======================================================================= ______ _ __ _ __ / ____/___ ___________(_)___ ____ _/ /_(_)___ ____ / / / /_ / __ '/ ___/ ___/ / __ \/ __ '/ __/ / __ \/ __ \/ / / __/ / /_/ (__ ) /__ / / / / /_/ / /_/ / /_/ / / / /_/ /_/ \__,_/____/\___/_/_/ /_/\__,_/\__/_/\____/_/ /_(_) 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 21, NUMBER 5 Jun/Jul 2021 ISSUE #208 ======================================================================= Welcome to the latest edition of Fascination, the Unofficial Cirque du Soleil Newsletter. * * * INTERMISSION IS OVER! * * * Over the last few weeks, Cirque du Soleil has been very happy and quite pleased to announce its long-awaited return to the stage through a number of announcements made about its touring and resident shows. So much so that it has our heads spinning! So far, and at press time, Cirque has announced the following shows will be returning with tickets already on sale for many of the restarting shows: o) MYSTERE - Performances began on June 28, 2021 o) "O" - Performances began on July 1, 2021 o) MICHAEL JACKSON ONE - to begin on August 19, 2021 o) THE BEATLES LOVE - on August 26, 2021 o) ALEGRIA: IN A NEW LIGHT - on November 18, 2021 in Houston, TX o) LUZIA - on January 12, 2022 in London, UK o) KOOZA - on April 28, 2022 in Montreal, QC And although there are touring dates listed for KURIOS, CRYSTAL, and CORTEO, official announcements have yet to be made regarding these shows. Additionally, we as yet do not know the fates of BAZZAR, OVO, AXEL, MESSI10, KA, or DRAWN TO LIFE. However, we're relatively certain that KA and DRAWN TO LIFE will have restart announcements soon. (KA is tentatively on track to return in October, Lamarre said to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.) Our Itinéraire section has been re-added and updated to include these new dates and, of course, you can read these announcements in full within. Stay tuned for more! * * * THE SUN RISES... DOCUMENTARY? * * * On July 1st, "O" returned to the stage in grand fashion with a visually spectacular processional throughout the Bellagio. Led by a carousel horse, the cast and crew paraded and performed through the resort fully outfitted in the show's surreal costumes as they readied themselves to make their first appearance back in the aquatic theater. Bellagio employees and Cirque du Soleil fans lined the parade route to officially welcome "O" back to the resort. Following the processional, the cast and crew were met in the theater by the CEOs of Cirque du Soleil and MGM Resorts International who delivered remarks on the significance of the flagship show's return to the stage, having performed more than 10,000 shows in front of more than 17 million guests. Perhaps most interestingly is that the "O" return was captured for a documentary by MGM Studios, which is controlling the production, editing, distribution and messaging about the project. Lamarre was featured. Otherwise, he says, "There's very little I can say other than we are shooting right now, and we are waiting for MGM Studios to come back to us and tell us who the buyers are going to be." There should be worldwide interest in such a project, he says. So... Cirque du Soleil Returns coming to a streamer near you? * * * 10 YEARS AND 10 SHOWS IN THE OLD PORT? * * * In the exciting announcement that Cirque du Soleil's KOOZA would "come home" to Montreal in the Spring of 2022 (the announcement of such you can read within), did you happen to catch this line? "Cirque du Soleil is also pleased to count on a strong partnership with the Old Port of Montreal and to confirm its presence in Montreal with new productions, as well as the return of some of its classics, every year for the next 10 years." WHOA. While we're not quite sure what this means in terms of "classic shows". Does this mean the return of Kurios, Totem, and Luzia - the company's more recent touring shows - now deemed classics? Or, could we see restagings of Saltimbanco, Quidam, Dralion, or even Varekai - the company's true classic shows - under the big top once again? At this point who knows... but we do know that in addition to "classic" shows, Cirque is also committed to producing and releasing NEW productions in Montreal. And it all begins in 2022! * * * AND 10 MORE YEARS IN LAS VEGAS FOR... * * * Another show is also getting 10 more years... Mystère! Lamarre informed the "Mystere" cast after Monday's relaunch that the company and Treasure Island owner Phil Ruffin had extended the show's contract by 10 years. Specifically, a five-year extension with another five-year option. This negotiation from June 2020 lasted like 10 seconds. "In the middle of the crisis, I talked to Phil Ruffin, he called in the middle of that, and said, 'How can I help?'" Lamarre said. "I said, 'It would be great to expand our contract.' "How many years do you want?" Ruffin said. "Ten?" Lamarre said. "Done," Ruffin said. "This is what it's like to do business with Phil Ruffin," Lamarre said. "When he first bought the hotel, the f irst thing he said to me was, 'I love 'Mystere' and I want it to run forever.'" * * * OTHER MUSINGS * * * With Cirque du Soleil making its grand return to the stage, we here at Fascination will be getting back to our regular monthly publication schedule. Although we were able to continue publishing through the initial months of the pandemic (thanks to content written to be published during that time), the last few months have been rather lean. But with the intermission over at Cirque du Soleil, we're looking forward to getting back into it! Besides, and as I mentioned, we still have yet to learn the fates of OVO, BAZZAR, MESSI10, AXEL, and UNDER THE SAME SKY. We've also not really heard much about the Special Events side of the company. Cirque was planning to launch more CIRQUE AT SEA shows, had events planned in Malta, Trois-Rivières, and, much more. But we know Cirque du Soleil is taking its time -- as it should. So, until next time... Enjoy! /----------------------------------------------------\ | | | Join us on the web at: | | < www.cirquefascination.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 & Highlights 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 * Videos -- Official Peeks & Noted Fan Finds o) Fascination! Features *) SPECIAL REPRINT: "The Show Will Go On" by: Jason Kirby, The Globe and Mail *) SPECIAL REPRINT: "40 at 40: Cirque Flips Back Into Action After Pandemic" By: Jon Kaplan, Toronto NOW o) Copyright & Disclaimer ======================================================================= CIRQUE BUZZ -- NEWS, RUMOURS & SIGHTINGS ======================================================================= *************************************************************** LA PRESSE -- General News & Highlights *************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------- Grupo Vidanta Expands Plans for Vallarta Theme Park {May.19.2021} ---------------------------------------------------------- Grupo Vidanta has broadened its plans for its theme park currently under construction in Vallarta, Mexico. Now called VidantaWorld, the expanded blueprint will include three "dream parks," which will feature hotel accommodations set to open at a later date. As originally planned, the theme park complex will include a theater for newly created Cirque du Soleil shows, which will debut during the first phase within a jungle park with a lake featuring fountain jets, music and performances; a plaza; shops; and a range of restaurants and such culinary options as street food carts. The SkyDream Parks Gondola will provide transportation between the parks and hotels, which will be set on 2,500 acres. Other elements of VidantaWorld will include "dream park" and a nature "dream park," details of which will be announced at a later date, Grupo Vidanta said. "Our guests have come to expect only the best from our brands, and their anticipation is high for the new entertainment parks," said Ivan Chavez, executive vice president of Grupo Vidanta. "In preparation of VidantaWorld's upcoming first phase, we've already unveiled the SkyDream, our state-of-the-art aerial gondola crafted by the expert engineers at Doppelmayr. And we've purchased top-of-the- line rides by leading international attraction companies Intamin and Aerophile, which will introduce vacationers from across the globe to the beauty and wonder that they can only experience in Mexico." { SOURCE: Grupo Vidanta } ---------------------------------------------------------- Hot-selling Cirque should have all shows Open by October {May.19.2021} ---------------------------------------------------------- Cirque du Soleil has been dark for so long we've lost sight of how quickly the company can move. We are speaking of the company's accelerated ticket sales, at least in the high-demand, post-pandemic climate. And, also the company's faster-than-expected return to the stage for "Love," "Michael Jackson One" and "Ka." "O" and "Mystere," Cirque's first two shows to comeback after COVID- 19, are selling their at about twice their pre-shutdown rate. And "Blue Man Group," which Cirque owns, is also selling at that clip. "What it means is that if a normal day at 'O' or 'Mystere' would sell, just for the state of discussion, 500 tickets a day, now we're selling 1,000 tickets a day," Cirque CEO Daniel Lamarre said in an interview last week. "I would include Blue Man Group in that group." Opening July 1,"O" at Bellagio is selling between 80-100 percent through most of July, according to Ticketmaster's updated figures. That show is the best-selling of all Cirque's Vegas productions, and was consistently in the 90-percent range throughout its run before COVID-19. Opening June 28 "Mystere" at Treasure Island, too, is showing strong sales between 70 and 80 percent, through the first half of July. Before COVID-19, the longest-running Cirque show on the Strip has hovered around 60 percent sold per show, and was commonly discounted to reach that number. Lamarre also said to expect an accelerated return of "Love" at the Mirage, and "Michael Jackson One" at Mandalay Bay. "We are going to reopen shows probably at a faster pace than we thought originally," Lamarre said. "I think that we'll open MJ and 'Love' sooner than later, and 'Ka' sometime in the fall." Lamarre said to look for "MJ" and "Love" to "almost at the same time" in August. Cirque would then have succeeded in bringing four shows back to the Strip by September. "Ka" is tentatively on track to return in October. About 1,370 Cirque employees in Las Vegas lost their jobs when the company shut down its entire 44-show empire in March 2020. About 120 were let go permanently when "Zumanity" closed after a 17-year run at New York-New York. Asked how many of Cirque's remaining available employees would be coming back, Lamarre said, "I would say most of them … I think that we should be pretty close to where we were by the end of the year." PLANS TO REHIRE 95% OF STAFF Lamarre further says the company is ready to rehire 95 percent of its 3,500 employees cut loose during COVID, including those in the company's 44 international touring shows. Bringing back the Vegas community has been comparatively seamless, when you consider the balance of Cirque's artists were performing around the world. "The artists are in better shape than we expected, which is great to bring back the quality of the shows at at the level they were," Lamarre said. "We kept an official link with our Las Vegas artists because we believed, rightly so, Vegas would be the first market to open, because all the artists live there. But what the surprising thing is, we discovered that 95 percent of our international employees were willing to come back." Lamarre continued, "That helps us take a quicker decision to start reopening our touring shows as well." Cirque is back in action in the U.K. in January, when it reopens "Luzia" at Royal Albert Hall in London. Lamarre also said MGM Resorts International Chief Operating Officer Corey Sanders has joined the Cirque Board of Directors, stepping in for departing MGM Resorts President of Entertainment and Sports George Kliavkoff. Former MGM Resorts Chairman Jim Murren remains one of Cirque's two chairmen, along with Gabriel de Alba of the investment team at The Catalyst Capital Group. "I have known Corey forever, and I have known Jim forever," Lamarre said. "You know, in these meetings, board members are asking about the situation in Vegas, and I could give my version, but I can also turn to Corey and say, "Corey, what do you think?" because he also has a very strong point of view about the market." The "O" return is being captured for a documentary by MGM Studios, which is controlling the production, editing, distribution and messaging about the project. Lamarre will be featured. Otherwise, he says, "There's very little I can say other than we are shooting right now, and we are waiting for MGM Studios to come back to us and tell us who the buyers are going to be." There should be worldwide interest in such a project, given the company's post-pandemic revival, starting with its water spectacular on the Strip. "I think this documentary should have an international attraction," Lamarre said. "Streamers and broadcasters around the world should be interested in this." Lamarre himself is planning to spend two weeks in Las Vegas, which he has never done in his 25-year tenure with Cirque, leading to the "Mystere" and "O" reopening. "I love it," Lamarre said. "You will get tired of me, but I want to live the story, the rehearsals, the buzz of the city. I cannot wait to be there." { SOURCE: John Katsilometes, Las Vegas Review-Journal } ---------------------------------------------------------- KOOZA to Return to Old Port in 2022 {May.19.2021} ---------------------------------------------------------- Cirque du Soleil is happy to announce its return to the Old Port of Montreal in 2022 with one of its most acclaimed shows around the world, the electrifying production KOOZA! Cirque du Soleil is also pleased to count on a strong partnership with the Old Port of Montreal and to confirm its presence in Montreal with new productions, as well as the return of some of its classics, every year for the next 10 years. Since its creation and world premiere in Montreal in 2007, KOOZA has travelled the globe and delighted audiences in 65 cities and a total of 21 countries. It is with great enthusiasm that Cirque du Soleil confirms its anticipated presence in the Old Port of Montreal with one of its iconic productions. "It's with great pleasure that Cirque du Soleil will resume its long- lasting tradition of presenting shows under the Big Top in the Old Port of Montreal and we look forward to finally reconnecting with our Montreal and Quebec audience" said Daniel Lamarre, President and CEO of Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group. "More than 450 days have passed since we had to take a temporary hiatus, and we are anxiously waiting for our return to Montreal. I just can't wait to see the