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Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey:
THE CIRCUS HITS
TOWN: DAREDEVILS, SEX APPEAL, ELEPHANTS, LIONS JUMPING THROUGH HOOPS AND A
LOOP THE LOOP!
by ELLIS
NASSOUR
The 134th all new edition of Ringling
Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, at Madison Square Garden through
Easter Sunday, April 11, is not your mother's circus. Oh, sure, The
Greatest Show On Earth, the big daddy of them all, is still a family
tradition. It's just that the families are a lot different now and so
today's circus is anything but routine. There's beauty, brawn, beasts and
more than a bit of zany insanity.
"Tempting fate daily isn't merely
a tag line," says RBBB producer Kenneth Feld, "it's a mandate. Each
performer -- they're from every corner of the globe -- goes one step
beyond in putting themselves on the line. The tried-and-true circus magic
is present but, right before your eyes, we sweep you to places you'e never
before imagined. You might define it as an extreme makeover! We've taken
the 'circus' and turned it on its head."
"All new edition!" ...
"All new edition!" ... "All new edition!" the circus is always shouting,
but there's never really anything all new. This is especially
true if you attend year in and year out. However, this edition can boast
some innovative firsts and twists on the tried and true. It's no secret
that circus hyperbole is never short on overexaggertion, but you actually
can take Mr. Feld literally about turning things on their head this
season. In the Act One "It's An Upside Down World" finale, a duo actually
walk on their "ceiling"!
In the last six years, Ringling had a very
distinctive Broadway look thanks to director/ choreographer Philip Wm.
McKinley, who gave up the circus to helm The Boy from Oz, and
veteran Broadway choreographer/director Tony Stevens [formerly one of
Chita's boys and assistant to Bob Fosse on 1975's Chicago]. The
costumes became more elegant than glitzy and the showgirls actually did
danced to some sophisticated as opposed to kick step, one-two-three, kick
step.
In the "All new!" category, German-born Sylvia Hase [who
lives in Los Angeles with husband, film composer Rich Greenberg] is now
director, the first female in RBBB history. She says, "I have enormous
respect for anyone who has the courage to be a circus perfomer. It's quite
an interesting and complex life. Here they are living day to day with
their families either in the act or only a stone's throw away and, come
showtime, they're out in the arena tempting fate. So while I have a deep
respect for the 'big picture,' it was the individual performer I wanted to
focus on."
[Bart Doerfler, a dancer in L.A.'s Reprise!
productions of The Boys from Syracuse and Mack and
Mabel, is choreographer. There are a couple more theatrical
connections, particularly the costume design of Tony Award-winning Ann
Hould-Ward (Beauty and the Beast; the '87 and '97 Into the
Woods; and, among many others, Dream). The writer is
award-winning Alabama native Keith Glover whose plays and musicals have
been produced Off Broadway and regionally.]
Hase directed German
productions of Cabaret and the opera Tales of Hoffman,
but her background is rooted in theme park shows, ice extraganzas and
industrials; but she comes from a dance background, having trained at the
Stuttgart Ballet. "That has helped me immensely," she notes, "because I'm
used to thinking with my body, seeing formations, imagining how performers
go from point A to point B to point C and arriving there on
cue."
Yes, the circus is different from everything she's done,
"but," she explains, "it's still a show, and everyone involved has that
same passion to entertain the audience."
She envisions Ringling
Bros. "as a circus of extremes, a show without boundaries. That's
reflected in every aspect of the production, from the dramatic transitions
of the thrill aspects to the show's musical score [which ranges from
country to hip-hop and hard rock to gospel]. Each act is an original with
its own energy. Rather than trying to fuse them, I kept their unique
character in tact."
Along with, it should be pointed out, the
eye-popping, colorful costumes and spectacle.
Two incredible
circus daredevil legends return to headline. Sylvia Zerbini, a stunning
blonde and the most elegant artist RBBB has presented is no stranger to
circuses since her family goes back nine generations. She alone is worth
the price of admission as she floats, astonishingly and seemingly
effortlessly, 40 feet above the arena on her trapeze (without a net or
safety wire). When she descends to the tarmac, she alluringly becomes a
"horse whisperer," presenting a breathtaking equine ballet with Arabian
and Andalusian horses. This is the closest thing to a real theatrical
staging the circus has ever seen -- well, let's say that Ringling Bros.
has seen.
