------------- AMALUNA -- https://goo.gl/COfj58 -- Premiere in Frankfurt AMALUNA -- https://goo.gl/tLL820 -- BTS Look at KH Mag Shoot AMALUNA -- https://goo.gl/FIqn5J -- Discover Our Costumes JOYA -- https://goo.gl/eV4yBI -- Meet the Team! KA -- https://goo.gl/UevoQe -- Surprising Encounters... KOOZA -- https://goo.gl/sWCEMp -- Test Opening for ShowMatch2016 KURIOS -- https://goo.gl/BvweAJ -- Thank You Atlanta! KURIOS -- https://goo.gl/j1v6jz -- Congratulations to Paramour! KURIOS -- https://goo.gl/lauiLT -- Thank You Boston! LA NOUBA -- https://goo.gl/Ism3En -- Making Paper Planes... LA NOUBA -- https://goo.gl/42ifDl -- The New Kids on the Block LA NOUBA -- https://goo.gl/i0oZhn -- Meet Artist David Poirier LA NOUBA -- https://goo.gl/6cwtYz -- A Good Dentist is hard to Find! LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/UBQlBU -- 3 Days Until World Premiere LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/v5T6UZ -- 2 Days Until World Premiere LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/LxNeru -- 1 Day Until World Premiere! LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/p0J3Al -- Ready to Dazzle! LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/ljOOz1 -- CirqueSessions: Live at Bigtop LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/PYK92r -- CirqueSessions: Live at Bigtop LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/HevdH1 -- Congratulations! LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/MhvVxc -- Highlights of Premiere LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/9Xvnxq -- The Challenges of Cyr Wheel LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/K3RvKi -- The Challanges of Hoop Diving LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/n4eBWm -- The Challenges of Aerial Strap LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/EewMOE -- The Challenges of Vertical Bar LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/f07AMj -- Meet Abou, Football Artist LUIZA -- https://goo.gl/dT1fRx -- Learn About Majo's Routine LUZIA -- https://goo.gl/eWsmj8 -- Preview of Adagio Act MJ ONE -- https://goo.gl/6dN0um -- Gravity Has No Hold MJ ONE -- https://goo.gl/QkSSoM -- "Dirty Diana" MJ ONE -- https://goo.gl/xIdCZ6 -- "Earth Song" OVO -- https://goo.gl/CVmvYX -- Happy MOVOther's Day! OVO -- https://goo.gl/lwvo3d -- Throwback Photoshoot OVO -- https://goo.gl/1AyZh3 -- Timelapse Load-in in Cleveland PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/QuUU3n -- Hair Designer Josh Marquette PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/IKoiVw -- Acrobat Blair Sanchez PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/xZqcx3 -- Backstage via Reuters PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/cTxzGB -- Mother's Day with Andi PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/gbzEiK -- Trampolinist Amiel Soicher-Clarke PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/Z2Hvim -- Discussing The Making of Paramour PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/AFVseV -- Makeup Designer Nathalie Gagne PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/UKMpmw -- Getting our Hollywood Glam On PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/P981UH -- Lights, Camera, Action! PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/bwAKM5 -- Meet the Atherton Twins PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/yK46yh -- On Our Feet! PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/jOF1Ya -- Get to Know the Cast PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/M5HzLn -- Live from the Red Carpet! PARAMOUR -- https://goo.gl/xACbV5 -- World Premiere! SODA -- https://goo.gl/PauGLk -- Michel Talks What's Next? SODA -- https://goo.gl/jPWIPX -- The Locker Room SODA -- https://goo.gl/Sf7plh -- A Musical Session SODA -- https://goo.gl/3tKoVQ -- The Winner is AIR SODA -- https://goo.gl/cqBCTo -- Live with the Costume Creators TORUK -- https://goo.gl/cGLQeL -- Meet Artist Caitlin Madden TORUK -- https://goo.gl/YjLGYl -- At the Clippers Baseball Game TORUK -- https://goo.gl/BOvQwj -- Kite Specialist Sebastien Clarke TORUK -- https://goo.gl/hxC3hL -- Tipani Chief, Lisanna Paloma Ohm TORUK -- https://goo.gl/xHkbTq -- Contortionist, Baaska Enkhbaatar TORUK -- https://goo.gl/XHB45y -- The Shamen's Vocal Warmup TORUK -- https://goo.gl/ZMxP8p -- Didyaknow? Hidden trampolines! TORUK -- https://goo.gl/pzq7dJ -- Artist Lydia Harper VAREKAI -- https://goo.gl/MpI0A1 -- Incredible St. Petersburg! ZARKANA -- https://goo.gl/eOYjBo -- Final Bows ZUMANITY -- https://goo.gl/RF1o0W -- Meet Artist Wayne Skivington ======================================================================= FASCINATION! FEATURES ======================================================================= o) REVIEW /// "LUZIA: A Waking Dream" By: Ricky Russo - Atlanta, Georgia (USA) o) "PARAMOUR - The Reviews Are In..." A Special Collection of Articles from the Press o) "Q&A w/Criss Angel: Mindfreak Live is 'Ready to Go!'" Written By: Robin Leach, The Las Vegas Sun ------------------------------------------------------------ REVIEW /// "LUZIA: A Waking Dream" By: Ricky Russo - Atlanta, Georgia (USA) ----------------------------------------------------------- Those of you who’ve met me know I am a champion for experiencing a new Cirque show amongst the hometown crowd. There’s absolutely no substitute for being in the stands of the Grand Chapiteau with a couple-thousand Québécois, clapping and stomping to the show’s beat, having a marvelous time celebrating the birth of a new spectacle. The energy of the artists and the crowd alike is so high their enthusiasm becomes more than a little infectious. It’s a magical, enlightening sentiment you can’t get anywhere else! It’s a truth I first discovered when I stepped on the cobblestoned streets of the Old Port in 2002 for Varekai’s premiere, and I’ve done everything in my power to make sure I repeated that experience from then on – for Corteo (2005), Koozå (2007), OVO (2009), TOTEM (2010), Amaluna (2012), and KURIOS: Cabinet of Curiosities (2014) – each becoming a unique, but highly memorable encounter. For LUZIA, it seemed as if my string of good fortune would be interrupted. Two life-changing events occurred within 30-days of each other – all in the month of April – that precluded contemplating a performance during the run in Montreal: the birth of our first child, and the purchase of our first house. Talk about an upheaval! There was absolutely no way to reach Montreal by summertime, was there? As it turned out... friend and fellow fan José Pérez (The Chapiteau), who had just come off of an amazing experience at TORUK’s premiere at the Bell Centre in Montreal in late December, really wanted to experience a premiere under the big top. And not wanting to miss out on the fun we put our collective heads together and chose a date... It would take some maneuvering on my part to make it happen, but, I managed! And although we would see the show a month after its world premiere, our excitement for being there wasn’t diminished in the slightest. Despite a few hiccups arriving in Montreal (my flight was delayed out of La Guardia, putting me in Montreal about three hours later than originally planned; forcing us to face rush hour traffic from the airport, almost causing us to miss the show on the first night!), we had a fantastic time in Montreal. Now, allow me to take you through the “waking dream” that is LUZIA by using various Cirque Press Room materials and a bit of my own observations... PRELUDE ------- From the very moment Cirque du Soleil began teasing this new creation it was obvious we were in for something unique, even more than the steampunk infused aesthetic of KURIOS-CABINET DES CURIOSITÉS. The media ramp-up to KURIOS’s debut was a bit unconventional, releasing its own unique brand of mysterious yet inviting teasers, but LUZIA seemed even more peculiar. What were these visuals featuring a silhouette of a lady/cactus running through a kaleidoscope of colorful images and strange creatures, all set to a house-techno beat? How bizarre! Was Cirque on acid or was someone at marketing embracing their ADHD tendencies? As such many fans were perplexed, unsure what to make of the new concept – me included – which provoked generally mixed-to-negative reactions, at least initially. The purpose of – or at least artistic reasons for - the hummingbirds and fish-headed people eluded us and the fandom immediately began comparing LUZIA to the company’s vast array of classic productions (which were better, as argued), even before we knew anything more than the show was based on the artistic expression and richness of modern Mexico. In the weeks that followed, as we learned more about the production’s theme, technologies, acrobatics, music, and performers, many fans – again, me included – became ever more excited about the show’s prospects. And when it was announced that a studio album would be available even before the show officially held its debut, well, it brought the fans to fever pitch. But there was a caveat: the album would take Carpentier’s original music written for a live acoustic setting and pass it through the filter of the electro-pop of Nortec Collective’s Bostich + Fussible (real names: Ramón Amezcua and Pepe Mogt), infused with brassy Mexican and Latin American sounds. It would be another inspired by album. It’s an unprecedented move, but not unexpected. Although it would normally take months for an album to be recorded, mixed, and released after the debut of a new show (touring or otherwise) – naturally because the show is still in creation and its musicians are really busy, it’s neigh impossible to take them out of that environment early for recording session – it all came down to business. Montreal, Toronto, and San Francisco are big markets for Cirque du Soleil... and one of the biggest souvenir sellers wherever they go is - you guessed it - the music album. So, with a mandate to bring product to the people as soon as possible, the only way to get that accomplished was to outsource its creation. And in that process, they asked themselves: “Why don’t we find some producers that we like who are in Mexico, people who really live their culture?” Slain and Simon agreed that Nortec Collective carried the real sound of their country, very current and also forward-thinking. “They have this spirit and sound in the groove, and in the instruments. [Their music] is modern, it’s surprising, it’s unusual, and all of the colors from the sound of Mexico are there.” And, though we didn’t know it at the time, two of the songs featured in the aforementioned videos were produced by Nortec Collective for the teasers - “Asi es la vida” and “los mosquitos”. And according to Alain Vinet, they did such a good job with those two he asked them to produce the whole album with them. The music on the album is quite different from what you’ll hear in the show, but as Simon Carpentier pointed out in an interview with Billboard Magazine “it’s the same composition, all the melodies are there.” And he is right, but I’m getting ahead of myself here. INSPIRACION ----------- Cirque du Soleil already opened JOYA at the Grand Mayan Resort in the Riviera Maya (with a distinctive Mexican-themed production), and is currently developing a Themed Resort (with attractions) complex in Puerto Vallarta – both in Mexico. Why did Cirque need yet another show based on/in Mexico? Perhaps two things: first, JOYA is a 45 DEGREES produced show (a separate