view of our iconic Big Top in the beautiful landscape of the Old Port of Montreal." KOOZA is a return to the origins of Cirque du Soleil that combines two circus traditions—acrobatic performance and the art of clowning. The show highlights the physical demands of human performance in all its splendor and fragility, presented in a colorful mélange that emphasizes bold slapstick humor. "KOOZA is about human connection and the world of duality, good and bad," says the show's writer and director David Shiner. "The tone is fun and funny, light and open. As it evolves, we are exploring concepts such as fear, identity, recognition and power." The show starts with the Trickster bursting onto the scene like a jack-in-the-box in front of The Innocent, and that's just the first of many surprises to come. The Innocent's journey brings him into contact with a panoply of comic characters such as the King, the Trickster, the Obnoxious Tourist and his Bad Dog. Between strength and fragility, laughter and smiles, turmoil and harmony, KOOZA explores themes of identity, recognition and power. The show is set in an electrifying and exotic visual world full of surprises, thrills, chills, audacity and total involvement. The name KOOZA is inspired by the Sanskrit word "koza," which means "box," "chest" or "treasure," and was chosen because one of the underlying concepts of the production is the idea of a "circus in a box." The international cast of 50 acrobats, musicians, singers and actors present heart-stopping feats and laugh-out-loud antics to a live soundtrack fusion of jazz, funk and Bollywood beats. Tickets for the Montreal performances of KOOZA are available online, exclusively to Cirque Club members, starting today. General on sale starts on June 21, 2021, at cirquedusoleil.com/Kooza { SOURCE: Cirque du Soleil } ---------------------------------------------------------- Edie overcomes 'complete shock' of 'Zumanity' closing {Jun.17.2021} ---------------------------------------------------------- Somewhere in the seismic shifts of the pandemic we have caught up with a 12-year Cirque du Soleil star who will not be reopening his show. Or, her show, in this case. Edie, as she is known onstage, and Christopher Kenney away from it, was cut loose with the rest of "Zumanity" at New York-New York in November. Never to be knocked off the spindles (or 6-inch heels) the great drag character prospers in "Faaabulous" at Notoriety at Neonopolis. Shows are at 8 p.m. Fridays. Kenney and partner Jamie Morris (also co-star of "Puppetry of the Penis" at Erotic Heritage Museum) have developed a terrifically funny, and vocally satisfying, drag showcase. The singers all sing the series of novelty numbers. The primary cast (stage names, all) is Edie, Vita Summers, Sandra "SanSan" Santigold, Sunshine, Dusty Muffin and JuneBug (all recognizable on the drag scene). The backing dancers are, Taylor Bradley, Curtis Goodman, Joe Rivera and Eric Lehn. Swings are Kitty Delmar and Jessica Grabbit. It might not be the multimillion-dollar spectacle that was "Zumanity" on the Strip, but there is something to be said for absolute talent, a smart use of resources and manageable overhead. And, not to belabor the obvious, this plucky production is still onstage. Some time ago, we fired a few questions at the towering drag performer, forging a dream in downtown L.V. The highlights: Q. It's been some time since "Zumanity" closed. What goes through your mind when someone mentions the show, or Cirque generally? I don't know. I have to move on. I was so comfortable for so long. The fighter inside of me says, 'What's the next gig?' That part of my brain kind of opened back up, being a solo artist but also for a group of people. It's a little more intense. Q. What is the biggest challenge in developing the show? Getting the word out. To be frank, it's not my expertise here. We're making just enough to pay the cast. I haven't been paid yet, myself, not once. We need to hire someone to come on and help us get the word out. I'm used to performing, not wearing every single hat. But I'm up for the challenge. Bring it on. Q. It's tough for a small-capacity show to get brokers to sell tickets when you're only performing once a week. If you see me standing on I-15 in full drag, with a sign that says, "Faaabulous Tonight at 8!' — don't laugh. Q. You have any projects outside "Faaabulous?" I've written a new show, "Las Vegas Showgirl: Unleashed," that's going to tour the east coast in August. It's how Edie got to Vegas, how she got to Cirque, and how the show closed eight months into a pandemic. It's life after Cirque. It's light and fun, but I want audiences to know the truth. This is what happened, and it really sucked. Q. How did you learn "Zumanity" would close? We were on a Zoom meeting and we were told this was just a COVID update, and we thought there was this tiny light at the end of the tunnel, and then it was, the show is closing and in two weeks your health insurance is gone. We were completely shocked, and I'll tell about how shocked we were. Q. What is your long-term vision for "Faaabulous" in Las Vegas? I want it to be a full-fledged, five-or-six-days-a-week show. I want it to be popular. I want people to feel fabulous when they leave the building. I want it to be a major show in Las Vegas. I know we have serious competition, with 'Ru Paul's Drag Race' coming back (to Flamingo Showroom), but I think there is room for Ru Paul's TV, lip- syncing show, and the other one with real singing and silliness." { SOURCE: John Katsilometes, Las Vegas Review-Journal } ---------------------------------------------------------- Cirque du Soleil Announces Additional Reopening Plans {Jun.17.2021} ---------------------------------------------------------- Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group ("Cirque du Soleil" or "the Company") is pleased to confirm the long-awaited return of additional touring and resident shows. After announcing the reopening of two of its most iconic shows in Las Vegas "O" and Mystère, as well as the touring shows KOOZA in Punta Cana and LUZIA at the Royal Albert Hall, in London on April 21, 2021, Cirque du Soleil is thrilled to confirm the addition of five new shows to its on-sale listings. o) The Beatles LOVE, a Cirque du Soleil creation and co-production with Apple Corps Ltd., will reopen at The Mirage on Aug. 26, 2021 with tickets going on sale on June 24, 2021 o) Michael Jackson ONE by Cirque du Soleil, in collaboration with the Estate of Michael Jackson, will reopen its exclusive residency at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino on Aug. 19, 2021 o) Alegría, Cirque du Soleil's emblematic production, will be in Houston, Texas, under the Big Top at Sam Houston Race Park as of Nov. 18, 2021 o) KOOZA, a Cirque du Soleil production acclaimed by more than eight million spectators and critics around the world will perform at the Old Port of Montreal as of April 28, 2022 Additionally, Blue Man Group, Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group's affiliate show, will return to Chicago and New York in full color beginning Aug. 18 and Sept. 3, 2021, respectively, with the Las Vegas show opening June 24. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at https://www.cirquedusoleil.com and https://www.blueman.com. Today also marks the beginning of a celebratory movement for Cirque du Soleil in support of the live entertainment industry and its professionals with the launch of its global initiative #intermissionisover. Since the start of the pandemic, the arts ecosystem has sustained irreparable damages as the live events industry was one of the first to shut down. With this initiative, Cirque du Soleil aims to shed light on the resilience of performers and bring maximum visibility to the challenges creative professionals are facing – and overcoming – in this time of revival. Cirque du Soleil has enlisted circus aficionados and artists from around the world to help spread the word, inviting them to share on social media photos and videos of themselves hard at work or in their everyday life as they are working toward a return to the stages, or what this moment means to them, using the #intermissionisover hashtag and proudly wearing the official Intermission is Over t-shirt. The campaign kicked off today on the company's website and social platforms. "Today, we all stand together to celebrate our industry coming back to life," said Daniel Lamarre, President and CEO Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group. "Let's flood social platforms with messages of hope, strength and perseverance. We encourage you to join us and add your voice to support your favorite artists, venues, friends and families working in the live entertainment industry. Intermission is over. Now, show time!" Fans are encouraged to join the movement by sharing their favorite show memories on social media, using #IntermissionIsOver. The campaign t-shirt will be available, starting tomorrow, for US$35.00 on the Cirque du Soleil website. "Cirque du Soleil thanks them wholeheartedly for their support of fellow performers and professionals," said Lamarre. "Now is a time to celebrate the resilience of our industry and the return of live entertainment performances." { SOURCE: Cirque du Soleil } ---------------------------------------------------------- 'Mystere' again launches Cirque on the Strip {Jun.26.2021} ---------------------------------------------------------- In the middle of Mystere Theater on Friday afternoon sat the undisturbed, inert Korean plank. And it was beautiful. The plank act involves the entire "Mystere" cast, either airborne or ancillary around the piece. It's a team effort, a family affair, and the way Cirque du Soleil rightfully should return to the Strip. The show comes back to the stage Monday night, marking Cirque's reopening on the Strip. "O" is next in line on July 1. "Michael Jackson One" at Mandalay Bay follows Aug. 19, and "Love" is next at the Mirage on Aug. 26. "Ka" at MGM Grand is still to be announced, but the company does plan to have all four shows open by October. But as always, "Mystere" is ahead of the field. "It needs to be the first one back, because it is last of the old- school Cirque," says RJ Owens, who plays the grown-up Bébé François in the production. "It is the last show that completely relies on the human condition, rather than technology and fancy sets." "Mystere" is indeed the "last" of all those Cirque qualities, but will always be the first Cirque show to ever open in residency on the Strip, in December 1993. The cast has finally reunited this month, ahead of the Monday night re-opening performance. The company has adopted the #IntermissionIsOver hashtag in marketing the revival campaign. Originally, Cirque had geared up for "O" to relaunch first among Strip productions, but "Mystere" vaulted into that role. The show was propelled into that position by Treasure Island owner Phil Ruffin, whom Cirque CEO Daniel Lamarre said was "very, very eager that as soon as the market recovered that he would open 'Mystere.'" In a statement, Ruffin said the show "continues to be a very popular and we're currently booking full houses – 1,600 seats and 10 shows a week!" "We know that the performers are excited to return to the stage," the statement continued. "Mystere" Senior Artistic Director Tim Smith said the cast kept themselves in near-top condition throughout the shutdown. "We were very surprised at the amazing shape of our artists, mentally and physically, when they came back," Smith said. "But that is what they do. That's how they live. They kept themselves trained to perform the unique skills that they do. They came back ready to work and were very excited about it. It was not too much of a task to get them back up and running." Smith said the show is usually the entry point for Cirque fans visiting Vegas. "We are a lot of people's favorite show, and often the first Cirque show they have seen," Smith said. "It is iconic here in Las Vegas — we are lucky enough to be synonymous with people's vacation. If you come to Las Vegas, you've got to see a Cirque du Soleil show, and usually it's "Mystere.'" The show has advanced through fully costumed rehearsals over the past three-plus weeks. "They have gone perfectly. Perfectly," Owens said. "It's beautiful, it's heart-touching and warming as it has always been." During the COVID pause, the show has undergone inevitable shifts — in cast, and even in the size and shape of one cast member. Guitarist Bruce Rickerd retired during the shutdown. He was a cast member in "Mystere" in its opening, and played some 12,465 shows. Rickerd holds the Guinness Book of World Records mark for most theatrical performances by a male musician. And Owens is not nearly as much man-baby as he was prior to the pandemic. He has lost some 200 pounds, down to 279. He's had 12 inches taken out of his pajama costume and big diaper. "I am where I was when I was 16," Owens said. "I have new aches and pains in my joints because I am able to move differently. I can run a little with the cast." Owens has notched more than 4,500 shows dating to February 2013. His reunion with the cast has proven emotionally powerful. "The fact that we have been able to take our masks off and actually see each's others' faces is so moving to me," Owens said. "I've been weeping all day today. Just weeping. It's been ridiculous. It's the cast out here, working their asses off to do above and beyond the best show you have seen." { SOURCE: John Katsilometes, Las Vegas Review-Journal } ---------------------------------------------------------- The Beatles LOVE Returns to The Mirage, Aug. 26 {Jun.29.2021} ---------------------------------------------------------- The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil will make its grand return to The Mirage Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on Aug. 26, 2021. The iconic show is also celebrating its 15th anniversary. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at cirquedusoleil.com/love. A Cirque du Soleil creation and co-production with Apple Corps Ltd. and MGM Resorts International, LOVE celebrates the musical legacy of The Beatles. The world-renowned show brings a burst of color to the Las Vegas Strip as a cast of 70 artists showcase aerial acrobatics, vibrant visuals and high energy choreography on a 360-degree stage. Since opening to rave reviews on June 30, 2006, LOVE has performed to more than 10 million audience members and has been honored with three GRAMMY Awards. The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil performs Thursday – Monday at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. through October 2, and Tuesday – Saturday at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. beginning October 5. On sale now, tickets start at $79. SHOW SCHEDULE Thursday to Monday at 7:00pm and 9:30pm through 10/2 Tuesday to Saturday at 7:00pm and 9:30pm from 10/5 7:00PM SHOWS ONLY 8/26, 8/29, 8/30, 9/2, 9/5, 9/6, 9/9, 9/13, 9/16, 9/20 DARK DAYS Tuesdays and Wednesdays through 9/29 Sunday and Monday from 10/3 to 12/26 ADDITIONAL DARK DAYS 11/2 and 11/30 to 12/4 ADDITIONAL PERFORMANCES 12/27 at 7:00pm and 9:30pm 12/31 TBD TICKET PRICES Start at $79.00 USD TO BOOK TICKETS Call 888-488-7111 or 702-693-8866 Or go to www.cirquedusoleil.com *Please note that show schedules are subject to change. { SOURCE: PR Newswire } ---------------------------------------------------------- Mystère Caps Spirited Reopening with 10-year Extension! {Jun.30.2021} ---------------------------------------------------------- There are times when a show will "goose" a standing ovation. The cast will hang for a few extra counts, as if to allow audience members to gather their thoughts and gauge the room before rising. But Monday night, the full house at "Mystere" at Treasure Island gave the host show a full-hearted, full-throated standing ovation. That wasn't the only gesture of gratification, either. During the night's reopening speech, Cirque CEO Daniel Lamarre announced the show had extended its contract at TI for another 10 years. Should the show finish that term, "Mystere" will have run in residency in Las Vegas for 38 years. The Cirque's new ownership-power roster was also in Vegas, seeing one of the company's productions for the first time. Joining Lamarre and Cirque's President Eric Grilly were company COO Stéphane Lefebvre, and co-Chairman of the Board Gabriel de Alba from primary ownership entity Capital Catalyst Group. Cirque also got a visit from one of its original creative visionaries, Franco Dragone, the original artistic director of "Mystere" in 1993. Dragone also conceived "O" at Bellagio, then split with Cirque and developed "A New Day …" at the Colosseum and "Le Reve" at Wynn Las Vegas. Dragone sent a bouquet of flowers to the cast, along with a note reading, "Wishing you all a beautiful performance tonight!" "Mystere" obliged. The granddaddy of Cirque du Soleil residency productions on the Strip ended the company's pause with an especially spirited performance. The lengthy pause brought new life to such familiar, classic acts as RJ Owens' Bebe Francois' (RJ Owens) game-of- catch with the Red Ball, and Jimmy Slonina's clown usher Brian Le Petit's dumping of popcorn on fans as they filed into the theater. The Korean plank (planche, French translation of plank, is the company's inside term, we have been reminded) felt especially death defying, as the Spearmato characters were sent skyward onto their castmates' shoulders. Was the trapeze act higher, in the return? It seemed like it. The entire night carried a inherent anxiousness, at least from my seat, at the heightened risk level (and high reward) of Cirque acrobatics. This was not a flawless performance. Perfect precision could not be expected after a 15-month layoff. There were breaks here and there, a loose landing, at least one "miss" in the trapeze act. Owens managed to veer into the plank in his arrival in his golf cart, sending the signature piece about three feet off its mark (nearby Spermato pushed it back into place). But that audience roar, at the end, was everything. Some fans in attendance had actually never seen a Cirque performance. Angie Dominguez was one. The tourist from Durango, Colorado, brought her young daughter and a friend to the show. "It was amazing, absolutely amazing," Dominguez said. "Fantastic, 100- percent. I have never seen anything like this in my life." Britney Corbin of Durango joined Dominguez on the trip to Vegas. "This is actually the second time I've seen it, but it's been 14 years since I saw it last," Corbin said. "It's great. It's the show I remember. Even some of the characters, I think, are still here from the last time I saw it." Tiffany McCaloa was another ticket-holder seeing "Mystere" for the first time. She moved to Las Vegas two years ago from Salt Lake City. "I felt like there was more excitement from the people performing, because it was the first opening night" McCaloa said. "I felt that, and I loved it." { SOURCE: John Katsilometes, Las Vegas Review-Journal } ---------------------------------------------------------- Dawn Porter, MGM TV team for Cirque du Soleil Documentary {Jun.30.2021} ---------------------------------------------------------- MGM and Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group have partnered on a feature documentary that promises to go behind the curtain of the iconic circus, with Dawn Porter (The Way I See It, John Lewis: Good Trouble) attached to direct and executive produce. Porter's Trilogy Films, a production company specializing in creating feature-length documentaries and non-fiction series, and her new partners at Industrial Media are providing production services. Currently in production, filming on the project began in April and will continue through opening night July 1, when Cirque du Soleil's O show makes its return to the stage at the Bellagio Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. For the first time in its 37-year history, Cirque du Soleil granted exclusive access to MGM and Porter as performers prepared for the upcoming show after the COVID-19 pandemic put the circus on pause. The personal stories of those artists — from ringmasters to acrobats and divers — are at the "heart" of the film. Mark Burnett, MGM's chairman of worldwide television, said in a statement: "Chronicling the re-opening of the aquatic O show brings MGM back to its roots, as it was 75 years ago that the studio produced the first Aqua Musicals with Esther Williams." Porter added: "Like so many people, I have always been enthralled with the beauty and mystery of Cirque du Soleil and fascinated with the extraordinarily talented people who make the seemingly impossible come to life. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to document Cirque's biggest challenge, a return to the stage after one of the world's greatest crises. The performers, cast, company, and crew are giving their all to make this the biggest premiere of their careers. This is a magnificent story and I'm so grateful to be able to tell it." { SOURCE: Real Screen } ---------------------------------------------------------- Doc to go behind the scenes of Cirque's 'O' {Jul.01.2021} ---------------------------------------------------------- When Cirque du Soleil CEO Daniel Lamarre met with MGM Resorts International CEO Bill Hornbuckle at the Bellagio on Tuesday, the two execs played to a small audience. A camera crew. The back-and-forth was banked for an upcoming MGM Studios documentary chronicling the return of "O." Lamarre emphasizes this meeting was not staged and was a very real update on MGM Resorts' hotel occupancy expectations over the next several months to gauge ticket-buying demand. As Cirque says, intermission is over. Cirque's best-selling show and strongest brand relaunches on Thursday night. As reported in April, MGM Studios (which is not formally related to MGM Resorts) has partnered with Cirque du Soleil develop an under-the-carriage account of the company's recovery from COVID. Documentary filmmaker Dawn Porter ("Trapped," "The Way I See It," "John Lewis: Good Trouble") heads up the creative team. The dramatic tension is clear, as Cirque du Soleil had performed 52,000 shows for more than 70 million on the Strip before COVID forced all 44 of its shows worldwide to close. "Zumanity" at New York-New York was shut down forever. "O" has been Cirque's most successful production ever in Las Vegas, selling about 748,000 tickets per year. The aquatic spectacular is the biggest box-office hit performing in a single venue anywhere in the world. For Cirque, the benefits of allowing a documentary crew into its revival are multifold. Primarily, the company will generate revenue through the sale and distribution of the finished project. MGM Chairman of Worldwide Television Mark Burnett, a big Cirque fan who has visited the company's Montreal headquarters, is in Las Vegas for the show's relaunch. Filming is to be completed after Thursday's performance, and MGM Studios will shop the project for global distribution, aiming for a fall release. Several potential buyers will be at Thursday's "O" premiere. The project will also serve as an effective marketing tool. Cirque has become the international leader in the return of theater-scale entertainment worldwide, a process MGM Studios is sure to capture. "We thought this would happen, and now I am living it," Lamarre said during a chat at Bellagio on Wednesday morning. "Las Vegas, and Cirque du Soleil, are becoming the symbol of the resurrection of live entertainment. The opening of 'Mystere' and 'O' shows everyone around the world that, yes, the industry is coming back." Lamarre estimates it will take a year, maybe a year and a half, for Cirque to return full revenue to its 2019 numbers. "All of the other markets, including Broadway, are opening later than Las Vegas," Lamarre said. "I hope I am not exaggerating, but Las Vegas is the first market in the world that is really opening to entertainment." Lamarre says the upcoming documentary is also pulling the company's human element to the fore. A common quibble about the circus troupe is its frequently flawless precision can override human artists who make it all possible. This is a chance to evoke some backstage, real-life, personal accounts of Cirque performers. "Absolutely, 100 percent, we want to show the emotion of our artists, how much they have overcome," Lamarre said. "Everything is linked to human performance." This project might lead to an ongoing series of Cirque reality based shows. "This could open up the door for more TV content" Lamarre said. "With Mark being a big, big fan of Cirque, he convinced MGM to do the documentary. We can move forward from there." Lamarre informed the "Mystere" cast after Monday's relaunch that the company and Treasure Island owner Phil Ruffin had extended the show's contract by 10 years. Specifically, a five-year extension with another five-year option. This negotiation from June 2020 lasted like 10 seconds. "In the middle of the crisis, I talked to Phil Ruffin, he called in the middle of that, and said, 'How can I help?'" Lamarre said. "I said, 'It would be great to expand our contract.' "How many years do you want?" Ruffin said. "Ten?" Lamarre said. "Done," Ruffin said. "This is what it's like to do business with Phil Ruffin," Lamarre said. "When he first bought the hotel, the first thing he said to me was, 'I love 'Mystere' and I want it to run forever.'" Too bad the MGM Studios crew wasn't around for that chat. Lamarre also said that MGM Resorts has signed on for a five-year extension of "O," and two years apiece for "Michael Jackson One" at Mandalay Bay and "Love" at the Mirage. Nine years, total, in contracted commitment coming out of COVID. And "Ka" at MGM Grand is already signed through 2024. That show is targeted for an October reopening. Lamarre has been on an emotional Tilt-A-Whirl for the past 16 months, first shutting down the company, navigating through its sale and helping assemble the pieces for reopening. In November, when the sale of Cirque to a group led by Capital Catalyst Group was announced, Lamarre spent 14 straight hours on the phone for interviews with international media. "I had two PR people with me, fielding the calls and giving me sandwiches," Lamarre said. "But I had to be accessible, and speak about what was our company's survival." The result was 5 billion impressions worldwide about Cirque's return. "I thought maybe 1 billion, or even 700 million, impressions about Cirque," Lamarre said. "This shows me the Cirque brand is as strong as ever." But it's not just a business. Cirque's leading executive is still wowed by the acrobatics, the comedy and artistry emanating from his company's stages. "It's not only numbers. I want to see the artists, the magic, what will impress you at the show tonight," Lamarre said. "I get so emotional, still. I was emotional watching 'O' in rehearsals Saturday night. After the opening of 'Mystere,' I so happy, I wanted to hug everybody. "The day I'm not impressed by our artists, is the day I stay home." { SOURCE: John Katsilometes, Las Vegas Review-Journal } ---------------------------------------------------------- After 15 years, Franco Dragone revisits his creation 'O' {Jul.02.2021} ---------------------------------------------------------- It's not so easy to put the warm fuzzies into words. But you felt that rush of exhilaration the moment the welcome was shouted from the O Theater stage Thursday night. "Ladies and gentlemen!" was the call-out from the familiar audience member pulled onstage to start the proceedings. That's all the crowd needed to hear. The 1,800 or so in attendance roared. "O" then dove into a flawless performance, marking the show's revival after 16 months away. It was too long between performances for the show's passionate cast and crew. It was also an astonishingly long break for the man who made it all happen 25 years ago, the show's creative founder Franco Dragone. Dragone moved almost totally unrecognized and unimpeded with the crowd filing out of the theater. He said it had been 2006 or 2007 since he'd seen "O," just as he had developed the Strip's other aquatic masterpiece, "Le Reve" at Wynn Las Vegas. Dragone does not like to revisit his former shows. He's more superstitious than sentimental. Even behind his face cover (which he still wears in public places, to play it safe), you could tell he was smiling. "What I will tell you is banal and all cliches, but what they do is so, so, so, impressive," Dragone said during a walk from the O Theatre seating area to the lobby. "They respect every little detail. What they do is so very difficult, and maybe when people are watching, they don't realize this. But here, we see the precision, every movement, every position of the body can send a different message." Dragone sent flowers to the "Mystere" cast on Monday, and again to the "O" team on Thursday. Cirque CEO Daniel Lamarre arranged for Dragone to have tickets to both shows, ending Dragone's long break from stepping into a Cirque theater. Though he had originally planned to be at "Mystere," which he also conceived, Dragone held off to make "O" his first Cirque show in the pandemic. Dragone is going to be more prevalent in Las Vegas this year and into 2022. His pre-show nightclub project with Criss Angel, originally titled Mr. Smiles & Molly but certain to be renamed, set to launch by the end of the year. That concept will be paired with Angel's "Mindfreak" show at his Planet Hollywood theater (that show relaunches Wednesday). Dragone also still has "Rise," the outdoor acrobatic show, on the table for next year. Other concepts abound from his production company, and a refreshed version of "The House of Dancing Water" production is due to return to City of Dreams resort in Macau in 2022, too. But Thursday was all Cirque nostalgia, as Dragone spoke immediately after "O." "I was fine at first, but strangely enough, during the show, I started to go, 'Ooh! Ooh!' when I saw something