Then, there's the man who put the D in daredevil, Crazy
Wilson [Dominguez], a fourth-generation Venezuelan circus performer, whose
philosophy is "You need to make something nobody ever made before. You
just create it and do it!" So he's doing it on a quarter-inch high wire
where he jumps on a trampoline to sail over his two partners; and doing
some truly heart-stopping moments running and leaping atop the gyroscopic
"Pendulum of Pandemonium," otherwise known as the "Wheel of Wonder." In
another bit of inspired insanity, Wilson joins his brothers in some
heart-stopping, gravity defying motorcycle mania in the "Globe of Death."
They also somehow entice Wilson's wife Margarita into the center of the
steel sphere and criss-cross all around her. Call her Crazy Mrs. Wilson!
You do hope they all wear ear-plugs.
It's hard to take your eyes
off this act, which has been presented bi-annually in RBBB for several
years, but there are a couple of twists this time. How these cyclists do
what they do without mid-air collisions is beyond belief. Opening night,
they lived up to the season's tempting fate theme. There was quite a pile
up inside the globe. If the accident happened even seconds later than it
did, it would have been a disaster. As it was, it was pretty bad. But,
after taking a few minutes to swab away at a gasoline spill, they got back
into the groove.
If you want to be a witty wordsmith, you could
say Jason Peters provides the "mane event," commanding Chico, Sasha,
Tarzan, Kenya and the rest of the largest pride of circus lions in the
world. This marks the first time in over 20 years RBBB has had Kings of
the Jungle [the best part was watching the set-up and Peters going from
cage to cage and hand feeding his hirsute all-male stars].
Buffeted against these daredevils are some 98 other performers:
pole swayers, high-flying trapeze artists, and the dazzling, youthful
China Acrobatic Troupe.
Then there's Troy Metzer's three rings of
elephants [he was eight when he laid eyes on his first baby elephant, and
was totally smitten -- now, he not only displays them as part of the act,
but works with Ringling's elephant breeding program]. Though Metzler
joined RBBB in 1988, after several years as a cosmetologist!, his
transformation from hair stylist to animal presenter is one of Ringling
more unusual stories.
Back home in Akron, Metzler's mom would
invite performers from a traveling circus to visit her hair salon. In
exchange, she asked them to let her son visit the animals. "As soon as I
hit the fairway, I fell in love with the circus and the animals," Metzler
recalls. "The taste of it, the smell of it, the atmosphere."
His
mother struck a friendship with Lou-Ann Jacobs, daughter of legendary
master Ringling clown Lou Jacobs [1925 to 1985] and when the Ringling came
to town, the Jacobs would stay at the Metzler's. "We'd go to the show
every day and Mom would do some of the performers' hair and even some of
the animals," laughs Metzler. "I even got to watch close-up from the
sidelines as Gunther Gebel-Williams performed. Every time the show left
town I'd feel sick, like a part of me was leaving."
When Meltzer
turned 16, he received his cosmetology license and left Akron for New
Orleans' French Quarter. But all that changed when a circus rolled in and
some friends asked him to help care for the animals. "I never went
back!"
Before joining RBBB, Metzler spent six years as assistant
manager of Cambridge, Ontario's African Lion Safari's elephant
department
There is only one huge embarrassment in this year’s
show: the barnyard animal act at the top of the show. Given that even
trained cows, hogs and goats don't have the capabilities of doing much,
why put them in an extravaganza like RBBB? This act would work best in a
petting zoo situation, certainly not center ring.
There's another
female first in this edition of RBBB: Danette Sheppard, a soul diva with
quite a belt is the show vocalist -- billed as the "Siren of the Circus."
She has quite a moment in a very strange Kiss of the Bat Woman production
number. There's sex appeal for the gals in the form of handsome tenor
ringmaster Kevin Venardos, who was named one of People 's
"Hottest Bachelors of 2003." No, no, no, certainly no insult intended, but
seeing his lanky self in the ring, I couldn't help but wonder about that
competition. I mean, he's attractive, but...
Unfortunately, the
music blares more often than not and, given the horrendous accoustics of
the MSqG, it's all mumbo-jumbo. Occasionally, you might glimmer a lyric or
two from the singers.