entity, but still under the umbrella of the Group du Soleil), but perhaps more importantly, it was a show that’s been well received. Its success gave the company the idea to go for a bigger show, one that could go on tour. The reasoning makes even more sense when you understand that the Mexican government agreed to invest in and fund LUZIA to the tune of $47 million dollars in a move to promote the country’s culture, history, and music. (Alas, it’s a move many artists in the country are against by the way – a petition sent to the Mexican Government decried this use of money, when it could have been better spent locally on schools and other resources.) So is that all the show is... a plea to get visitors to Mexico, an advertisement paid for by the country’s government? ¡Por supuesto no! (Of course not!) If you can imagine a Cirque du Soleil show that is creatively and freely inspired by the richness of Mexican culture in all its exhilarating spirit, then you've conjured LUZIA-A WAKING DREAM OF MEXICO. Through its set design, costumes, acrobatic performance, and music, LUZIA (loo-zee-ah), fusing the sound of “luz” (light in Spanish) and “lluvia” (rain) – two elements at the core of the show’s creation – becomes a poetic and acrobatic ode to the rich, vibrant culture of a country whose wealth stems from an extraordinary mix of influences and creative collisions – a land that inspires awe with its breathtaking landscapes and architectural wonders, buoyed by the indomitable spirit and mythology of its people - some of which may not seem connected at first glance. The key is that there is not one, but many Mexico’s. Mexico is an ever-evolving country as complex as it is diversified. It is the result of an extraordinary mix of influences from abroad over the course of many centuries. It’s easy to find images loaded with stories, colors, raw power, spirituality, wisdom, vitality, and beauty. Mexico’s culture is monumental. Its peoples have built cities of stone and great temples like mountains, seeking to replicate here on earth the architecture of the planets and stars. But it’s also the sensuality of a land where music is for dancing, where a simple song can plunge us into emotion and propels us, in tears, into the arms of a friend or loved one. There are other melodies that transport us into parallel worlds, where all of a sudden we are overwhelmed by the sonorous textures of modernity. Instead of representing Mexico in a realistic fashion, Daniele Finzi Pasca and Julie Hamelin, co-writers of LUZIA, and Brigitte Poupart, Associate Director decided to create an evocation of this monumental country by imagining a dream woven from memories, experiences and encounters, laden with inspirations deeply rooted in the Mexican identity. But even this invented Mexico is complex and multifaceted, hence the idea of a journey – in both the literal and figurative sense – through a series of fragments, all highly meaningful and evocative. It’s a voyage into a world of hallucination, where allusions to contemporary art and age-old traditions lull us for an instant; simple encounters with the fantastical ordinary, with magical realism and with poetic reality, with the faces of men and women who surprised as they strolled through markets and across squares, traveled by bus and strolled along vast beaches from one end of this colorful country to the other. These details and more guided and led them on a surreal voyage of the imagination. Each scene then is the sublimation of a tiny aspect, an emotive fragment of this country where rain hits every town and village differently, where light is an emotional experience, where cultures overlap and nature is made up of deserts, rain forests, beaches, and mountains. The show is also based on themes such as speed, monumentality, rain in all its manifestations, surreal animal life, and a poetic vision of reality. “There will be red and pink, cobalt blue, water falling as rain, tracing stars charted on the roof of the big top, crocodiles playing the marimba, cardboard waves, bathers covered in mirrors, men swallowed by fish, a parade of percussion chasing away evil spirits; but most of all there will be tenderness, charm, surprise, and, above all, beauty.” Through the language of acrobatics - Cirque’s language of expression – and while seeking to keep their approach light and funny, we invite you to step into this waking dream to an imaginary Mexico, timeless and universal, where light quenches the spirit and rain ignites the soul. MISE-EN-SCENE ------------- Set Designer Eugenio Caballero had three overriding objectives when he envisioned the LUZIA set. First, he wanted to convey the idea of monumentality and of grandeur commonly associated with Mexico. Second, he wanted to make sure that each spectator would have a great view of all of the acts, regardless of where they are sitting under the Big Top. And third, he set out to create an environment where location and timeline changes would be quick and seamless. To make the idea of a journey through various geographic locations possible – you’re taken from an old movie set to the ocean to the semi-desert to an undersea world to a cenote to the jungle to a city alleyway to a dance salon, passing smoothly from an urban setting to the natural world, past to present, tradition to modernity – Set Designer Eugenio Caballero needed to create a neutral stage inside the big top, something that could easily be changed as the performance required. He came up with a variation on the black box theater concept (a simple, somewhat unadorned performance space), which he dubbed the “Blue Box” – an environment where location and timeline changes would be quick and seamless but not totally devoid of color. The purpose of the blue in the backdrop curtain and on the stage floor is to enhance the various elements that appear on stage. It is striking how minimalist it is, but what LUZIA lacks in bits, baubles, and other accoutrements, it more than makes up for in cultural context. Recall that the show’s name is a fusing the sound of “luz” (light) and “lluvia” (rain), and that both are at the heart of this show’s creation. The light manifests itself as the great disk towering above the LUZIA stage (the only item adorning the set), which also pays tribute to some of the most colossal manmade structures in the world. The Teotihuacán archaeological site located 50 kilometers northeast of Mexico City, for example, features some of the most architecturally significant Mesoamerican pyramids in the pre-Columbian Americas. The Aztecs believed Teotihuacán was the place where gods were born. And some believe Mexico is a portmanteau word that combines the Náhuatl (Aztec) terms for "moon" (Metztli) and "navel," (Xictli) referring to "the place at the center of the moon." Thus, the great disk represents in turn the sun, the moon, and the Aztec calendar, conveying the idea of monumentality and of the grandeur commonly associated with Mexico. The metallic color and texture of the disk is a tribute to the search of pure lines that characterizes Mexican contemporary art as well as the work of architect Luis Barragán and sculptor Mathias Goeritz. The disk is 6.9 meters (22.6 feet) in diameter, weighs about 2,000 kilograms (4,400+ pounds), and is supported by a giant bracket, called the "Cobra," that functions like a crane. Using the Cobra, the disk can undergo various transformations during the show - it can move forwards and backwards at a distance of 5.5 meters (18 feet), can rotate horizontally 360 degrees in both directions. And by using a giant light box, it can turn into the sun, or the moon, or assume any color as the mood requires. While it is natural to associate Mexico with a mosaic of bright colors, in order to avoid the pitfalls of turning the stage into a potpourri of hues and pigments, the creators chose to illuminate each scene with its own distinct shade or combination of colors, like the subtle strokes of an artist's paint brush. In the Adagio tableau, for instance, a flying woman dons a beautiful pink dress in an otherwise monochromatic environment, while the artists in the Cyr Wheel/Trapeze tableau are clad in yellow hues. The nods to Mexican hues are deliberately subtle. Overall, the show proves to be highly colorful, but iconic colors such as cobalt blue and Mexican pink are not found in their usual contexts. (When Costume Designer Giovanna Buzzi sat down with the co-authors of LUZIA to imagine the costumes, they decided to steer clear of the folkloric aspects of Mexico and Mexican culture and to avoid potential clichés, especially when it comes to the color palette as well – the result is a menagerie of textiles and forms that are pleasing to the eye and relevant.) As for the rain, well, in Mexico rain has been a topic of conversation since pre-Hispanic times. It is as present in popular culture as it was among the Mayans and Aztecs who named gods in its honor. There are as many types of rain as there are clouds that produce it – from the refreshing showers of Coyoacán, an iconic neighborhood at the heart of Mexico City, to the torrential rains that sweep across Baja California, to the plentiful autumn rains, as violent as they are sudden. In the diversified geography of Mexico, rain is part of the collective consciousness and has a narrative force all its own. Hence the creative team decided to bring the element of water into the overall set design - a first for a Cirque du Soleil Big Top show – through the image of a Cenote, a naturally occurring sinkhole or cistern the Mayan believed was a sacred gateway to the afterlife. Apart from providing the water element as a form of artistic expression, the show's rain curtain is a nod to architect Pedro Ramirez Vazquez’s circular fountain in Mexico City in honor of Tlaloc, the Aztec god of rain. Integrating the element of water inside the Big Top represented a huge technical challenge on several fronts. All electrical and mechanical systems had to be waterproofed, and the water needed to go… somewhere! Naturally, they figured it out: with its two revolving rings and central platter, the stage floor has 94,657 holes through which the water drains into a 3,500-liter basin hidden underneath. It is then recycled, disinfected, and kept at a constant 28°C (82°F) for the comfort of the artists. A totally new system was developed for this process, which is so efficient they don’t need to fill the water tanks that often! While light and water are main elements to LUZIA’s genetic makeup, so too is music. Music came to Mexico by sea and today it's a collage of miscellaneous styles, genres and cultures. Rhythms of the Spanish- speaking Caribbean and Latin America blend with tribal sounds that dig the roots all the way to the Mayas and the Aztecs. For LUZIA, Composer Simon Carpentier wrote a hot, lively score steeped in this rich mixture - an amalgam of ancient and modern sounds infused with the brassy notes of tubas and trumpets and the suave melodies of the Spanish guitar, all driven forward by the relentless percussion and drums. The music jumps playfully from style to style, from one rhythm to the next, from emotion to emotion, striding across landscapes as joyfully as across musical boundaries. “The first big challenge was to make sure that we can translate this amazing culture,” admitted Simon Carpentier. “At the beginning of this process we decided to hire only Mexican musicians for the show, to make sure that we have these performers to give that