that affected me," Dragone said. "I am happy for Daniel and all of the people in Cirque. Congratulations to them." SEE PICS HERE: http://www.cirquefascination.com/?p=14109 { SOURCE: John Katsilometes, Las Vegas Review-Journal } ---------------------------------------------------------- "The Illusionists" in Las Vegas? {Jul.02.2021} ---------------------------------------------------------- John Katsilometes of the Las Vegas Review-Journal asked Lamarre at the "O" Premiere if "The Illusionists" might be moved into a Vegas theater, specifically the former "Zumanity" room at New York-New York. He also asked MGM Resorts CEO Bill Hornbuckle about plans at New York- New York… the response? "He's only said there would be a brand- friendly show able to perform 10 times a week coming to the hotel." "The Illusionists" is the magic production owned by Cirque that has succeeded on Broadway and on tour. The show was to be presented as the cornerstone of "One Night For One Drop" at Luxor last March, sliding in as "R.U.N" was closing at the theater. That show was spiked because of COVID, but "The Illusionists" remains a Cirque holding. "The truth is, I haven't found a place for that show yet," said Lamarre, who did not rule out a new, original Cirque theater in that venue. "We have many options. Right now we are looking at various alternatives. What we do normally is develop five or six different concepts, very different, and do our research locally to see what will work best." Hmm... { SOURCE: John Katsilometes, Las Vegas Review-Journal } ======================================================================= ITINÉRAIRE -- TOUR/SHOW INFORMATION ======================================================================= o) BIGTOP - Under the Grand Chapiteau {Alegria INAL, Koozå, Kurios, Luzia} o) ARENA - In Stadium-like venues {Crystal, Corteo} o) RESIDENT - Performed en Le Théâtre {Mystère, "O", LOVE, MJ ONE, JOYA, X: The Land of Fantasy} 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 ------------------------------------ Alegría-In a New Light: Houston, TX -- Nov 13, 2021 to Dec 12, 2021 [RESTART] Seattle, WA -- Jan 18, 2022 to Feb 13, 2022 Koozå: Montreal, QC -- Apr 28, 2022 to Jun 19, 2022 [RESTART] Punta Cana, DR -- Nov 25, 2022 to TBA Kurios: Rome, IT -- Mar 16, 2022 to Apr 24, 2022 Milan, IT -- May 4, 2022 to Jun 19, 2022 Luzia: London, UK -- Jan 12, 2022 to Feb 12, 2022 [RESTART] ------------------------------------ ARENA - In Stadium-Like Venues ------------------------------------ CRYSTAL - A BREAKTHROUGH ICE EXPERIENCE: Frankfurt, DE -- Nov 10, 2021 to Nov 14, 2021 Leipzig, DE -- Oct 7, 2022 to Oct 9, 2022 Nuremberg, DE -- Oct 12, 2021 to Oct 16, 2022 Cologne, DE -- Oct 19, 2021 to Oct 23, 2022 Hanover, DE -- Oct 26, 2022 - Oct 30, 2022 Munich, DE -- Nov 3, 2022 to Nov 6, 2022 Oberhausen, DE -- Nov 16, 2020 to Nov 20, 2022 Stuttgart, DE -- Dec 1, 2021 to Dec 5, 2021 CORTEO: Nice, FR -- Aug 19, 2021 to Aug 22, 2021 Aix-en-Provence, FR -- Oct 27, 2021 to Oct 31, 2021 Monpellier, FR -- Nov 4, 2021 to Nov 7, 2021 Copenhagen, DE -- Jan 13, 2022 to Jan 16, 2022 Helsinki, FI -- Jan 27, 2022 to Jan 30, 2022 Stockholm, SE -- Feb 3, 2022 to Feb 6, 2022 Vilnius, LT -- Mar 17, 2022 to Mar 20, 2022 Moscow, RU -- Apr 8, 2022 to May 16, 2022 Saint Petersburg, RU -- May 20, 2022 to May 29, 2022 Antwerp, BE -- Jun 23 2022 to Jul 2, 2022 Dublin, IR -- Jun 30, 2022 to Jul 10, 2022 London, UK -- Jul 13, 2022 to Jul 17, 2022 Palma de Mallorca, ES -- Aug 5, 2022 to Aug 14, 2022 Vienna, AT -- Sep 21, 2022 to Sep 25, 2022 Leeds, UK -- Oct 27, 2022 to Oct 30, 2022 Trondheim, NO -- Nov 11, 2022 to Nov 13, 2022 Oslo, NO -- Nov 17, 2022 to Nov 20, 2022 Lille, FR -- TBA --------------------------------- RESIDENT - en Le Théâtre --------------------------------- Mystère: Location: Treasure Island, Las Vegas (USA) Performs: Friday through Tuesday, Dark: Wednesday/Thursday Variable Nightly - 7:00pm and/or 9:30pm ** SHOWS RETURNED JUNE 28, 2021!! ** "O": Location: Bellagio, Las Vegas (USA) Performs: Wednesday through Friday, Dark Monday/Tuesday Varable Nightly - 7:30pm and/or 9:30pm ** SHOWS RETURNED JULY 1, 2021!! ** LOVE: Location: Mirage, Las Vegas (USA) Performs: Thursday to Monday, Dark: Tuesday/Wednesday (throgh 10/2) Tuesday to Saturday, Dark: Sunday/Monday (from 10/5) Two Shows Nightly - 7:00pm and 9:30pm ** SHOWS RETURN AUGUST 26, 2021!! ** 7:00pm Shows Only On: 8/26, 8/29, 8/30, 9/2, 9/5, 9/6, 9/9, 9/13, 9/16, 9/20 Additional 2021 Dark Days: o) 11/2 o) 11/30 to 12/4 Additional 2021 Performances: o) 12/27 at 7:00pm and 9:30pm o) 12/31 TBD MICHAEL JACKSON ONE: Location: Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas (USA) Performs: Thursday through Monday - Dark: Tuesday/Wednesday Two Shows Nightly - 7:00pm and 9:30pm ** SHOWS RETURN AUGUST 19, 2021!! ** JOYÀ: Location: Riviera Maya, Mexico Performs: Tuesday through Saturday, Dark: Sunday/Monday X: THE LAND OF FANTASY Location: Hangzhou, China ======================================================================= OUTREACH - UPDATES FROM CIRQUE's SOCIAL WIDGETS ======================================================================= o) CIRQUECONNECT SPECIALS Enjoy a front-row seat to awe-inspiring moments of the larger- than-life shows, with never-before seen angles that can only be experienced on your screen. - SPECIAL #47: BEST OF WHEELS {May.14} https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RkUYVDFOyE - SPECIAL #48: BEST OF TEETERBOARD {May.28} https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPEYDfIj9Kg - SPECIAL #49: BEST OF STRAPS {Jun.11} https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRYjltItPM0 o) A, B, CIRCUS! In this series, Cirque du Soleil uncovers the basics of the modern circus by taking us through its history. - Episode 1: "History of the Circus" {Jun.02} https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3uXVuXk8s4 - Episode 2: "The History of Juggling" {Jun.09} https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HlpM7zRtbY - Episode 3: "The History of Clowns" {Jul.06} https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWtFoYTs-tk o) I AM CIRQUE Get ready to experience our story through our eyes. 01: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0tRzxtt7OU {Jun.10} 02: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_rDizX5eqM {Jul.08} o) NOMADS In this four-part series, meet Andrew and Kevin Atherton as they let us in on their life-changing decisions and set off to travel across continents to join the cast and crew of JOYA, Cirque du Soleil's dinner show in Riviera Maya, Mexico. 01: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ4INQFvVCk {May.05} 02: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfmyoxXHOX4 {May.12} 03: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb0k8Bv3-bE {May.19} 04: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9FU03wkzE4 {May.26} o) OTHER VIDEOS - INTERMISSION IS OVER {Jun.23} https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPNqua1tg3E Together, we are rising up to celebrate the return to life of the performing arts. Strong, united and more conscious than ever of our mission. ======================================================================= FASCINATION! FEATURES ======================================================================= ------------------------------------------------------------ SPECIAL REPRINT: "The Show Will Go On" By: Jason Kirby, The Globe and Mail ----------------------------------------------------------- On a sunny afternoon in March 2020, a small crowd shuffled into Cirque du Soleil's sprawling tent-shaped theatre at the Disney Springs resort in Orlando for a mini-preview of its new show, Drawn to Life. Once inside, everyone's sense of perspective was immediately put to the test. A towering lamp loomed over the stage, its bulb the size of a baby elephant. Twenty-foot-tall pencils stood in a jar near an old- timey pencil sharpener that would take a team of six to operate. Dozens of bedsheet-size sketchpad pages hung overhead. This was what it must be like to be shrunk down to size and perched on an animator's table. The effect was Lilliputian. Or, since this was a Cirque-Disney co-production, Jiminy Cricketian. Drawn to Life tells the story of Julie, a young girl whose animator father has died (in keeping with Disney's tradition of doing away with parents). When she discovers some of his unfinished animations, she sets out to complete them. The audience that day was made up of reporters, theme-park-industry watchers and Disney employees, and as they took their seats—strangers sitting elbow to elbow, their faces just inches apart—a team of acrobats dressed to look like pencil sketches performed in tandem with animated drawings projected behind them. Then a muscular aerialist twirled a giant pencil dangling from a rope like he was drawing onto a sketchpad on the stage. When an old wooden desk sprang to life and galloped away, delight at the spectacle was apparent on the onlookers' unmasked faces. No one there knew it yet, but this was Cirque's last gasp in the Before Times. In less than two weeks, panicked governments would close borders, people around the world would start to don masks, and the global economy would be put into a coma to fight the spreading virus. By the day of the show's preview, the mysterious virus had already begun to leave its mark on the company. The city of Wuhan, where the disease originated, sits 800 kilometres west of Hangzhou, home to Cirque's first permanent show in China, which launched in the summer of 2019. Authorities had ordered live performances in the country shut down, while Cirque's touring shows in Hong Kong and Italy had also been put on hold. Even without everything that was about to happen, this was already a critical moment for the company. The jewel of Quebec Inc. had only just announced it was pulling the plug on R.U.N., its newest big- budget resident show in the crucial Las Vegas market, after just five months of dismal reviews. ("An ugly, inconsistent, poorly planned and sloppily executed mess that lies there like a dead body in a ditch," scathed one critic.) It wasn't the first Cirque show to get panned and end its run early, but R.U.N. was its most high-profile failure to date and the shortest lifespan of any outing in its history. For Cirque, then, Drawn to Life was a timely opportunity to reassert its bona fides as a dynamic creative force. It's a hugely ambitious production, the result of more than two years of collaboration with Disney's animation team and its Imagineering R&D division, which saw Cirque gain access to the studio's archive of pencil sketches. It features seven sprawling tracks that loop backstage carrying 250-foot- long drawings that crisscross each other to create a parallax effect— an ode to the seven-layer multiplane camera system Disney perfected to make animated scenery in movies like Snow White and Bambi more realistic. No wonder CEO and 20-year Cirque veteran Daniel Lamarre was so eager to talk up the company's long game when he stepped on stage, onto a literal blank canvas on the floor. "We are preparing an amazing show that I hope will stay here forever," he beamed. Later, after the acrobats and anthropomorphic furniture had wandered into the wings, Lamarre joined me in the front row, where he reflected on everything Cirque was up against. Yes, R.U.N. was a costly flop, he admitted. The financial hit to Cirque was around $20 million and even more to its partner, MGM Resorts International. And yes, the virus was deeply worrying. A crisis unit had been formed just the day before at Cirque's Montreal headquarters to monitor the risks to its employees and operations. Yet, Lamarre remained true to his reputation for unshakable optimism, a quality he attributed to having "a very selective memory" that stops him from dwelling on those instances when Cirque's big creative bets don't pay off. This moment in the company's nearly 40-year history is no different, he insisted. "As a robust entertainment organization, we mitigate our risk with a portfolio that is broad enough that if you have bad luck or a bad situation somewhere, you can absorb that without getting the company into trouble," he said, wearing his trademark tinted glasses. "Look, this is not good, obviously. But it's not the end of the world." Within days, however, Cirque's world would completely collapse. Over the past year, Cirque du Soleil granted Report on Business magazine access to its top leaders as they fought to keep the company alive. Along with interviews with Cirque's former owners, performers, lawyers, past executives and others, they provide a front-row seat to not only the crushing decision to cancel the company's shows worldwide and lay off 95% of its staff, including acrobats, clowns, musicians and other creative types, but also the complex logistical scramble to unwind Cirque's vast international operations. And they reveal the financial contortions Cirque had to perform to survive. It's a company with no real assets beyond its brand and its expertise at creating live extravaganzas. But carrying a staggering amount of debt, Cirque was arguably more exposed to a once-in-a- century pandemic than any other major company in the world. The crisis triggered a desperate scramble for emergency financing that saw Cirque plunged into one of the most complex bankruptcy filings in Canadian corporate history. And it set off a high-stakes, hard-knuckled battle between the powerful private equity firms that controlled the company and its creditors—a clash that ultimately left Cirque in the hands of Toronto-based Catalyst Capital, whose business model includes targeting and seizing control of distressed assets. Now, with the pandemic's end in sight, Cirque is opening the door on its plan to revive itself and bring back at least some of its performers, beginning with two of its oldest and most popular shows in Las Vegas this summer. The challenges will be many—from the unpredictability of COVID-19 variants and lingering border restrictions to more fundamental questions about how Cirque will repair its famously close-knit workplace culture and preserve the risk-taking ethos on which it was built. What Cirque is attempting is the corporate equivalent of the seemingly impossible acrobatics its performers are known for—only it's doing so after suffering a near-fatal injury. Vast fortunes, personal reputations and the livelihoods of thousands of former employees, not to mention Quebec provincial pride, now ride on Cirque sticking the landing. To understand Cirque's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year, it helps to know where the company stood going into the crisis and the circumstances that made it so vulnerable when the pandemic hit. In mid-February 2020, around the time the World Health Organization assigned COVID-19 its official name, but before Quebec had confirmed a single case, Cirque's headquarters buzzed with activity. Located in the Montreal borough of Saint-Michel, on the site of a former limestone quarry that later served as the province's largest landfill, the steel and glass structure could be home to just about any multinational corporation, save for the gigantic bronze sculpture of an old leather clown shoe near the entrance. Inside, it's the kind of place where turning a corner puts you face to face with a life-size animatronic polar bear. Young men and women in fantastical costumes dart in and out of doorways, and a multistorey atrium overflows with employees watching Cirque's resident clown, Madame Zazou, dressed in a bright red wig and a gown of red and gold felt, lead a raucous lunchtime quiz show. (Guy Laliberté, Cirque's founder, hired her years ago when he worried the place was becoming too corporate, and Madame Zazou is known for regularly crashing high-level executive meetings to poke fun at Lamarre.) I'd travelled there from Toronto as part of a story on the business of creativity. Cirque was seemingly the perfect case study. Over 36 years, it had become one of Canada's most successful exports by turning decades of North American circus tradition on its head, replacing the elephants, lions and clown cars with a fusion of daredevil acrobatics, opera, dance and whimsy. It achieved pop culture status along the way—in Madagascar 3, Alex the Lion riffs on how French Canadians, "drunk off their maple syrup and cheap pharmaceuticals," completely flipped the paradigm of traditional circuses. It has also spawned a cottage industry of business consultants who teach other companies how to replicate Cirque's innovation magic. At full strength—as it was not long before the pandemic struck—the company would put on daily performances of its 13 big-top and arena touring shows in places ranging from Miami, Punta Cana and Seville to London, Brisbane and Paris. It also hosted 10 resident shows, seven of them in Las Vegas, packing in audiences up and down the strip. By some estimates, 40% of all show tickets sold in the entertainment capital of the world in 2019 were to see Cirque. And that didn't include performances by other Cirque-owned subsidiaries, including Blue Man Group and the Illusionist magic franchise. At the end of that year, Cirque boasted annual sales of US$1.04 billion and posted earnings before income, taxes, depreciation and amortization of around US$120 million. "At their peak, they really did resemble the British Empire," says Patrick Leroux, a circus scholar and associate dean of research at Concordia University's faculty of arts and science. "The sun never set on a Cirque du Soleil show." In many ways, Cirque is a child of globalization. Starting from its roots as a troupe of stilt-walkers and fire-eaters in the 1980s, it exploded in popularity during the 1990s and 2000s as technology and trade made the world feel smaller. It wasn't just the diverse makeup of its international workforce. By design, Cirque's style and music was at once culturally non-specific and immediately identifiable. The lyrics to its songs are generally a familiar gibberish that allows for cross-cultural appeal. The modern world's free flow of ideas and people made Cirque possible. Even before countries closed and global trade routes seized up, the company's small world was growing harder to navigate. Tightening border restrictions under the Trump administration made processing as many as 7,000 visas and other permits a year more complicated. Rising diplomatic tensions with China hurt too: In December 2018, Cirque pulled out of talks to feature its performers in China's highly watched Spring Festival Gala on the same day that country seized Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig in retaliation for Canada's arrest of a Chinese telecom executive on a U.S. warrant (though the company said the two weren't related). But if the rise of nationalist populism and identity politics were making it more difficult to find a shared language that would transcend borders, those same borders would prove dangerously vulnerable to the invisible enemy of COVID-19. Cirque's pre-pandemic success was grounded in its ability to juggle the competing demands of creativity and commerce. As Lamarre put it that February in Montreal, "If I were to listen to our creators, they never have enough money, and if I were to listen to our business people, we're always spending too much." He knew all too well what could happen when both balls were dropped. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Cirque suffered a string of disappointments as the recession sapped demand for its pricey tickets and the company turned out several creative duds that left it exposed. With profits falling, Cirque laid off hundreds of executives and performers, and embarked on a plan to diversify its business, with bold talk of theme parks, cabaret shows, movies and expansion into Asia. By 2015, however, Laliberté, then 55, put Cirque up for sale, saying he wanted to spend more time with his five children but also to explore ventures in real estate, multimedia and technology. (Laliberté declined to be interviewed for this story.) Despite interest from 52 suitors, the winning bid was a consortium led by U.S. private equity firm TPG Capital, which bought a 55% stake. Shanghai-based Fosun Capital acquired 25%, and provincial pension fund manager Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec bought 10%. The group reportedly paid US$1.5 billion for the company, with Laliberté holding on to 10%. Aside from the predictable hand-wringing by Quebec nationalists over Cirque being owned by des capitalistes américains, the deal also caught attention for the financial acrobatics that enabled it. Like all leveraged buyout transactions, the TPG-led consortium paid for the takeover using debt, which it then put onto Cirque's balance sheet and let grow further over the next four years. By the end of 2019, Cirque owed US$970 million in long-term debt, and Moody's, the credit-rating agency, had warned the company's "largely debt-funded expansion strategy could be unsustainable." If trouble ever arose, Moody's added prophetically, Cirque would have little room to maneuver. Cirque's debt load didn't appear to concern its owners. As an LBO giant, TPG had already deployed US$50 billion in nearly 200 transactions over the previous two decades, including many media and entertainment investments. Right till the end, Cirque was generating nearly US$100 million a month in revenue and meeting its interest payments. Even today, those with knowledge of TPG's Cirque strategy call the focus on its debt a red herring. "Our debt was basically trading at par in advance of COVID, so the markets were saying Cirque was appropriately capitalized," says a source familiar with TPG's thinking. The initial focus for the new owners was on improving efficiency. "Cirque had an abundance of culture and cult-like commitment to the brand, and at the same time it had an abundant lack of controls, accountability and responsibility for [profits and losses]," says Mitch Garber, the Montreal businessman who joined the TPG-led purchase of Cirque as its chair (he was replaced last September). "It's hard to be critical, because it worked for Guy. He's not an org chart guy. He's not a quarter-over-quarter growth guy, and he doesn't necessarily hold people accountable for missing their numbers, which is something that's necessary when running a large organization." To that end, more rigorous corporate reporting systems were put in place, as was a more disciplined process for greenlighting new projects. As part of an efficiency drive, Cirque also quietly cut more than 50 jobs in December 2019. "We did all those things, and we were really in a great position going into 2020," says Garber. But the new ownership group also saw Cirque as a one-of-a-kind global live entertainment platform. "Cirque's capability set included recruiting unique talent around the world, dealing with a tonne of visa issues, moving performers around the world, paying people in multiple currencies, and being able to take any [intellectual property] and distribute it around the world," says the source close to TPG. "There's a long tail of mom-and-pop shows that have made it in one-off locations. Cirque could leverage its platform to distribute more shows and more show types globally." Pursuing that strategy between 2017 and 2019, Cirque bought Blue Man Group (the one with the blue-painted bald artists and musicians), the Works (a troupe of touring magicians) and VStar Entertainment (which produces touring shows based on kids' programs like Paw Patrol). In total during the TPG era, Cirque invested US$300 million in acquisitions and new shows. (Not everything was a success—in addition to R.U.N.'s failure, a 40,000-square-foot football-themed interactive attraction in Times Square, launched in partnership with the National Football League in 2017, closed after only 10 months.) "We had a multiyear plan that was just about to hit its inflection point in 2020, where we were going to experience a lot of growth, on both the top line and bottom line, because of all the shows we were set to launch by the end of the year," says the person close to TPG. "It was just horrific timing to have this kind of black swan event happen." By the time I met Lamarre again in Orlando in early March for the Drawn to Life preview, it was clear from the closure of Cirque's shows in China, Hong Kong and Italy that the virus would affect the company's plans for the year. Yet he maintained the new show at Disney Springs would open as planned for full previews two weeks later. In fact, for many of those attending the event, hope remained high that North America would be spared the worst. The optimists included me. I'd flown my family down for a side trip to Disney World, reassured by the fact the entire state of Florida had only seen a couple of cases so far. The reality of my own naiveté was driven home 10 days after we got back to Toronto, when news broke that a 34-year-old man from California had fallen ill after visiting Disney World at the same time we were there. He tested positive for COVID-19 and was put on a ventilator. He died five days later, on March 19, a day before Drawn to Life was supposed to open its doors. That never happened, of course. By then, Cirque was in freefall. When Emily McCarthy stepped onto the ice at the arena in Sheffield, England, as part of Cirque's touring show Crystal in early March 2020, it wasn't just for any regular performance. Born in nearby Leeds, McCarthy had been part of Great Britain's acrobatic gymnastics team from a young age. While competing in Florida, she was spotted by Cirque's talent scouts. At 16, she ran away to join the circus, a journey that took her to more than three dozen countries. As an aerialist in the finale of Crystal, it was her first chance to perform the act in front of her home crowd. "It was mega-exciting to have all my family, friends, schoolteachers and gym coaches come to see me," says McCarthy. It was also in Sheffield that she first started paying attention to the spreading virus. By the time the tour moved to Glasgow the following week, it was no longer a distant concern. The tour director called a full meeting to say Cirque was keeping an eye on the situation. The next day, another meeting was called, and performers were told that after the final show three days hence, everyone would be sent home. "The plan was to rekindle the show in Paris in September, and we all just thought, Wow, five months away is such a big deal," says McCarthy. Back at Cirque's head office, the response to the mounting crisis had already started to scale up. The first show to close had been Cirque's sole residency in China, X: The Land of Fantasy in Hangzhou, which shut down on Jan. 23, the same day the Chinese government imposed a dramatic lockdown of Wuhan. The move stung, given Cirque's long-stated aspiration to grow in China, but the idea that the whole world would grind to a halt was still inconceivable. On Feb. 21, Duncan Fisher, who'd joined Cirque two years earlier as vice-president of touring operations, got a message from a tour director with Blue Man Group, which was scheduled to travel to South Korea, where an outbreak had just occurred. Fisher spent the last week of February in Munich with the touring show Totem, which was set to visit Italy, Europe's hardest-hit country, the next month. There, too, questions were being asked about how to proceed. Fisher rushed back to Montreal, where he was charged with setting up Cirque's crisis task force, which began meeting daily. Their discussions still largely focused on how Cirque could keep shows running in the face of widening government restrictions and what types of safety protocols were needed for employees and audiences. "There wasn't any talk of us shutting down," says Fisher. "It was, 'How do we operate in this new reality we're seeing?'" As the situation worsened, the daily meetings grew to include more than 70 people. Despite their size, the gatherings were kept to around 45 minutes, with a strict time limit imposed on questions. "If we couldn't solve your problem in 60 seconds, we'd take it to a sidebar meeting," Fisher says. "Everybody in the company then knew exactly what was happening with every tour around the world." That was the first week of March. By the second, "everybody knew what was coming our way," says Jean-François Girard-Berberi, then Cirque's head of talent operations. "Everything was moving so fast, you had very little time to react." (He left the company this past April.) One by one, its touring shows were shut down, and by Friday, March 13, all 13 of them—accounting for an estimated 65% of Cirque's revenue—had closed, save for Crystal in the U.K., where the government was slower to implement lockdowns. For Lamarre, the halt was crushing. The only consolation, if it could be called that, was that the six remaining Cirque shows in Las Vegas were still operating, though he knew the clock was ticking. On March 14, the day after the Trump administration declared a national emergency, Lamarre sat in a chair at his hairstylist's as his phone pinged every few minutes with updates on the spreading crisis. Then came the call from MGM Resorts: All the Vegas hotels were closing, and with them the Cirque shows—O at the Bellagio, Love at the Mirage, Kà at MGM Grand, Mystère at Treasure Island, Michael Jackson One at Mandalay Bay and Zumanity at New York-New York. Lamarre excused himself and walked to his car in a daze. "I just collapsed in my car as I came to the understanding that Vegas was shutting down," he says. "It meant we had no more shows. It meant we had no more revenue." As it turned out, the 1 p.m. performance of Crystal in Glasgow that Sunday would be Cirque's last show before locking down, making McCarthy's act one of the final performances before the company's collapse. Crystal follows the subconscious journey of a young woman after she falls through a frozen pond, and as McCarthy stepped onto the ice, a narrator's voice echoed out: "It's easy to fall, harder