feeling of authenticity. It’s a huge culture — you’re talking about the Aztecs, the Mayans, the cumbia, all the Latin American music, the influence from Cuba, from everywhere. I wanted to go further, not just scratch the surface and stay there.” Beyond clichés and stereotypes, there's the buoyant rhythm of cumbia, a music genre close to salsa dominated by guitars, accordions and percussions, as well as the lively rhythms of bandas, the traditional music of traveling brass bands. Simon also drew inspiration from the rich, tonic rhythms of norteño, a popular genre in Northern Mexico that’s related to polka and corridos – ballads (The accordion and the bajo sexto, a six-bass guitar, are norteño's most characteristic instruments), as well as from huapango, a flamenco-based music style from the La Huasteca region along the Gulf of Mexico coast. In the realm of Latin American music, the voice is also a powerful instrument – a vector of emotion, flavors and rhythms bolstered by a lively, expressive language. These vocal parts blend tradition with modernity, with hints of opera, to spread the strong Latin American vibe. The spectator is taken from an old movie set to the ocean to the semi- desert to an undersea world to a cenote to the jungle to a city alleyway to a dance salon, passing smoothly from an urban setting to the natural world, past to present, tradition to modernity. “We needed to find a way to achieve the sound, the romance, the fun, the special humor that Mexican people have,” Carpentier continued. “You feel the spirit of Mexico throughout the show, but it’s not like you just hear a mariachi; that’s not what Cirque does. It’s all about peaks and valleys, and surprises. We experience that through visuals, but through music as well.” EXPERIENCE (THE SHOW) --------------------- After taking a moment to browse through the show’s bazaar (at which you can find Luchador masks, soccer balls, maracas, and even straw hats amongst the programme books, magnets, posters, CD’s, DVD’s t- shirts, and mugs), we excitedly took our seats. In addition to the huge disk, which is probably the first thing you’ll notice upon entering the Grand Chapiteau, you’ll also find the stage covered in a field of 5,000 flowers in bloom, arranged in neat rows around its central apex, being tended to by two diminutive robots (the bots more than resemble those from C:LAB’s “ROGA” video – a video presented by Steven Openheart as part of the LED talks on a type of yoga he developed specifically to diminish the stress and sense of exclusion robots can feel when exercising) – “achoo!” – and a pair of hummingbirds who do their darndest to pollinate every flower in the field, a flower who’s scent, orange color, and appearance are part of the deepest memories of the Mexican people. You see the Aztecs gathered and cultivated the plant (Tagetes erecta) for medicinal, ceremonial, and decorative purposes; its flower, the cempasúchil– also called the “flor de muertos” (“flower of the dead”) – is now the main element in Day of the Dead altars, although their use in religious and pagan rituals dates back to pre- Hispanic times. In Mexico, Día de Muertos celebrates the joy of life by dressing personalized altars (called ofrendas) to deceased family members and friends. This elaborate, highly significant ritual is designed to bring the mourner into a focused state of mind in which they make a deep connection with their loved one and celebrate not only that person’s life, but also the part of their soul that lives on in their heart. Therefore, the cempasúchil field is not there for purely esthetic reasons; it reflects a desire to share a profoundly meaningful ritual rooted in emotion. Even if the image and setting it evokes is quite tranquil. "Nnneeaoowww!" But soon this serene, quiet locale is disturbed by the outside world. At the tell-tale sound of a prop plane flying overhead, a man suddenly jumps into view...with a small parachute pack on his back. A tourist out looking for adventure, he unwisely consults his map in free-fall, which naturally flapping in the breeze, gets blown out of his hands. But that's the least of his worries... when it comes time to deploy his chute it won't open! Panic ensues as he begins to tumble head over heels, wrestling with the pack when it too flies out of his grasp – ay dios mio! Out of time, and out of luck, our friend reaches for the pack as it twists away, grabbing on to a handle that’s poking out the top... he tugs, but it turns out to be a small umbrella! Undaunted, he opens the umbrella and uses it to gently coast to the ground. And after taking a moment to collect himself, he comes within a hairs breath of being hit over the head by an item that has fallen from the sky – THUD! Wait, it’s his pack – and he’s quite happy to see it! Inside is his water canteen, which he slips out to quench his thirst. But wouldn’t you know it’s bone dry? Before he can complain too loudly about his situation though, he spots a rather interesting looking relic nearby... a monument that looks like a large bronze key. As curiosity wins out over thirst, he saunters over and turns its handle... unwittingly winding up and unlocking the imaginary world of LUZIA. OPENING A young girl and horse make a mad dash through the garden of cempaùchil, as this beautiful environment springs to life like a wind- up curio. Speed, you may recall, is one of the show’s themes, and it’s only natural to associate Mexico with this idea. One needs only to call to mind the uncanny ability of the Tarahumara, a reclusive Native American people hailing from the mountains of northwestern Mexico. Living in widely dispersed settlements, the fleet-footed Tarahumara developed a tradition of long-distance running, covering more than 300 kilometers nonstop across treacherous terrain over a period of two days with minimal footwear. The running girl is the embodiment of these people’s spirit. Since animals play a prominent role in Mexican lore and mythology, it is no big deal to come across a man with the head of an armadillo, swordfish or iguana, or a crocodile playing the Marimba, or a woman with a hummingbird’s head and wings. Some of the emblematic animals that inhabit the world of LUZIA appear in the form of life-size puppets, such as the aforementioned horse who gallops locomotive behind the running girl. With their extraordinary powers of evocation, these creatures have become mythological figures of Mexican culture. Horses were introduced to Mexico by the Spaniards and adopted by native populations. Revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata’s favorite horse, As de Oro (Ace of Diamonds), and the beautiful chestnut stallion named Siete Leguas (Seven Leagues) that belonged to Pancho Villa, are part of the Mexican collective consciousness and have inspired many heroic songs, known as corridos. With their long history as rancheros (ranchers) and vaqueros (cowboys), Mexicans are now recognized as among the best equestrians in the world. The pair provides a rather low-key, but culturally relevant and beautiful opening to the show. As the Running Girl spreads her wings, she also personifies one of the ties that bind Canada to Mexico – the annual flight of the monarch butterfly. (Each wing is 6 meters long, is made of silk, and requires 40 meters of material.) HOOP DIVING Next, bright hummingbirds (complete with head, beak, and wings!) leap through hoops a mere 75 centimeters in diameter in a tribute to fleetness, agility, and yes, speed. In a sequence that calls back to Dralion's energetic Hoop Diving act, here in LUZIA they kick it up a notch by exploring the combination of this traditional circus discipline from China with two giant treadmills to generate speed and expand the discipline’s acrobatic vocabulary. These hummingbirds are no joke; leaping through the hoops forwards, backwards and sideways, as the treadmills move forward and backward at will, will keep you on the edge of your seat. The two treadmills can operate in the same direction or in opposite directions. Sometimes artists use the treadmill as a launching pad to perform daring leaps through the hoops; when placed on the rolling treadmills the hoops suddenly become moving targets for the divers. (The two treadmills weigh 3,630 kilograms apiece and are powered independently by 28 automobile-type batteries.) Besides the pleasing aesthetics, you might wonder: why hummingbirds? In the Aztec psyche, the destination of one’s soul was not left to chance, but hinged on one’s death. Those who died in battle or on the sacrificial stone got to travel for four years alongside the Sun as the bright star made its way across the heavens, after which time they would return as hummingbirds. Those who were called by Tlaloc - the god of rain, water, and fertility (we’ll see him a bit later) - got to revel in the joys of Tlacopan, the exquisite tropical garden, which you see here represented with the cempaùchil. Accompanying the performance is the song “Así Es La Vida” (“This is the Life”) in a much slower tempo, but equally as enjoyable, illuminating Maya Kesselman, Dominic Cruz, Devin Henderson, Martha Henderson, Michael Hottier, Aurelien Oudot, and Stephane Beauregard’s, enjoyment of the afterlife. (And do they relish it!) ADAGIO QUATUOR In what appears to be a dance hall (complete with tables and chairs, a piano, band, hanging lights, and more), the Adagio scene quickly unfolds whereby a young girl (who dons a beautiful pink dress) precariously flies through an otherwise monochromatic environment. The word “adagio” is generally defined to mean slow, or slowly. But more common in the Cirque world “adagio” refers more to its Italian meaning: movement. Put the two together and you have an act that presents a slow, beautiful movement of bodies. Shows like Saltimbanco, Varekai, and Corteo have had great Adagio-like performances over their lifespan, but nothing can prepare you for the sheer exhilaration and excitement watching Grezegorz Piotr Ros, Krzysztuf Holowenko, and Anton Glazkov swing, bend, toss, and catch their fourth (either Naomi Zimmermann or Kelly McDonald - the young girl in the pink dress) over and over and over again. I was biting my nails the entire time! They say the land trembles as an enormous social and cultural movement teeming just below the surface exists in Mexico. Trembling with enthusiasm for new ideas, hope and strength; Trembling with the passion of the younger generations; Trembling with the life of those who dream, those who color the days, and those who barely touch the ground. The song “Tiembla la Tierra” (“The Earth Trembles”) accompanies, and you’ll find no better embodiment of this movement than with the Adagio Quatour performance. With its hauntingly beautiful live rendition, coupled with the amazing athleticism of its performers, this is one of my most favorite acts in LUZIA, it’s simply fantastic! CYR WHEEL & TRAPEZE Visitors and residents alike say there is no place on earth like the surreal, picturesque landscapes of Mexican deserts - a land of extremes that’s been the stage of countless journeys of initiation and experimentation for countless generations. As such the desert is a route of escape, transcendence, and exploration – living proof that there are many forms of thirst. Thus, like a mirage, two young women (Rachel Salzman and Angelica Bongiovonni) materialize on stage and dance with majestic rings among the living, breathing cacti and quiotes, the trunk-like stalks of the maguey plant