to get back up." After she's flung through the air repeatedly, McCarthy's act culminates with her heart-stopping plunge, headfirst, toward the ice from about 20 feet in the air, where she is caught at the last moment by another performer. "I wanted it to be perfect and to take in every moment," she says. "Once that final trick ended and I got in the finale position at the end of my act, I just started crying." Cirque du Soleil is the United Nations of live entertainment. At its height, the company's 4,900 employees hailed from almost 90 different countries, and it maintained a small army of translators so they could all talk to one another. On its touring shows alone, there were 1,500 performers, artists and technicians from 50 nations. Nearly all of them would soon be out of a job. And with borders rapidly closing, they all had to get home. While many employees had heard from their local managers that shows were being put on hold indefinitely, official word came from Lamarre via a short video posted on the company's internal communications hub at noon on March 19. Cirque would be laying off 4,679 employees, he said, retaining a bare-bones staff of 259 in Montreal. "This is a temporary situation," he tried to assure them. Behind the scenes, the massive logistical dance of repatriating everyone was already underway. "All the barriers at the company dropped, and everybody wanted to work together to help employees and save the company," says Girard-Berberi. Members of the tour services team in Montreal, along with local tour managers, began frantically booking flights through Expedia for all 1,500 touring employees. With employees hailing from countries as diverse as Kazakhstan, Switzerland, Belarus, Moldova, Denmark, Taiwan, Australia, Russia, Colombia, Japan, Finland, Italy and Brazil, the flights crisscrossed the globe. All told, the bill for airfare was close to $1 million. Yet within a matter of days, the mass mobilization was complete. "From when we started shutting down, it took us 10 days to get everybody home," says Fisher. Well, almost everybody. Eight Mongolians who'd worked on various Cirque shows found themselves trapped when their country closed its borders, even to its own citizens. Ninjin Altankhuyag, a 25-year-old contortionist with the show Kooza, was one of them. From the age of seven, when Cirque came to Mongolia for a casting call, she'd wanted to join the company, and she got her chance in 2014. Kooza was in Lyons, France, when it was shut down. "Cirque found us an apartment to stay in until we could get back home," she says, "We really appreciated it." As the weeks turned to months, she mostly watched TV and cooked. "I learned a lot of new recipes," she says. Finally, in August, they were able to snag a spot on a special charter flight to Ulaanbaatar. Before employees left their tour sites that March, they'd helped tear down most of the tents and pack up the arena shows. Tents at three tour sites, in Melbourne, Houston and Montreal, were left up in the hope that shows might resume in the coming months, but eventually those too were dismantled. That left Fisher with the question of where to put them all, along with costumes, booths, sound and lighting equipment. Gear from Europe went to the warehouses of a trucking company in Amsterdam, while the rest was loaded into trucks and stored in Las Vegas or Montreal. In all, nearly 700 tractor-trailers were packed away. Many of them still sit in the parking lot beside Cirque's headquarters. "When I see them, truck after truck after truck, it just hits me in the gut," says Leroux, the professor at Concordia, who also teaches at the National Circus School across from Cirque's offices. "The first time I saw them, I thought, Oh my God, so this is what a multinational touring force looks like at a standstill. It's heartbreaking to see so much creativity, so much potential, so much investment and so many dreams just sitting there in a parking lot." In the world of theatre, it's tradition to leave a single lit lamp, known as a ghost light, onstage after everyone has left for the day. In Melbourne, after packing away the equipment for Kurios, that's what employees did, where Cirque's big top once stood at the Flemington Racecourse. The light stayed lit until this past April, when Cirque had to clear out for good. * * * The crisis facing Cirque wasn't entirely unprecedented. The 1918 Spanish flu triggered government lockdowns that forced circuses across America to end their touring seasons early. In October of that year, Charles Ringling notified the 1,200 employees of the Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows the circus was shutting down. The next day, it staged its final standalone performance. By the next spring, it had merged with Barnum & Bailey, and the combined company was back on the road at full force. At Cirque, as with the rest of the world, no one knew how long COVID- 19 would keep its grip on the global economy, but early on there was hope the crisis wouldn't last. "We went from almost US$100 million a month to zero in a week, and I think we all naively thought we'd be able to recapitalize the business and by the end of the summer or beginning of fall this thing would be over," says then chief financial officer Stéphane Lefebvre, who joined Cirque in 2016 and was recently named chief operating officer. The financial nightmare would last much longer than that. In theory, Cirque had three options. It could tap the government for a bailout. It could get its existing investors, TPG, Fosun and Caisse, to inject more cash to keep the company afloat. Or it could file for protection from its creditors. Lamarre preferred the first two options, and he turned to the Caisse for support. The pension fund had extra motivation to see Cirque survive intact. Less than two months earlier, in February 2020, in what might go down as the most perfectly timed asset sale ever, Laliberté unloaded his remaining 10% stake on the Caisse for US$75 million, thereby doubling the pension fund's exposure to the company. By early May, Cirque had secured a loan of US$50 million in "emergency funds" from its ownership group, and the Quebec government pledged up to $200 million to help Cirque get back on its feet, providing control was anchored in Quebec and the existing owners maintained control. Cirque's immediate future seemed safe. But there was a problem. Cirque had already failed to make roughly US$20 million in interest and principal payments to its creditors in March 2020. And just before doing so, Cirque's ownership group had transferred intellectual property assets, including the Cirque du Soleil trademark, to a separate holding company they controlled. If Cirque filed for bankruptcy protection, lenders might no longer have a claim on the Cirque brand—arguably its most valuable asset—in many parts of the world. And bankruptcy was looking increasingly likely. Moody's slashed Cirque's credit rating deep into junk territory and warned the pandemic shutdown had "significantly heighten[ed] the company's risk of default." When the asset shuffle eventually came to light, it put Cirque and its existing ownership group on a collision course with debtholders. "To the extent they were taking security away from the lending group and the lending group doesn't have the ability to call on that security anymore, that reduces your pool of collateral, whether or not the company is insolvent," says Joe Pasquariello, a partner and head of the corporate restructuring group at Goodmans, which represented a committee of secured creditors. Enter Catalyst Capital. Controlled by secretive Toronto financier Newton Glassman, the private equity firm specializes in acquiring distressed assets, like the secured debt of struggling companies, on the cheap. It then restructures the businesses with the goal of spinning them off at a profit. Through March and April 2020, Catalyst, led by managing director Gabriel de Alba, began quietly buying up Cirque's first-lien debt (the first in line to be paid when a borrower defaults) at around 50 cents on the dollar. With US$4.3 billion in capital commitments, Catalyst's strategy has put it at the centre of some of Canada's largest restructurings, including those of broadcaster Canwest Global, steelmaker Stelco and theatre giant Imax. But it has also been stuck with holdings it failed to unload profitably, such as Advantage Rent A Car, which filed for bankruptcy protection for the third time in May 2020, and Gateway Casinos, which saw a US$1.1-billion sale collapse last year. The firm has also pushed limits in its battles with adversaries. A recent Ontario court ruling revealed Catalyst had indirectly paid up to US$11 million to Black Cube, an Israeli private investigation outfit, which carried out a sting on a former Ontario Superior Court judge who had previously ruled against Catalyst, in an attempt to discredit him. Catalyst has said it was unaware of Black Cube's actions. (De Alba declined requests for an interview.) In the wake of the transfer of Cirque's trademark, Catalyst assembled an ad hoc group of other lenders and negotiated with Cirque to replace the $50-million loan from its owners with one from the creditors. By then, though, the struggle for Cirque du Soleil's soul had become an all-out brawl. Pierre Karl Péladeau, CEO of media giant Québecor, vowed to "rescue" Cirque with a vague pledge of "several hundred millions of dollars." Péladeau also took a shot at Lamarre and Garber, then Cirque's chair, on social media: "The accounting truth demonstrates beyond any doubt that the management of [Lamarre and Garber] has been more than deficient…Cirque and its talents must be saved." (Garber fired back on Twitter: "My life would have been so much easier with much less risk if my daddy gave me my company and a few billion dollars. Unfortunately, I had to build and learn from scratch. You'll always be the guy born at third base but convinced you hit a triple.") Even Laliberté wanted back in. "As Cirque faces the biggest challenge of its existence, we're about to see a wrestling match involving a number of players," he wrote in an open letter last May. "From my point of view, we're in for a battle royale." * * * While all this was going on, Cirque's former employees were struggling to adjust to life off the stage. The company had allowed everyone to keep their work computers and phones so they could stay connected. Yet as billions around the world were learning, lockdowns can be gruelling, especially for people accustomed to performing daring feats of athleticism in front of cheering audiences 350 times a year. For Crystal's McCarthy, her very identity came into question. "From when I was 16 until 25, Cirque was all I'd known," she says. "It's been my one and only job, and so coming off the tour, I really was unsure about who I was." Absent the pressures of the show, she lost her motivation to train. "I was rubbish. I was drinking wine every night, just watching Netflix and not knowing what to do with myself," she says. Some of the many performers back in Montreal moved in together to form bubbles around specific acts. "If you had five people who do a Korean plank act, you'd find the largest apartment you could and all move in to train together," says Concordia's Leroux. Others sought out specialized gear that was sitting unused in empty gyms. Brittany Gee- Moore, an aerialist rope performer with Messi10—a show inspired by Argentinian soccer star Lionel Messi that had been on tour in Qatar— returned to her parents' home in Burnaby, B.C., and tracked down a 24- foot-tall aerial rig that she set up in their backyard. "I'm not really sure if it was legal, but I was able to train six days a week on it, sometimes with the neighbours watching," she says. Aside from the physical and psychological challenges brought on by Cirque's collapse, there was also the financial burden. Cirque often describes itself as a family, and in many cases that's the literal truth. Workplace romances are common, so when the company shut down, many employees also had a partner who was suddenly out of work. That was the case for Caroline Lauzon, who performs in the Las Vegas show O and whose husband is a rollerblader in Love. "When we closed, I think everyone was a bit relieved they could go in their cocoon and stay safe," she says. "But after a few weeks, it dawned on us that we're not going back for a while." Lauzon was fortunate to have obtained her real estate licence a few years earlier—"I'm going to be 40 in two years, so I had to plan ahead because the body can't do Cirque forever"—so she began working in Las Vegas's surging real estate market. She knew others who weren't so lucky. The previous winter, Cirque had hired 40 more artists for O in order to perform the show seven days a week, but they hadn't worked long enough to qualify for unemployment benefits. "Some of them spent all their money moving here and had no money coming in," Lauzon says. "They were standing in lines for free food." Lauzon set up a GoFundMe campaign that raised enough to give US$1,000 each to 21 performers. While Cirque's full-time employees had all been paid in full for the work they'd done before the layoff, that wasn't the case for the many contractors and freelancers. Gabriel Dubé-Dupuis grew up around Cirque—his father played the Baby in Mystère when the show debuted in Vegas in 1993—and he joined the company 25 years ago. He was a creative director for shows being developed for cruise ships when Cirque terminated his contract. Dubé-Dupuis was still owed $70,000 and was told that as a supplier, he was at the bottom of the list of creditors. "I was shocked," he says. "If we provided basically the soul of the company over the last 35 years, how can you consider us the same way you would consider Hydro-Québec providing electricity to the building?" In May and June 2020, he organized protests in Montreal with other Cirque contractors who were owed a combined $1 million. But as the summer wore on, he didn't know when or if he would be paid. As for McCarthy, she recalls the day she woke up and realized only one person could determine how long she'd feel unmotivated. She started training again that morning. Her brother had started his own company selling calisthenics and bodyweight training equipment, so she bought a stake in the business. She also set up her own YouTube channel, which amassed 70,000 subscribers, and began offering flexibility classes on Zoom. "I feel very fortunate to have had such a good experience over this," McCarthy says, "even though it took me a little while to get there." Cirque du Soleil itself saw a bit of good news last summer. Immediately after its live shows shut down, the company launched a digital portal, CirqueConnect, and began airing weekly specials featuring acts from its shows. The videos quickly racked up more than 65 million views. Meanwhile, Cirque's corporate partners were stepping up—Sun Life, a longtime sponsor and Cirque's group insurance provider, kept its rates at the level