that adorn the stage. They are later joined in the air by a trapeze artist (either Enya White or Emily Tucker) who takes flight above in the soothing rain – the first time we’ve experienced the magnificent rain curtain (keep an eye out for the Running Girl, who comes out to summon the rain) – and the image the scene evokes is nothing short of spectacular. Brava! The element of water enabled the creators to take the Cyr Wheel out of its usual context. Two artists perform on the apparatus on water and in the rain, which is, at first glance, unthinkable. In order to solve the adhesion issue, a bicycle tire was mounted on the wheel rim. The song “Flores en el Desierto” (“Flowers in the Desert”) accompanies the performance and I find it to be a much better rendition live than on the CD. CLOWN – GOOOOOOOOOOAL! Our journeyman returns to us then, riding through the countryside on a bicicleta, huffing, puffing, and in need of a drink of water. But when he stops to take a swig from his canteen, he finds it’s just as empty as before. But that doesn’t dissuade him from exploring his surroundings; rather, when he finds a huge ball nearby he decides to have some fun with it (and the audience) by setting up a make-shift game. He tosses the ball into the audience and away it goes. Meanwhile, on stage, the trees are now gone (removed as the stage rotated around to give the impression our clown was riding through the countryside), and specialized equipment has been brought out to dry the surface. But don’t pay any attention to that... play the game! HAND BALANCING ON CANES "Ugo, listo? La señorita lista?” "Lista." "Todos listos?” “¡Listos!" (Ready!) The primal lure of the sea resonates in Mexico, a country mostly surrounded by water. So it is no wonder the sea and costal life are so deeply embedded in the collective consciousness of its people. The sea is also laden with metaphor and allusion – anytime we head to the sea, are we not, in a sense, going back to where we came from? In a humorous nod to the golden age of Mexican cinema, Ugo Laffolay performs a playful hand-balancing routine among pasteboard waves that evokes the inexpensive and flimsy film sets of the 1940’s and 1950’s. And he’s a riot! In this film, Ugo is a salvavidas, and not only does he play his starring role in one of these cheeseball movies with glee (swishing his moustache back and forth to flirt with the ladies, and in flexing his pecks in time to the music), he balances on his ever precarious tower of canes (a one-arm handstand in straddle, one-arm handstand straight, side flag in straddle, side flag tuck, and Mexican handstand varieties anyone?) with relative ease. That is until he is forced by his “director” to do a full arm and then leg split between the canes, bowing them out to exaggerated proportions, that you see him huff and puff. But he pulls it off with such grace and charm. (*swish-swish, eyebrow-eyebrow*) At first this scene appears rather jarring and out of context: the staging comes across as cheap and uninspiring, the costumes are all over the place (Ugo wears a red jumpsuit while the beachgoers wear mirrored one-piece swimsuits), the music (“Pez Volador”) is, well, strange. And to top it all off our journeyman clown wends his way through the scene like a lost puppy, making fun of everything he sees (much to the chagrin of the director - ¡cortar!) But a word of advice: just sit back, relax, and enjoy. You may not like what you see at first (I didn’t, but not because of the performer or his skill – that was never in question), but once you realize the scene is supposed to be tacky and tawdry, I promise you’ll fall in love with it. The music too... I mean, how could you not? It’s fun and flirtatious, and a little bit off its rocker. But that’s what makes it great! (Keep an eye out for the zany beachgoers as they re-create a synchronized water wheel, standing up!) “¡Cámara! ¡Acción!" FUTBOL FREESTYLE Pok-ta-pok was a ritual ballgame played for 3,000 years by the pre- Columbian peoples of Ancient Mesoamerica, becoming a symbol of Mesoamerican cosmogony. In fact, the bouncing ball is thought to have represented the sun, while the stone scoring rings may have represented sunrise and sunset, or the equinoxes. The game, which symbolically pitted the lords of the underworld against their earthy adversaries, engaged players in the maintenance of the cosmic order of the universe and the ritual regeneration of life. In LUZIA, the age- old ritual sport of pok-ta-pok meets the contemporary ritual sport of football as a man and a woman (Abou Traore and Laura Biondo) try to outdo each other by deftly manipulating a soccer ball with their feet and head. Later, as the rain comes pouring down, they are joined by more and more players, and a beat-boxer who adds a... new dimension to the celebratory outing. “Pambolero”, the song accompanying this act, may be the most similar to the CD’s version than any other song on it, in my opinion. CLOWN – CAN I GET A REFIL? Our journeyman once again returns, this time attempting to fill his empty canteen in the current of the rain’s runoff. But the moment he gets close to the surge, it ceases and dries up. Perplexed, he moves over to where it’s still flowing, but the same occurs. Mystified and bewildered now, he takes up the game and attempts to foil with the rain curtain, with predictable, but hilarious results. CIERRA LOS OJOS When our resident clown finally outwits the water and manages to fill up his canteen, he is met by a beautiful, mysterious woman in a white dress adorned in budding florae. She’s Majo Cornejo, our singer extraordinaire, and she’s serenading us with a rousing melody. (Tu llegaras hasta donde nadie se atreverá y mas alla te acercaras a lo que ya tu dejaste atrás, corres mas recio, mas necio, sin lios hasta llegar. No se explicar por donde volveremos cargando secretos de lluvia y luz.) As the rain begins to fall now in earnest, whimsical patterns begin to emerge and then converge into more recognizable symbols of the land; the flowers on her dress magically burst into bloom, turning her dress from white to red. In order to make this vision a reality, the people at C:LAB (the creative laboratory of Cirque du Soleil) came up with a clever solution: the dress was fitted with 98 white, individually programmed flowers, each one equipped with a small motor. When the flowers open their petals, they reveal their red interior, thus triggering the metamorphosis. The dress weighs a whopping 17 kilograms (37 pounds) and requires it to be quickly lowered onto Majo before she steps on stage. Also, the images and patterns that appear in the rainfall here are generated electronically by a graphical water display screen, interacting with the artists to support the story and mood of the show. There are Otomi patterns, rain drops, flowers as well as various animal figures that are nods to the strange, warm and whimsical creatures of Mexican painter Francisco Toledo. Now, as Majo reaches a crescendo she is joined by the Running Girl, the galloping horse, and the rest of the cast as a red circular lantern-like structure descends upon the stage, powerfully bringing an end to the first half of the show. (Ya lo descubriste si el cielo llora, no sirve ponerse más triste, nunca nunca Jamáaaaas. jamáaaaaaaaaaaaaaas!) INTERMISSION – THE PAPEL PICADO Reminiscent of Dralion’s Lanterne, the intricately patterned red curtain for LUZIA is called a “papel picado”, a decorative craft that involves cutting elaborate designs in sturdy paper or silk. They’re generally displayed for secular or religious occasions and commonly represent birds, floral designs, and skeletons (especially in celebrations surrounding the Day of the Dead.) Mounted on a cylinder, the papel picado measures 11 meters (36 feet) high by 30 meters (98 feet) wide, but is flexible enough to be quickly lowered and raised as required. Set Designer Eugenio Caballero worked with Javier Martínez Pedro, an artist from a small town in Guerrero, to create the images you see within. The keen-eyed observer will notice that the images represent various narrative elements and characters in the show – a horse, a field of flowers, a flock of hummingbirds, a plaza, a cenote, a cave, an underwater world, raindrops, a storm, the sun, a city, and desert cacti. They were all drawn by hand and then created by punching more than 13,000 holes into the curtain’s surface. POLE DANCE The second half of LUZIA opens with the Pole Dance, an amalgamation between traditional Chinese Poles and Pole Dancing. Pole Dancing is a form of performing art, historically associated with strip clubs and night clubs, which combines dance and acrobatics centered on a vertical burlesque pole; however, since the mid 2000’s it has also been promoted as a non-sexual form of performance art. Since proper pole dancing involves athletic moves such as climbs, spins, and body inversions using the limbs to grip, upper body and core strength, flexibility, and endurance are required to attain proficiency, and rigorous training is necessary. It’s even being promoted as a healthy form of exercise! Although I feel as a performance piece the pole dance needs a little more gestation (not gesticulating), paring it up with a Chinese Pole routine made the combination a little more bearable. Not that I dislike girls on dancing poles, but, without a genuine routine there’s little need for the display. And if you’re not sure which song this particular act is presented by – since it’s probably one of the most different than those represented on the soundtrack - all you have to do is listen to the band... they’ll tell you! During the song they’ll say “los mos qui tos” in one of the weirdest “what were they thinking? ” moments from the show. (In retrospect, though, I kind of miss not hearing it on the soundtrack! How is that for irony?) 360° SWING The Pole Dance immediately segues into the 360-degree swing... which is set up to be some kind of carnival-like side-show piece, complete with a barker and betting whether or not a luchador can take the swing all the way around. It’s probably one of the more out-of-place acts in the show, although it integrates with the pole apparatus perfectly – it’s just… bizarre! It begins and ends rather unceremoniously, almost fading away as the music for the next act begins. But no matter what I may think about this particular presentation artistically, the crowd sure loved it… they really whooped and hollered! AERIAL STRAPS Rain-calling rituals are legion in Mexican lore. One of these rituals is the Yucatec Ch'a' Cháak ceremony in which four boys representing the four cardinal points croak like frogs in a spirited appeal to Cháak, the Mayan god of rain. In the Aztec religion, Tlaloc was the supreme god of the rain. Many rainmaking rituals were also performed in Tlaloc’s honor in the Yucatán cenotes, naturally occurring sinkholes or cisterns the Mayan believes were sacred gateways to the afterlife. A cenote is formed by the dissolution of rock and the resulting subsurface limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath. Cenotes may be fully collapsed creating an open water pool, or partially collapsed with some portion of a rock overhanging above the water. The stereotypical cenotes often resemble small circular ponds, measuring some tens of meters in diameter with sheer drops at the edges. While the best-known cenotes are large open water pools measuring tens of meters in diameter, such as those at Chichén Itzá in Mexico, the greatest number are smaller sheltered sites – like the cenote of LUZIA, where Benjamin Courtenay, representing the demigod of rain, descends into the pristine waters where he performs a graceful and powerful aerial straps act, skimming the surface as he whooshes by. He is accompanied by Bahlam the Jaguar. Jaguar gods are prominent in Mayan and pre-Hispanic mythology, from the Jaguar God of Terrestrial Fire and War to the countless demigods, protectors and transformers. In Mesoamerica, the Olmec developed a were-jaguar (half man, half jaguar) motif of sculptures and figurines showing stylized jaguars or humans with jaguar characteristics. The Maya saw the powerful felines as their companions in the spiritual world, and a number of Mayan rulers bore names that incorporated Bahlam, the Mayan word for jaguar. This is another of my most favorite acts from the show. The mise-en- scene here is fantastic in its simplicity. The stage itself becomes the cenote, with its central apex a pool of water. Hanging from the catwalk above is about a dozen ropes, depicting vines, and, of course, the rain to complete the image. Within is a young man testing his strength as he bares his soul (and muscular arms and chest) to the gods above. Although fans of Cirque du Soleil have witnessed a number of aerial straps routines, I promise you you’ve not seen anything like this in Cirque – Benjamin takes the discipline to new heights in strength and stamina through rapid twists, pikes, presses, spins, hooks, turns, and drops that find him folded up one second, and dangling by his shoulder the next, and then back again before you can blink, over and over and over again. CLOWN – GO FOR A DIP? Our resident clown returns donned in a bathing suit ready to take a dip in the pool of water, but just as he’s ready to dive into the cenote, it magically disappears, leaving him high and dry. Now needing support to put his clothes back on, our tourist grabs onto one of the vines… which then falls free when tugged. Undaunted he tries another, but it too falls free after being tugged. And after trying a third, they all fall around him as if to say GET OUT OF HERE! He obliges. As he takes his leave, the hummingbirds storm the stage in a flurry of feathers and feet in a frenzied attempt to dry themselves (and the stage) off. Watching them slip and slide around is hilarious! Although, I’d recommend curtailing the stage jumps... injuries! (Keep an eye out for the playful couple; it’s a beak-tweaking good time!) JUGGLING As soon as our resident fool is gone, the musicians spin up a jingle... quite literally... as the spotlight turns to a man in a horrible pair of pants (and a shirt to match) in the middle of the audience. This is Rudolf Janecek and he’s quickly juggling three silver clubs... matching the pace of the jingle the band is playing on the marimba. (The marimba, for the uninitiated, is a percussion instrument consisting of a set of wooden bars struck with mallets to produce musical tones. As such it is a type of idiophone, but with a more resonant and lower-pitched tessitura, or range, than a xylophone.) Then he tosses one forward, jumps on stage to catch it, and begins a highly energetic and fast-paced solo juggling routine to a song that, sadly, isn’t on the soundtrack. I say sadly because, although it’s just the musicians on marimbas, they do get a little help from the brass section, the deep and loud “brrrraaaaaaaaaaaam!” from the tuba is simply fabulous and I must have it. Rudolf Janecek is the only juggler, who combines high speed juggling with acrobatic skills in an outrageous, breathtaking way. Performing up to 8 clubs he also jumps somersaults while throwing 3 clubs in the air. Being part of the new circus generation Rudy presents the classic juggling skills in modern style. The crowd loved him! When Rudolf catches his last club, a cascade of straw hats tumble from the heavens (a.k.a. are tossed on stage) in celebration for not only a job well done, but a performance well received! (It is, however, a weird moment that harkens back to the chickens in Corteo, which... are better left to the past. Especially since the performers then have to run around and collect the hats while the next act sets up.) CONTORTION Meet Alexey Goloborodko, a contortionist, and at just 21 years of age, perhaps the most flexible human on the planet. Born in Tula, Russia, he is more than he seems. As well as contortion and flexibility, Alexey has trained in classical and modern dance, and Chinese martial arts, which helps to add fluency, grace, and elegance to his performances. And it shows. He is presented to the audience as a serpent upon his perch – in this case a bridge (surrounded on all sides by “lit” candles) – tangled in a ball of limbs. As the lights raise – and the audience gasps – he untangles himself to begin one of the best contortionist routines this side of KOOZA. Alexey is nothing short of amazing. He is as talented as he is lithe; eliciting a number of gasps from the audience as he contorts his diminutive body into various shapes and holds. My only critique of the presentation comes not with Alexey’s performance, but with the accompanying setting and scene: rather than continue with the various inspirational and dream-like locations of Mexico, the creators chose to mix it up, by wrapping the presentation in flavors from the Indian sub-continent. I find this unfortunate. While singer/character Manesh Vinayakram (who seemingly makes his one and only appearance here) is talented, his presence seems wasted and banal. The mariachi costume he wears doesn’t flatter him in the slightest either. Still, the overall aesthetic is pleasing, and there’s no doubting Alexey’s bendable talent! CLOWN – DIVE, DIVE! Our journeyman has ridden across the land on a bicycle, played in a pick-up game of football, swam in the azure-colored waters off the coast, wrestled with persnickety waterfalls and vines, now in this last bit he enjoys a little time under the waves, snorkeling and scuba-diving into the depths of Mexico’s seas. But he’s not alone! First, in a tribute to jaws, a group of sharks chase him and his companion ever deeper. And later, he mixes in with a group of prickly cactuses who just want to be in his trip photos! RUSSIAN SWINGS In Mexico, fiestas are joyous, intense rituals during which revelers party on, sometimes for days on end. Mexicans light up the sky with fireworks over plazas and public squares every chance they get. During the nine days of Las Posadas, for instance, hitting piñatas filled with fruit and nut, filling up on tamales and drinking traditional ponches or atoles are all good reasons to celebrate with friends, family… or with complete strangers. But much more than mere blasts of energy, fiestas represent a deep emotional release and a source of renewal that testify to the complex psyche of the Mexican people. To the rhythm of festive music, a fiesta is in full swing as Russian Swing artists leap in the air, their costumes taking on stunning patterns in a majestic, sweeping transformation. The bright patterns are a loving ode to the embroidered textile fabrics created by the Otomi people. Russian Swing is a discipline originating in Eastern Europe consisting of a large oblong-shaped swing that is propelled using the natural movement of the mechanism and the weight of two or three spotters who push it. The flyer standing at the end of the swing launches into the air and executes acrobatic leaps or vaults as high as 20 meters or more over the stage, returning either to the ground or to the shoulders of carriers. It appears to be a simple playground-like swing - hence its name – but with Cirque is anything that simple? Having made its first appearance in Saltimbanco (1992) as a single act (where artists jumped from the swing onto mat, later in “O” (1998), it was elevated to an art form as the company brought two of the swings together within the element of water. In Varekai (2002), Cirque upped the ante by not only having two swings on “dry land” with flyers jumping into cloth nets strewn across the stage’s “forest”, but by also having flyers jump between the swings themselves. LUZIA returns the Russian Swing to Cirque du Soleil in a similar form as Varekai’s – with flyers routinely vaulting between the swings in ever more difficult routines – but with less gusto. It’s only natural to want a rousing, energetic act to close out your show. It brings the audience to their feet, clapping and gasping and generally having a grand old time. The Russian Swings here weren’t as strong as I would have hoped, unfortunately. Yes, it is thrilling to see acrobats vault from swing-to-swing, or even fly high into the air to flip and spin their bodies in an ever-dizzying array of twists, but the energy just wasn’t there. Perhaps it was the choreography. Perhaps it was the music. The music starts, stops, speeds up, gets slower, and then simply ends. It’s a muddled mess of tempos and themes that does not work hard enough to compliment the action on stage. I find this more than a little disappointing because Russian Swings could be – should be – a rip-roaring and inspiring conclusion to your show! But here it simply exists. It’s a good act don’t get me wrong, but it needs a little more oomph. Alas, even the creators had trouble with this one I hear: the piece of music we heard during our performances was at least the third one they’ve tried thus far! FIESTA FINALE The fiesta continues as everyone gathers around a table, filled with all sorts of delicious foods and drinks. It’s simplicity itself: a coming together in celebration of life. What more do you need? And what better way is there to showcase this concept than gathering around a dinner table? None! Laugher and good times are abundant here as our journeyman joins in the fun. But his attempts at a joyous celebration are cut short when everyone around him freezes in place. As confusion washes across his face, he spots the key from earlier and sighs - the proverbial gig is up. He reluctantly saunters back over to the key and turns it, releasing a torrential rain shower. Only this time the rain parts to allow him safe – dry – passage. He looks up, smirks, and walks on... FIESTA FINALE ------------- I’m sure it goes without saying I had a blast in Montreal, but forgive me for doing so anyway. The weather was warm and inviting – a direct contrast to the cold and rain of my last visit. The company was enjoyable – meeting Jose for the first time was fun; introducing him to crepes and poutine was even more so! Hanging out with Alain Vinet, Director of Cirque Musique, in his studio just shooting the breeze was a highlight of the trip. As was interviewing Devin Henderson (Hoops), Kelly McDonald (Adagio), and Rachel Salzman (Cyr Wheel) backstage, which you'll see in an upcoming episode of CirqueCast - stay tuned! Although flying through La Guardia almost gave me an aneurism it all worked out in the end... and gave me another interesting travel story to tell. As for LUZIA? I liked it a lot! Like many, when I first heard about LUZIA I couldn’t help but wonder: why Mexico... again! But now having experienced all the joys and wonders the show has to offer, I no longer feel flummoxed at the concept. I didn’t immediately fall in love with it like I did with KURIOS, but now that I’ve had some time to reflect upon my experience with LUZIA I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Really! I just want to relive the experience