of a company with nearly 5,000 employees, even though the insured group had shrunk dramatically. What's more, by early June China had brought the virus under control, paving the way for Cirque's show in Hangzhou to relaunch. Performances of another show, Joyà, at the Riviera Maya resort in Mexico, resumed shortly after. Reality soon came crashing back. With its emergency funding running out, Cirque buckled under the weight of its debt and the ongoing shutdown, and filed for protection from its creditors late in June 2020. At the same time, it announced a so-called stalking-horse bid (which sets a floor for other bids to follow) from existing shareholders, through a new company called Trapeze Holdings, that would see them reduce the company's debt and inject US$300 million to restart its shows. The proposal would leave Cirque's creditors holding just 45% of the equity. In an internal video to employees, Lamarre called the filing a "necessary step for Cirque's survival and a springboard for the organization's revival," but he also let them know Cirque "can no longer afford to keep our employees on temporary layoff." The layoffs were now permanent, save for about 600 workers in Las Vegas and Orlando who would be kept on to help shows in those cities eventually relaunch. The bankruptcy filing blindsided the creditor group, which had signalled interest about launching its own stalking horse bid, says Pasquariello, the lawyer representing Cirque creditors. The group of lenders quickly signalled it wouldn't support the transaction. "The lender group wasn't interested in dilly-dallying when a bid wasn't going to be serious and competitive with the lending group's own offer," says Pasquariello. Days later, the creditors put forward their own offer, through their own circusy-named holding company, Spectacle BidCo., to buy, among other assets, "the storyline, plot, themes, characters, concept developments, ideas, costumes, sets, props, choreographies, performances, makeup design, lighting concepts, sound designs, musical compositions and staging of any live entertainment program" of Cirque for US$1.2 billion, including US$375 million in new money. The deal would cut Cirque's debt by more than 30%. The creditor group also committed to keeping Cirque's headquarters in Quebec for at least five years. Other bidders had until Aug. 18 to come up with better offers, but they all had to meet one somewhat unusual demand. Embedded in the first Trapeze bid was a non-negotiable Cirque requirement that whoever ended up owning the company would establish a US$15-million fund to help terminated employees, and another fund for freelancers and contractors. "It was odd," says then CFO Lefebvre, "but when you know what the DNA of this company is, it's not a surprise that we would think about these things." In every way, the pandemic made the already complex proceedings even more strained. Lefebvre and Lamarre had to do half a dozen five-hour presentations to potential bidders virtually. Hundreds of teleconference calls were made between creditors, lawyers, existing shareholders and financial advisers, all while juggling stay-at-home orders, family demands and pandemic stress. "I think every financial and legal professional who has played in this field over a long time would say this was one of the most challenging restructuring files they'd ever seen," says Pasquariello. While a wide array of potential bidders reportedly examined Cirque's books, including Quebecor, Rogers Communications, Goldman Sachs and Feld Entertainment (which once owned Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and now operates Disney on Ice), no bid could top that of the creditors. As lenders, only they could include the face value of the company's US$1 billion in debt as part of their bid, an insurmountable hurdle for other contenders. With that, Cirque became a holding of its lenders, led by Catalyst and including Sound Point Capital and CBAM Partners of New York. It struck many as an odd fit. A company that embodies hope and joy was now controlled by one of Bay Street's most ruthless dealmakers in Glassman, who once told a reporter, "You have to be unaffected by conflict to be decent at distressed [debt investing] because it's a highly adversarial process…You are dealing with desperate people, and desperate people try desperate things." The deal received court approval and closed in November 2020. Most of Cirque's existing management team stayed in place, and Jim Murren, the former CEO of MGM Resorts International—Cirque's biggest partner in Vegas—was named co-chair with de Alba. As for TPG, Fosun and Caisse, their equity holdings were wiped out. For the Caisse, that meant not just the US$71 million it invested in 2015, but also the US$75 million it paid Laliberté only four months before the bankruptcy filing. When Caisse CEO Charles Emond was later grilled by the Quebec National Assembly's public finance committee, he defended both the February purchase, which he claimed would have given the fund more sway to address Cirque's swelling debt, and the decision to write off its stake. "The Cirque went from $100 million per month to zero, with employees to pay and suppliers to pay, in 48 hours," he said. "It was probably the first business to close. It will most likely be the last to reopen." * * * One year after Cirque du Soleil's nightmare began, in March, Lefebvre and Lamarre held a video call with employees. The message was simple, says Lefebvre: "We might not be out of the worldwide health crisis at this time, but the company is definitely out of its financial crisis created by the public health crisis." Normalcy has begun to return, slowly. In March, Dubé-Dupuis, who was among the contractors still waiting to be paid for work completed before the pandemic, got a call from his bank asking why $70,000 had just been deposited into his account. He'd reached out to Catalyst after it won control of Cirque and told the new owners of the contractors' situation, and de Alba assured him Cirque was working on it. In all, US$3.6 million was paid out to Cirque's former contractors and freelancers that month. "This is a step in the right direction," Dubé-Dupuis said the day after getting paid. "Good things can happen." Payments from the special US$15-million employee fund are also close to being issued, Cirque officials say. The fund got bogged down last fall in a dispute between Canada Revenue Agency and Cirque's new owners over the tax treatment of the payments, which would amount to US$3,000 per employee. At one point, an exasperated Quebec Superior Court judge, Louis Gouin, who oversaw the bankruptcy filing, urged the two sides to work out their differences on compassionate grounds. "This is my human side talking," he told the lawyers. "These are really exceptional times. Those acrobats can't find a job tomorrow. I very much, very much would prefer that you find a way to do this." The clearest signal that Cirque's revival is underway came this April, when it officially announced its long-awaited return plan. After Nevada's governor set a goal of reopening the state at full capacity by June 1, Cirque picked two shows to lead its relaunch—Mystère at Treasure Island in late June and O at the Bellagio on July 1. It was a symbolic choice: The two shows were Cirque's first resident performances in Vegas in the 1990s and helped rewrite the idea of the city as an entertainment destination while also catapulting Cirque to new heights as an international brand. Cirque's remaining Vegas shows, Love, Michael Jackson One and Kà, will follow this fall. (Missing from the list: Zumanity, the Cirque's R- rated venture into erotic cabaret. After 17 years, it was closed for good last November.) In Florida, the company is hoping to launch Drawn to Life sometime in the fall. Two of Cirque's touring shows also got start dates—Kooza will begin performances in the Dominican Republic in November, followed by Luzia at London's Royal Albert Hall next January. "The intermission is over," says Lamarre. Cirque's revival is a moment Diane Quinn has been preparing for. When the COVID-19 crisis began, Cirque's chief creative officer threw herself into the world of pandemic research. As her understanding grew, her questions for the experts became more specific. What effect does virus shedding have on the distance particles travel when Cirque's singers are performing live? How far apart should clowns be when speaking to each other or to audiences? What types of HVAC facilities are in place in different venues? "I don't pretend to be an expert, but I feel like I've had quite an education in COVID," says Quinn. Last December, she got an opportunity to put some of what she'd learned into practice. In Kissimmee, Fla., a small circus show Cirque had acquired was gearing up to perform over the holidays. Quinn recorded the square footage of all the rooms, traced the paths everyone would walk backstage to ensure they didn't get too close and established an isolation booth in case someone showed symptoms. It was also a chance to test the company Cirque has hired to conduct daily testing—to gain access to the theatres, employees will have to display a QR code on their smartphones proving they've tested negative. "I was filled with anxiety, wondering, How can I keep all of these artists and staff safe?" she says. The work paid off. "There were no issues, no cases, no sickness, and we provided a socially distanced show for the audience." That show had nine performers. Replicating that for a complex 90- minute spectacle like O with a cast of 85 is next. "Regardless of whether we have one show up and running or 20 shows, these are the policies and procedures everyone is going to abide by," Quinn says. Even so, relaunching just one Cirque show will be a huge undertaking. Each will require roughly two months of intense training and rehearsals, and cost between US$2 million and US$4 million to restart. The decision to proceed in Vegas is also a wager that another wave driven by COVID variants doesn't force another shutdown. So far the news is good. At the end of April, Nevada's seven-day average for new cases was 372, roughly in line with where it had been two months earlier, while 43% of adults in the county had received at least one vaccine dose. A quick scan of ticket-booking sites for O and Mystère revealed both had sold roughly half the seats to their first few performances in a matter of days. For the following weeks, however, most seats were still up for grabs. Lamarre is betting that will change as the vaccine rollout accelerates and stir-crazy Cirque fans from other parts of the country desperately flee their lockdown digs. "If you're an American and you are vaccinated, then you're going to want to travel," he says. "But guess what? There's almost nowhere in the world for them to go, so they'll probably decide to go to Vegas or Orlando." * * * Early in April, a TV crew from Mark Burnett's L.A. production company arrived in Las Vegas. Burnett, the creative mind behind Survivor and The Apprentice, had already been working with Cirque pre-pandemic to develop a reality show centred on the casting process. Now the cameras are following the on- and off-stage lives of Cirque performers as they prepare to bring its famous water show, O, back to life. "We really want to shine the spotlight on the artists, technicians and individuals throughout the company moving forward, not just for this project but for our global content slate," says Sébastien Ouimet, director of global content and strategic partnerships at Cirque. "We'll continue filming until O is back performing, and we can feel the excitement of mission accomplished." No one at Cirque is under any illusion that mounting a handful of shows means the company has reclaimed its former glory. Putting the massive machinery of Cirque's touring division back together is expected to stretch well into 2022. Cirque will eventually have to find a way to move its people and gear back into place in a world where vaccine passports and COVID flare-ups may be the norm. Tour schedules are also typically mapped out up to 18 months in advance to line up promoters, secure locations and ensure shows can move from city to city with minimal downtime. "The reboot of Cirque is not like just putting Lady Gaga back on tour. This is going to take months to years of investment," says the source familiar with TPG's original Cirque plans, now watching from the sidelines. Moody's, a more impartial observer, likewise noted in December that Cirque's relaunch will burn through much of its cash by the end of 2022, "leav[ing] Cirque du Soleil with limited flexibility to absorb any material underperformance against their business plan during the extended ramp- up phase." However, Moody's also believes Cirque "will be able to rebuild scale with limited investment by leveraging a portfolio of shows with longstanding popularity." Fisher, the man in charge of remounting Cirque's touring division, is philosophical about the challenge. "How do you eat an elephant? You do it one bite at a time," Fisher says. When the world has sufficiently reopened, touring shows will be launched gradually, likely two at once, he says. Meanwhile, Lefebvre says the US$375-million capital infusion Cirque received from its new owners means he doesn't anticipate needing to raise capital to finance the revival. One question facing Cirque is how many of its former employees will come back. "I don't think people understand how difficult it is to let go of 4,000 acrobats and then just will them back one day," says former chair Mitch Garber. In one troubling sign, En Piste, the National Circus Arts Alliance of Canada, surveyed nearly 400 circus artists late last year and found 94% were considering a career change. Cirque, however, has contacted many of its former employees and found more than 90% are eager to return. Perhaps a bigger question—after the layoffs, the bankruptcy and the ownership change—is whether Cirque can recapture the edge that once defined it. Quinn, Cirque's chief creative officer, predicts the crisis will give birth to a "creative renaissance…We've all gone through a lot of hardship over the last year, but the ideas people are already having are hopeful and joyous and full of positivity." Ultimately, though, Cirque's creative future depends entirely on the new owners, says Yasmine Khalil, Cirque's former chief executive producer, who left the company last fall. Is their goal to stabilize their investment or take on new risks? "A brand that is loved and known for innovation, creativity and joy at a time when that's what we need the most is a tremendous opportunity for Cirque to leap into new opportunities," she says. "But ultimately, if you don't continuously reinvent yourself, I think you run the risk of ending up like Polaroid, a company that was very strong in one field but failed to pivot." So far Cirque's new owners have said little about their long-term vision. In the only public comments Catalyst's de Alba has made since the takeover, he