all over again! Yes, there are a number of nit-picky criticisms I have about the show, along the “what were they thinking!?” variety, but you know what? They’re minor. And if Cirque du Soleil can find a way to dry the stage more efficiently, change up the music with Russian Swings (honestly, it needs help), and tweak a few other things here and there... there is absolutely no reason LUZIA cannot ascend into Cirque du Soleil’s pantheon of classic shows. It’s really that good! LUZIA will be in Montreal until July 17th! From there it will travel on to Toronto (Jul 27th – Oct 16th) and San Francisco (Nov 17th – Jan 29th) in 2016, and San Jose (Feb 9th – Mar 19th), Seattle (Mar 30th – May 21st), Denver (Jun 1st – Jul 9th), Chicago (Jul 21st – Sep 3rd), and Phoenix (Sep 22nd – Oct 22nd) throughout 2017 – with more stops to come! GO SEE THIS SHOW! ¡VÁMANOS! ------------------------------------------------------------ "PARAMOUR – The Reviews Are In…" A Special Collection of Articles from the Press ----------------------------------------------------------- On May 25th, Cirque du Soleil Theatrical celebrated the opening of PARAMOUR, the company’s first production made specifically for Broadway… and the reviews have been quite mixed. Broadway World sampled a number of these in their “Review Roundup” article, which we share below. Some of these critics were unabashedly harsh! * * * Charles Isherwood, New York Times (http://goo.gl/AJJnDR): Welcome to “Paramour,” or as I like to call it, “A.D.H.D.! The Musical.” The production, which opened on Wednesday at the Lyric Theater, represents the latest attempt by the French Canadian entertainment behemoth Cirque du Soleil to make a big splash in New York. This time the company, having failed to wow the local masses sufficiently with its traditional nouveau-circus spectacles, has decided to splice the time- tested yowza diversions – acrobats and gymnasts and jugglers, oh my! – into a traditional musical, with a plot, characters, show tunes and even a little tap-dancing. Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter (http://goo.gl/4cXP6k): …their latest effort attempts to combine Cirque’s trademark acrobatic acts with an original Broadway musical. Unfortunately, the resulting hybrid, Paramour, is more Frankenstein’s monster than love child…The $25 million production is a traditionally-styled Broadway musical, albeit a very mediocre one, infused with the sort of acrobatic routines normally seen under a big top…And so it goes throughout melodramatic proceedings in which the humor is largely unintentional…Granted, audiences going to a Cirque du Soleil show expect extravagant acrobatics. But the creators of Paramour – tellingly, no writer is credited – seem to have gone out of their way to produce as banal and generic a musical as possible. Featuring atrocious dialogue and forgettable songs, it feels more like a parody than the real thing…The show does have some imaginative, thrilling sequences…Kushnier delivers a thoroughly professional performance in his thankless role, and Lewis and Vona are both appealing…. Jeremy Gerard, Deadline (http://goo.gl/XDvjI6): …this is the show with which the Montreal-based global franchise plants its standard on Broadway, promising – and, in spades, delivering – a mashup of 42nd Street backstage romance, non-stop Ziegfeld folly and Cirque’s brand of acrobatic arts…It’s as eye-popping as Christmas at Radio City Music Hall, if not quite as intimate or touching….We’ve come for the visuals and while it’s doubtful that Paramour audiences will come away disappointed in that department, they may wonder why that annoying story kept stopping the action dead in its computer-assisted tracks…did I mention the horrible music? Well, with Cirque that’s a given. Robert Kahn, NBC New York (http://goo.gl/tjuMrl): …The $25 million “Paramour” goes heavy on the company’s signature stunt sequences to our relief, because there isn’t much to be extracted from the often eye-glazing book and score…”Paramour” earns props for the ways it employs aerialists and acrobats as doppelgängers for the leads. Thanks to clever costuming conceits, we almost believe we’re watching the trio in some blur of elastic trickery…Kushnier…makes the most of his cliché-ridden role, exuding confidence and hubris as needed. Lewis…has a beautiful voice and gamely follows the worn path laid out ahead. Robert Greskovic, The Wall Street Journal (http://goo.gl/JWDiQI): This week, after numerous, internationally popular productions, the enterprise now called Cirque du Soleil Theatrical opened “Paramour,” the first musical created by Cirque Du Soleil for Broadway…only the circus acts soar, sometimes literally, as the show’s musical and film elements play, at best, dutiful and uninspired parts…The music…is undistinguished and overamplified…Jeremy Kushnier, looking and sounding mostly mousey, plays AJ, a bearded, wax-mustached, egotistical film director. Ruby Lewis-wide of face, short of neck and plain of voice-portrays Indigo…The Golden Age of Hollywood invoked in the program and in the art-deco look of Jean Rabasse’s sometimes impressive settings dims noticeably when projection designers Olivier Simola and Christophe Waksmann add video images to the stage pictures….Daphné Mauger’s choreography for the various ensembles and for the leads serves as little more than filler throughout…. Jesse Green, Vulture (http://goo.gl/DY0bRx): Paramour’s idea of the Broadway musical is particularly disturbing, evincing as it does only the skimpiest knowledge of the form. If we broadly describe a musical as an entertainment that offers a story about characters through song, we have already raised the bar too high. What Paramour offers is more of a series of clichés about humanoids accompanied by sounds. The main cliché is the one that glorifies Old Timey Hollywood as a land of tragic romance and glittering sophistication. (“Welcome to the Golden Age / Tux and tales [sic] it’s all the rage,” the opening number helpfully explains.) Jesse Oxfeld, Entertainment Weekly (http://goo.gl/49tKVY): About 45 minutes into Paramour, the Cirque du Soleil musical that opens at Broadway’s Lyric Theatre tonight, the twin aerialists Andrew and Kevin Atherton are suspended over a stage set of what’s supposed to be a movie set of Ancient Egypt. They’re a striking pair: platinum blond, lantern-jawed, impossibly toned, and mirror images, each hanging from a strap and effortlessly contorting himself, dozens of feet above the stage. It’s the sort of breathtaking, beautiful athleticism you expect from Cirque du Soleil, and it’s thrilling. The audience is rapt. At the end of their number, the Atherton twins get the evening’s biggest applause. J. Kelly Nestruck, Globe and Mail (http://goo.gl/KiLq7K): Cirque du Soleil’s Paramour is crashing and burning on Broadway – and there’s no point in calling the paramedics. No team of show doctors could cure this bafflingly bad show set in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Matt Windman, amNY (http://goo.gl/BSDUII): All things considered, “Paramour” is a lame, harmless alternative for international tourists who want to see a Broadway show but would prefer something with the Cirque du Soleil imprimatur than a long-running hit like “Chicago,” “The Lion King” or “The Phantom of the Opera.” Frankly, I think they can do better. Robert Feldberg, Bergen Record (http://goo.gl/x9iSvj): About an hour in, it’s as though somebody said let’s push this Broadway musical stuff aside, and there’s an abrupt shift of emphasis to the circus acts, beginning with a stunning routine by twins Andrew and Kevin Atherton, who perform an aerial pas de deux while hanging onto straps. Michael Dale, BroadwayWorld (http://goo.gl/bRQjSb): There’s no shortage of thrills and amazement to be enjoyed by their latest assemblage of remarkable artists who tumble in the air, swing on straps, balance onto each other and perform gasp-worth feats of strength and muscle control. However, PARAMOUR is a venture presented by the company’s theatrical enterprise in an attempt to create a new and original book-and-score Broadway musical that incorporates their regular ensemble of performers into the story. Alexis Soloski, Guardian (https://goo.gl/Gm7ujL): Fitfully thrilling and consistently baffling, Paramour – Cirque du Soleil’s first attempt at a Broadway book musical – is the story of a young singer torn between the megalomaniacal director, who wants to make her his star, and the tender songwriter, who wants to make her his muse. Or perhaps it’s a parable of forbidden love as enacted by shirtless twins in an erotic aerial pas de deux. Or maybe it’s a wacky caper comedy with a culminating chase scene performed atop a giant trampoline. Honestly, it’s hard to tell. Mark Kennedy: Associated Press (http://goo.gl/St3Lm8): The first signal you get that “Paramour” is no ordinary Broadway show is the size of the playbill. It’s a monster, easily dwarfing the regular booklets you get handed at every other theater. That makes sense. “Paramour” wants to be different, outsized and brash. It’s the first Cirque du Soleil show created specifically for Broadway, harnessing its muscular gravity-avoiding acrobats to musical theater. The result, which opened Wednesday at the Lyric Theatre, is sometimes overstuffed and awkward but always finds its footing when it highlights its soaring, rubber-bodied stars. { SOURCE: Broadway World | http://goo.gl/tKdz3D } ------------------------------------------------------------ "Q&A w/Criss Angel: Mindfreak Live is 'Ready to Go!'" Written By: Robin Leach, The Las Vegas Sun ----------------------------------------------------------- After several years of defying death on his hit A&E series “Mindfreak,” master illusionist Criss Angel is now about to perform even more dangerous and mystifying stunts for the stage-show version he’s ready to launch at the Luxor. Concerns over safety prompted Fire Department officials and Cirque du Soleil execs to request him to delay last night’s previews until they are certain that his cast and crew are prepared and insurance coverage can be fully in place. Robin Leach has already seen the run-through at his 60,000-square-foot factory and watched various scenes during his backstage tour with Criss last weekend. He can tell you that this is his best work ever, the top magic show of all time! All that and more in this Q&A with Criss Angel… # # # Criss has been working nearly around the clock with just three hours of sleep a night to pull off this magic miracle. What should have taken a few years to perfect Criss achieved in three weeks, since April 20 when the last remnants of “Believe” were hauled out and new lights for “Mindfreak Live” were loaded in. “After seven years of ‘Believe,’ that became a dinosaur compared to what ‘Mindfreak Live!’ will present,” he told Bloomberg. Bloomberg reported that “Believe” generated $70 million a year, with the biggest sales of any magic show in Las Vegas. But Criss wanted to show that the illusions he pulled off onscreen could be done live onstage, too. To reinforce the point, he told me: “This time we have 50 illusions in 90 minutes of show time. It’s way beyond what we did on the television series. This is already Criss Angel of tomorrow.” I sat backstage in his Luxor dressing room office suite over the weekend to talk with him, and he gave me an expansive tour of the new stage. We started by talking about the delay that shifts his previews from last night to a new date expected to be known by the end of this week. Q. Skeptics will say it’s just to buy you extra time because there has to be trouble? Trouble is actually a good thing for a magician, but here it’s the most sophisticated, not only as a magic show ever to be performed in the history of the art, but it’s probably the most sophisticated, technological show in Las Vegas. We have 3D immersion. We have nine screens that project images. We have over 1,000 lighting instruments. We have the craziest illusions, costumes, brand new pyrotechnics in the show, state-of-the-art lasers. We’re doing something with lasers that ‘s never been done before. We’re doing something that is revolutionary. I believe it’s going to shake up and change the game in the world of magic. It’s a whole new approach. When Cirque or most shows open, they have two or three years to put it together. I had three months to put it together physically. One illusion took four months to put together. It’s the time that it takes to get certain permits. We built items in the theater that need to be permitted. We have new pyrotechnics, which need to go through fire marshals. There are things that are out of my control, the bureaucracy of putting a show together. You don’t know all of the elements, and you’re figuring things out, then, “Oh, no, we need a permit, we need engineering, we need that signed off” because everybody has to cover their ass. Q. When will you start previews? Do you have a new date? It will be announced I think this week. Two dates are being tossed around. This week, we will have a definitive date. They wanted you to hold off on everything until then. Q. What is different about this new show than “Believe” in terms of your approach toward the show and magic itself? This is a brand new show. This is not a refresh. Everything is completely new. Everything is completely different. The approach just conceptually with how I’m presenting the illusions. The cast in how I utilize them. Forget about the illusions themselves or the fact that we have lasers, 3D immersion and nine surfaces that we’re utilizing to have images play on, or the pyrotechnics, or the brand new music soundtrack. The whole approach to showing magic is unique and different. “Believe” was a great show that fulfilled its mission for people to see Criss Angel perform incredible illusions and have an intimacy with me. But Criss Angel was one-dimensional. It didn’t give me an opportunity to flourish and show people what I’m really capable of as an actor, artist and creator. This show gives me the opportunity to show the evolution of Criss Angel. People will see different forms in different eras of Criss Angel that perform in this show with a very different look, presentation and what the feeling and experience will be. This is as if it is somebody completely different with a different name coming to the Luxor and launching a different show. It’s a brand new show, even though I had “Believe” and “Mindfreak.” They’re two different shows other than that I created and directed them. Q. But in a sense, this is the “Mindfreak” T show and not the Cirque invention? It’s even beyond the TV show. It’s the TV show, it’s Criss Angel from the ’90s, it’s Criss Angel from now, it’s Criss Angel tomorrow, it’s all different elements of Criss Angel throughout the course of my career. It’s the evolution of me, from when I was born to when I got into magic. To all the highlights and all the trends that I got into or approaches that I was doing magic, it’s all of those things wrapped up into 90 minutes. Coupled with the most spectacular, revolutionary illusions, lasers, lighting, 3D immersion, graphics, video. It’s all of that integrated into a seamless show. There’s more magic in this show than any magic show that I’m aware of in the history of the art. There are over 50 illusions in this show. Over 50 in 90 minutes. I’m probably going to be a little long, and I’ve done that by design because I wanted to listen to the audience and see what people connect to and what people might not like as much. I have a kill ratio built into it like I do with my TV series. Q. In these illusions, were you able to do something on this stage now that you couldn’t do in “Believe”? I get to do the levitation that I’ve been working on for 18 years. I’ve been dreaming about doing this live. I get to do that, I get to do my new, crazy revolutionary cutting in half. Q. Explain the difference between the cutting in half that you’re going to do here and the cutting in half that you did with the princess in “Believe”? The old cutting in half, which was great, was basically my third rendition of that illusion in trying to get the design and try to become as flawless as it possibly can be. It sat on a 9,000-pound structure, a tremendous, mega piece. But it had its limitations. The new design, which is now the sixth incarnation, has about $2 million rolled up into the one illusion. Now it’s sexy, it’s sleek, it’s simple, but it’s much more impactful because of the statement and how I surround that illusion. The storyline, the tableau, is much more engaging. This is not about me coming out and presenting puzzles of how I do things like every other magician has done and continues to do. This is about getting the audience immersed and in an experience that takes them somewhere that goes beyond magic. There’s something more to the magic than just a trick. It’s the magic of emotion; it’s about the images that are created and the roller-coaster ride that they go on because they never know what’s going to happen next. It’s scary, it’s sexy, it’s seductive, it’s creepy, it’s funny, it’s heartwarming. There’s something in this show for everyone. Q. The magic gets inside their emotions? Absolutely. I’ll take a gamble and say that probably at least 50 to 60 percent of the audience will shed a tear from the excitement and emotions. I’m able to provoke that by bringing my personal life into this show. This is really exposing and allowing myself as a human being to be vulnerable. To allow the audience, who knows me, to get to know more about me that they never knew, and for those people who might not know who Criss Angel is, to understand who I am and to feel a connection with me and to understand why I’m doing what I’m doing onstage. It’s part of the evolution of my career. Q. Despite the delay, you’ve already run the show? We have run the show. We keep on working diligently at tweaking it. To give you the magnitude of it right now, this building, this theater, is operating 23 hours a day. Around the clock, people are working on this show. Seven days a week, 23 hours a day, this show is the priority. Q. What time are you here in the morning? I get up between 5 and 6:30 a.m. I do my workout because this show is incredibly demanding, more demanding than anything I’ve ever done in my life. I do a 90-minute workout, then start my day depending on what it is -– if I need to go to my studios to work on material. Eventually, I make my way over here no later than 10 a.m. I do training for my new levitation, and by 1 p.m. we have the full cast here. We’re running and staging the show without stopping except for a meal break. Q. Until when? Midnight? I don’t leave here until probably 2:30 to 3 a.m. Then I do the whole thing all over again the next day. I’m sleeping right now between two and four hours a night. Q. I don’t know if that’s enough sleep for you? My adrenaline is going crazy because when I’m here and working, I never want it to end. I have my family, my mom and my brother here. Other people, friends and people who I trust, just watch the process, and I see how excited they are and how excited about what I’m going to be presenting. Even they are saying this is completely a whole new Criss Angel. This is something that not only have we not seen from me, but we’ve never seen anything like this from any other magician. If people come to see my show, then other magic shows in town, they will realize how outdated they are. I don’t say that to be conceited. I say that because of my confidence because I work my ass off harder than anybody and because of Cirque and the theater and all of the incredible people I have working for me. We are able to bring something to the stage that’s very special. I don’t think anybody is going to come close to topping this for many, many years because they would have to have the resources, theater, team, ability to have things at their disposal like I have. That’s not an easy thing to do, and it took me a lifetime to get to this point. Q. How many people do you have working on this show? How long did it take you from while you were still performing “Believe” to get to this stage with the new show? Right now, directly and indirectly, I would say over 200. The thing about “Believe,” it was incredibly challenging because I would come here in the morning, work until show time, then do two “Believe” shows, so we weren’t able to fully engage the new show because we couldn’t remove certain things or change things because that night we had to do “Believe” again. We really had to get through our final performance of “Believe,” which was a spectacular night, then load out “Believe,” which took three days, then load in “Mindfreak Live!,” which started immediately. Final things are still being built as we speak. I won’t have some things for another two weeks. It’s getting really, really close. I have people from Hungary working on video content for me. I have people from California living in my house, living in the studios, working around the clock. Considering what we’re creating and the time frame, it seems nuts. But it comes so easy. People watch my creativity, and they go, “How did you just come up with that?” I’ll give you an example: A lot of the work I do in my studio, but some of the work I can’t because I don’t have the height to do certain things. I didn’t want to do the sawing in half the way I used to do. I wanted to do something different because it’s a new apparatus, it’s a new piece of music. It’s the whole thing. I was sitting here, and, because of a technical reason, I wanted to fly this thing 20 to 30 feet from the air down with a girl on it. We needed some type of sheet to cover this thing up. So, yesterday, I came up with a sheet that evolves into a bed, into a dream, into this girl having this dream in this beautiful environment, but quickly it transforms into a nightmare. When the sheets and the canopy get pulled off, the bed becomes this torture device. Then her nightmare comes to fruition once she literally gets ripped into two pieces, very much like I did the park bench but for stage. So the skeptics who watch the park bench and think, “Oh, well that’s trick photography.” Well, to answer that B.S., people now can come see the show and see what I do on television is no different than what I can do live onstage. Q. How many are in the cast of the new show? We have incredible world-class athletes and entertainers. More than “Believe.” Right now, 16 or 17. I’ve got people from Russia, from the Ukraine, from all over the place, to be able to bring this crazy vision and really feature these artists who are so incredibly gifted. Their magic is the physicality. I can bring it to life in the most unbelievable ways that it almost looks like an illusion. But it’s not. Q. You’ve been linked with Chloe Crawford, who left “Fantasy” at the Luxor to be in the show. How much magic is she performing? Chloe is a feature in the show, and I think