said Cirque's future lies in the digital realm. "You've seen that Disney is bringing some theatrical shows to Disney+, like Hamilton, with great success," he told The Globe and Mail last August. "I foresee that Cirque shows can also be part of these types of streaming platforms." It's a strategy Cirque had been inching toward prior to the pandemic, and its success with its CirqueConnect digital hub and ongoing projects to bring a Cirque-related animated children's show to life prove the strategy has potential. As for Lamarre, he's optimistic (as usual) about Cirque's new owners. "People fall in love with Cirque du Soleil, and that's what I'm observing again right now," he says. "We've spent a lot of time together, which is as important to me as it is to them, because I want them to understand our business inside and out." Above all, Lamarre is aching to experience a live Cirque performance once again. "I cannot wait to do what I love in life, which is go to all these shows, go backstage, and chat with our artists and be fed by their passion," he says. "For the last year I've tried to visualize Cirque's revival. Now I don't have to force myself to visualize it, because it's happening." ------------------------------------------------------------ SPECIAL REPRINT: "40 at 40: Cirque Flips Back Into Action After Pandemic" By: Jon Kaplan, Toronto NOW ----------------------------------------------------------- It wouldn't be summer without the circus – specifically Cirque du Soleil, who are back on stages after an absence of 15 months. Because of the pandemic, the internationally-acclaimed company was forced to close over 40 productions – including several resident shows in Las Vegas – and let go more than 95 per cent of its staff. They even filed for bankruptcy protection last year, selling the company to some of its creditors (Catalyst Capital Group) last November. Now, Cirque is flipping back into action, complete with a savvy marketing campaign that includes a tear-inducing video called Intermission Is Over, featuring Cirque performers finishing up their temporary jobs (in variety stores, empty offices, cafés) and going back to the big top. The company, still based in Montreal, has reopened or is about to reopen several of its resident Las Vegas shows. The family-friendly Mystère is back in action at Treasure Island, while the water-based show O is currently making a splash at the Bellagio. Michael Jackson ONE at Mandalay Bay is set to reopen August 19, and The Beatles LOVE at the Mirage on August 26. The company's show Kooza will return to Montreal's Old Port in April 2022. Here in Toronto we're not quite ready for indoor theatre yet – we're gradually getting used to outdoor performances. But with the return of Cirque on the international stage, I thought it would be fascinating to revisit NOW's cover story from July 1988, back when the company was on its first North American tour. Cool fact: Cirque began as a street theatre company called Club des Talons Hauts – or the High-Heels Club, a reference to stilt-walking. Senior theatre writer Jon Kaplan went down to see the unnamed show (the first named show would come in 1992 with Saltimbanco) at the foot of New York City before its Toronto run. The World Trade Center was just north of the venue. He talked to clowns Benny Legrand and Denis Lacombe (who adorned the cover, in a shot by photographer Algis Kemezys) and tour manager Yves Neveu. They discussed the company's humble roots in street theatre, the funding model for the company – in 1984, its first year, 97 per cent of its operating budget came from government funding, while in 1998, only 5 per cent did – and the importance of the National Circus School. One of the things that distinguished Cirque from other circus companies was the fact that it didn't use animal acts – something that made financial sense at the start. It was cheaper to tour some 85 people without also worrying about caring for and feeding lions and elephants. Clown Lacombe also said if they were ever to use animal acts the only ones of high enough quality were based in Las Vegas, and they wouldn't be able to pay them what they were making there. Little did he realize that, five stratospheric years later, Cirque would take up residency in Vegas itself with Mystère, the first of many custom built shows to come. Fittingly, it was the first Cirque show back on the strip. Below is Jon Kaplan's cover story, Cirque du Soleil's street-wise charm, republished from the July 21, 1988 issue of NOW. * * * * * BALANCING BIG TOP, THEATRICAL SPIRIT By Jon Kaplan NEW YORK CITY – The circus is coming to town. But there won't be any lions or tigers or bears, or even any sawdust. Just some of the most talented young performers in North America. The circus is the Cirque du Soleil (the Sun Circus), the amazingly successful troupe that has, in a mere four years, grown to be one of the most respected companies of its type on the continent. It opens in Toronto in its eye-catching blue-and-yellow tent on Saturday (July 23), in a parking lot right next to Lake Ontario. This is the third time that the Cirque has played in Toronto; its previous visits were in 1985 and 1986. The magic that infused those visits is still there, even after nine months of touring in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City. Hollywood has also jumped on the Cirque bandwagon; Columbia Pictures has an option to film the company. In New York the circus spread its tent at the foot of Manhattan, with the Statue of Liberty to the south and the glass towers of Wall Street and the World Trade Centre just to the north. In a city full of theatre – both onstage and off – the Cirque du Soleil charmed New York audiences of all ages with its blend of traditional big-top skills and a state-of-the-art show that integrates performance, music and design. Though its administrative and financial aspects are now large-scale, the Cirque grew out of street theatre. In 1981, Quebec performer Guy Laliberté (now the Cirque's president) helped form a group called the Club des Talons Hauts, with the intention of reviving the generally neglected tradition of street performers – clowns, acrobats, jugglers and stilt-walkers. That latter skill gave the group its name, which means the High-Heels Club. For three seasons, the performers offered a yearly festival in Baie St-Paul, a small town on the St. Lawrence River. NATIONAL TOUR The following year, 1984, was the 450th anniversary of the first voyage of Jacques Cartier to Canada. To mark the occasion, government officials gave the club starting money to create a circus – a colourful way to celebrate the Cartier anniversary. The newly named Cirque du Soleil went on to play 11 Quebec towns that first year. In 1985, the Cirque toured Quebec again and also played various Ontario cities; in 1986, the tour was a national one that took in Expo. The following year the group attended a world circus festival (and won a bronze medal). The current season is devoted to a North American tour. With the growth of the circus has come a corresponding growth in its financial base. For the 1988 season, the company anticipates a hefty budget that will surpass $10 million. But interestingly, the source of the Cirque's funds has changed significantly since it began performances in 1984. That first year, 97 per cent of the operations were subsidized by government departments. This year the circus plans for only 5 per cent government funding, with the rest of its financial resources coming from private sponsors and box-office revenues. Despite its financial growth, the Cirque has never forgotten that its mandate is to offer an evening of entertainment to its audiences. It is as fresh now as when it first played Toronto three years ago – due in large part to the spirit of the performers and the artistic team that has created the show. The Cirque is different from large circuses like Ringling Brothers in a number of ways. It works in a single ring, for instance, and relies on the skills of the performers rather than death-defying acts. The tightrope performers, Agathe Olivier and Antoine Rigot, work on a rope only about six feet off the ground. But every effort, every bead of sweat, is visible to the audience in the 1,700-seat tent. The Cirque du Soleil takes these sorts of talents and blends them with the arts of theatre. Director Franco Dragone has staged the evening; Rene Dupere has created a two-hour score which is sensitive to the various acts and their individual rhythms. Choreographer Debra Brown, who worked with the Canadian gymnastics team in the 1984 Olympics, has given the acrobats a new and dramatic focus. Add lights and costumes and the result is a circus that doesn't have to rely on animals to attract audiences. The circus hasn't forgotten its street origins. "We never get far away from the fact that the sky was our first tent," says one of the company's clowns, Benny Legrand, who has been with the circus since 1984, when he was part of a clown troupe called La Ratatouille. Now he's doing a solo act, verbal and aggressively funny, in which he often interacts with the ringmaster, Michel Barette. "The company began as unpretentious street performers who simply found a place to play when it rained. Over the past five years, we've become a success; it's like trading in a Volkswagen for an Oldsmobile. But though we now have corporate offices, the spirit of the circus is still one-on-one and human. That's what keeps the show alive for audience after audience." STREET ORIGINS The Cirque's street origins help keep that freshness. As tour manager Yves Neveu notes, most of the company have worked as street performers at some time. "We try to find the thin line between street performance and stage performance," he says. "In the first, there's the spontaneous feel of never knowing what the performing situation will be. In the second, there's the feel of being in a fixed space, where people have paid for their seats and watch the stage expecting something refined and precise to occur. We want to keep the good part of each; there's a fragile equilibrium in every show." That balance is maintained, in part, by the fact that the company members are young – the average age is 24 – and fresh. One of the eldest (at 31) is another clown, Denis Lacombe, who has been with the company for several years. He has two hilarious numbers – one as a robot clown who discovers the joys of throwing pies and another as a demented orchestra conductor who gets carried away leading a performance of the 1812 Overture. "The spirit of the circus," he says, "comes from the youth of the troupe. These people are just starting their careers; they don't have large egos about their skills. They have fun every time they go out in front of an audience; it's obvious that they love to entertain." Many of the performers, in fact, have trained at the National Circus School, which has close blood ties to the Cirque. Guy Caron, who was first a clown with the circus and later (until last year) its artistic director, founded the school in 1983. Most of the Quebec artists – who make up the majority of the company – have been at the school either as students or teachers. "The school is important for us," says Neveu, "because it trains people not only in the traditional circus arts but also in our specific style. The spirit we want in the Cirque begins in the school. It's easier to start with it at the beginning than to find good acts and teach that spirit to them." For Neveu, that spirit exists because "we work as a company, like a theatre or ballet troupe, rather than an independent circus which has simply brought a number of acts together. In that sort of circus, an act is hired to do their one number and nothing else. At the Cirque, everyone is asked to do everything. The ringmaster is also part of the teeter-board act and drives the bicycle for the 11-person tower-on- wheels number. EMPHASIZE ACTING "Artistically we're different because we emphasize theatre and acting; those sorts of things complete the performance for us. We think that learning to dance or act is part of circus training; the school has the same philosophy. While traditional circus work encourages strong technicians, we do that as well as making the audience feel something during a performance; we're closer to theatre than to traditional circus." Lacombe was one of those who attended the circus school. "I never thought of myself as a clown, because I didn't think of the typical circus clown as being funny. Now I've realized that a clown is someone who can make people of any age and any culture laugh, without saying a word. It's a truly international discipline." Lacombe attributes the success of the Cirque to the technically strong performers as well as the charisma of each company member. "Technique alone isn't enough," he says. "What we're doing is show biz – you reveal yourself, not just your act." Because the Cirque relies so much on its performers' skills and personalities, animals have never been a part of the show. For logistical and financial reasons, of course, it's cheaper to tour the 85-member company without having to worry about the care and feeding of lions, horses and elephants. Lacombe also thinks that the company sets the standards for any animal acts that might be considered for the Cirque. "There are only three such acts good enough to work with us, and they're all playing in Las Vegas. We couldn't pay them what they're making there." But the show is magical enough as it is. That magic is evident from the very beginning, when a group of ordinary people is transformed into performers for the night. An old uncle becomes the ringmaster; others become the tightrope walkers, jugglers, acrobats and trapeze artists. Giving the show firm support is Dupere's music, which is performed by five musicians and relies heavily on synthesizers. It ranges from classical to new-age, jazz to rock. Dupere composed a special piece for each act, working with each artist so that physical and musical beats and breaks would coincide. In each act the audience can see not only the sweat but also the concentration of the entertainers, from the youngest six-year-old to those in their 30s. At the show's finale, when all the performers appear in their colourful outfits, there is nothing artificial about the smiles of pleasure on their faces. And the audience responds in kind – the company is greeted by spontaneous cheers. { SOURCE: Now Magazine, Toronto } ======================================================================= COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER ======================================================================= Fascination! Newsletter Volume 21, Number 5 (Issue #208) – Jun/Jul 2021 "Fascination! Newsletter" is a concept by Ricky Russo. Copyright (C) 2001-2021 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., All Rights Reserved. No copyright infringement intended. { Jul.08.2021 } =======================================================================