that people are going to see her in a very different light. Chloe is in the best shape of her life, she trains like a maniac, she moves unbelievably, and she’s going to perform magic in the show. She’s basically my right hand when it comes to performing illusions like the metamorphosis, which is a key illusion that I’ve been doing since I was 14. We’ll be doing the switch in world-record time. She’s doing a lot of illusions with me, and she’s also going to do some on her own. Q. Are there any Cirque elements? Yes, some, but done in a very different way. One of the things I wanted was to take the magic and make that the apparatus that they would use to do their physical movement. They utilize my apparatus in order to showcase their talent. We don’t have to bring a trapeze in here to showcase that we have a trapeze act. We utilize the magic as an example to have them utilize that apparatus, which also showcases what they do, so it really integrates well with the illusions. I have a guy who is unbelievable: It’s martial arts meets breakdancing meets acrobatics. This guy does incredible freestyling stuff. It will blow people’s minds. We have an incredible breakdancer, we have really incredibly talented people: gymnasts, dancers, specialty acts all lending their talent to the illusion, to the presentation, in a way that fits seamlessly. Q. Who is directing -– you or Cirque? Cirque has given me complete creative license. That means creating, that means directing, that means going through the cast, going through the costuming, the pyrotechnics. Every creative element that’s on that stage, it’s Criss Angel. It’s my DNA there. I am an executive producer of the show, which as you know I wasn’t on “Believe.” Q. Let’s go back to let’s use the word gamble. The first gamble was Cirque producing rabbits dancing on the stage in “Believe.” It didn’t work. Everybody says it didn’t work. Even you said it didn’t work. It would have worked if I wasn’t in the show. It was a good show. But people came with expectations of seeing “Mindfreak,” but they got instead Criss Angel playing somebody else from a Broadway show. For some reason, “Believe” didn’t want to bank on all of the television that I had under my belt. They wanted to try to do something different, so I went along with the ride. I agree it wasn’t the right decision. But the challenge was to refocus it, and by 2010 we had countless reviews saying that it was the best show in Las Vegas. Newsweek calculated we produced $150 million in one year. We beat every other magic show in town and did it by leaps and bounds. So this wasn’t a decision to change the show because we had to change the show. This was a decision because the world of entertainment in Las Vegas has completely transformed. You see how many shows are closing, you see how many shows are struggling. There are shows in Las Vegas that are giving free tickets away, and the only thing you have to pay is the box office fee. I am somebody who loves to create. I created a touring “Mindfreak Live!” We sold out every single show we did throughout the country. We were doing one-nighters. It was an unbelievable opportunity for me to be able to go out and do that and create what I wanted to create on my own without answering to anyone. Then I created “The Supernaturalists,” another huge smash that broke attendance records -– 232 million impressions the first weekend. Cirque executives came with Nik Rytterstrom, who runs the Luxor and saw the show when I wasn’t even there. They were blown away. I have the finest LED walls, the finest lighting boards in the world. They saw what I was able to bring to the stage and how the audience reacted. I can’t speak for them. I think that I have 2 years and 5 months left on my contract. I think everybody sees how difficult it is to have a winning show in Las Vegas that can attract people to their hotel as a destination. Especially when you’re at one end of the Strip. When you have something so successful, you want to try to keep that. So they made me an offer that I could not refuse. They said you have the creative license, do what you’re going to do. We’ll support you; we’ll be behind you. I’ve never in my time with Cirque de Soleil had a better relationship. Cirque has been absolutely amazing, supportive and allowed me to really bring my vision to life in a way that I could not do on my own because of this incredible theater, because of their incredible knowledge. Q. And their talent pool? Yeah, it’s incredible. So, for me as an artist who wants to remain numero uno, the most relevant magician in the world, I want to see what I am capable of because I know I’m capable of doing more things that are way beyond anything that I’ve ever done. Besides the money, which doesn’t really matter to me, it was more about the opportunity as an artist to show people what I am truly capable of and raise the bar for myself, push my own envelope, see what’s the best that could come out of me creatively, artistically. In turn, I think it will push a whole art form and show that magic doesn’t have to be what we think it is and what we have seen it be -– it can be so much more. I think this show will be the nexus for future magicians to see what is possible and how you don’t think like what we’ve seen in Las Vegas before. Q. Give me an example of an illusion that shows us that this is completely different than what you’ve done before, what magic has done before? There are many, many examples of the illusions that we’re presenting. I think that the most important aspect of this show, more than the illusions, is the emotional connection that people will have during the show because the power that that has, when you move somebody on a visceral level, and they shed one tear because of something they’re watching, that’s a profound effect. It will make people, whether they shed a tear or not, it will put them in a space that magic has never done. The reason that I can do it is this is real life. Q. You escaped the answer because you obviously want to keep it secret until opening night. So let me ask it differently. There are seven magic tricks, seven principals of magic. Have you discovered more? I found that magic is not about a trick, about an enigma. Magic can be so much more without even performing a trick. One of my signature pieces, and what I get requested more than anything, is to levitate. People will be stunned by the levitation in this show. I’m going to levitate in ways that no magician, no human being, has ever levitated on a live stage, ever, period. No blue lame curtains blowing. This will be just completely in the open in normal lighting, no theatrical lighting, no curtains, nothing. It’s right there as if you saw me on the street and see me in a real environment. Not setup, not slick, but seeing me do things that have never been done, being able to fly up, fly sideways, flip, barrel rolls, and do it literally, some of the levitations just 5 feet away from the audience. Q. Five feet away? So you’re almost in the audience? Yep. I’m as close as you can get to the audience and allow it to be done due to insurance restrictions. That’s just one part of it. Q. Peter Pan comes to life? This is way beyond Peter Pan. Not only do I levitate, not only do I fly, this is “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” I’m flipping around, I’m doing barrel rolls. There’s a brand new manipulation act with birds that takes place in a 200-year-old cathedral. The dome is cracked, so you can see sunlight coming in while a little snow falls and birds fly into the cathedral. It’s a whole routine with birds flying over the audience in different forms before coming back to life. We send five pigeons to fly over the audience’s heads, which transforms into a feather turning into a snowstorm, then 110 birds flying through the snowstorm. There’s fire floating in my hands, floating around my body that transforms into another bird. Manipulation has been around forever with magic. It’s a beautiful form of art, but we’re seeing it in a very poetic way. Utilizing technology in a way that we haven’t seen, and it really takes the audience from seeing what we’ve seen before as tricks. It’s almost like becoming emotionally engaged to what you’re seeing because it makes you feel like you can go out and conquer the world. Q. Is it safe to say that there is no other magician who can do this? No question about it. There’s no one who can do this show. No one because there’s only one Criss Angel. I’m really happy to be in my skin, and I’ve had a lifetime and a dedication to my craft like no other. I live, eat and sleep this in a way that people who know me who are magicians, they think that I’m possessed. With all of the trials and tribulations from “Believe,” and all of the different things over 18 years it took me to become an overnight success, all of that led to this moment. This is my time. I believe it’s my time because I believe that this is going to be the culmination of my entire career put forth on this stage in a way that would never be possible unless somebody went through my life experience and had the facility, the means, the team, Cirque du Soleil, the theater, the brain, the creativity, to be able to do this. I don’t say this because, and I know it’s going to come off very conceited, but I say this because I work, work and continue to work my ass off. What you put in is what you get out. The harder something is to accomplish, the sweeter the reward. This is a long time in the making for me. Q. This is your whole life -– your existence? Yeah, this is it, this is it, this is it. I’m willing to put it all out there on the line. I could have just sat there and done “Believe” and collected the incredible money that I was making. I could have just kept my feet in the pool by day, had a margarita, hung out with friends and come here at 6:30 p.m. and get ready for the show, do the show, go home. But that’s not me. Cirque knew that wasn’t me. Cirque knew that I was capable of more. Cirque saw what I did, and I think they see the future in the Criss Angel brand not only here at the Luxor, but also abroad. We’re already talking about getting involved with many other shows, not just “Mindfreak Live!” at the Luxor. { SOURCE: https://goo.gl/LVdooX & https://goo.gl/INQhrf } ======================================================================= COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER ======================================================================= Fascination! Newsletter Volume 16, Number 6 (Issue #149) - June 2016 "Fascination! Newsletter" is a concept by Ricky Russo. Copyright (C) 2001-2016 Ricky Russo, published by Vortex/RGR Productions, a subsidiary of Communicore Enterprises. No portion of this newsletter can be reproduced, published in any form or forum, quoted or translated without the consent of the "Fascination! Newsletter." By sending us correspondence, you give us permission (unless otherwise noted) to use the submission as we see fit, without remuneration. All submissions become the property of the "Fascination! Newsletter." "Fascination! Newsletter" is not affiliated in any way with Cirque du Soleil. Cirque du Soleil and all its creations are Copyright (C) and are registered trademarks (TM) of Cirque du Soleil, Inc., and Créations Méandres, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No copyright infringement intended. { Jun.10.2016 } =======================================================================