In the "old reliable" department,
international award-winning "Prince of Laughter" David Larible is back.
He's always good for a funny line, such as this one: "I'm a sort of
death-defying daredevil, too, because you can die doing comedy if you're
not funny!" And sometimes, in the vastness of an arena such as Madison
Square Garden, his routines, which are perfect for an intimate, one-ring
show, have died. But this season, though he's on much too long, there are
some delightful and a couple of very funny bits in his physical comedy,
interactive musical moments with audience members and a brand new comedy
magic act.
Published on BroadwayStars.com on Thursday, March 18,
2004
[Link
to this Feature]
Ellis Nassour is an international media journalist,
and author of Honky Tonk Angel: The Intimate Story of Patsy Cline, which
he has adapted into a musical for the stage. Visit http://www.patsyclinehta.com/.
For a listing of
all features written by Ellis, click
here.
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2004-05
Broadway Season
(Announced Openings)
May 25 - Sight Unseen (Biltmore)
Jul 22 - The Frogs (LCT)
Jul 29 - After The Fall (American
Airlines)
Aug 19 - Dracula (Belasco) [Wildhorn,
Dodger]
Oct 14 - Reckless [2nd Stage, MTC]
Oct 17 - Laugh Whore [Showtime, Burkhart]
(Cort)
Oct 21 - Brooklyn [Producers Four, McDaniel, Calhoun]
(Plymouth)
Oct 28 - Twelve Angry Men (American Airlines)
[Roundabout]
Nov 14 - 'Night Mother (Royale) [Fox,
Harbor]
Nov 17 - Whoopi (Lyceum) [Nichols, Leonardis, Liftig,
Soloway, Levy]
Nov 18 - Democracy [Boyett, Ostar, Nederlander]
(Brooks Atkinson)
Nov 21 - Dame Edna: Back with a Vengeance (Music
Box)
Dec 2 - Pacific Overtures (Studio 54)
[Roundabout]
Dec 5 - 700 Sundays (Broadhurst) [Crystal,
Magid]
Dec 6 - Gem of the Ocean (Kerr)
Dec 9 - La Cage aux Folles [Clear Channel,
Nederlanders] (Marquis)
Dec 16 - The
Rivals (Beaumont) [Lincoln Center]
Jan 23 - Little Women (Virginia) [Wreghitt, Davis,
Gentry]
Jan 27 - Good
Vibrations [Keneally, Murphy, Lightstone, Watt, Dodger]
(O'Neill)
Feb 3 - Brooklyn
Boy (Biltmore) [MTC]
Feb - Hitchcock Blonde
Feb - Glass Menagerie
Mar 3 - Dirty Rotten Scoundrels [MGM/UA, Bell,
Brown] (Imperial)
Mar 10 - Monty
Python's Spamalot (Shubert)
Mar 23 - Jackie Mason: Freshly Squeezed
(Hayes)
Mar 24 - All
Shook Up [Pollard, Clear Channel, Miramax] (Palace)
Mar
30 - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
[McCann]
Mar - Julius
Caesar (Belasco)
Mar - Bridge
and Tunnel
Apr 4 - Steel
Magnolias [Goodman, Gabay]
Apr 7 - On Golden Pond (Cort)
Apr 18 - A Light In The Piazza (Beaumont) [Lincoln
Center]
Apr 21 - Sweet
Charity [Namco, Clear Channel]
Apr 24 - A Streetcar Named Desire (54)
[Roundabout]
Apr 28 - Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang (Ford)
May 1 - Glengarry Glen Ross (Royale) [Richards,
Frankel]
May 19 - After
The Night And The Music (Biltmore)
Talked About
Not Scheduled Yet
TBA - American
Buffalo
TBA - An
American Vaudeville [Farrell, Perloff]
TBA - Barefoot in the Park
TBA - The Beard of Avon [NYTW]
TBA - Being There [Permut]
TBA - Benny & Joon [MGM]
TBA - Breath of Life [Fox]
TBA - Broomhilda
TBA - Bye Bye Birdie [Niko]
TBA - Camille Claudel [Wildhorn]
TBA - Camelot
TBA - The
Coast of Utopia (Beaumont)
TBA - The
Color Purple
TBA - Cry Baby
[Grazer, Gordon, McAllister, Epstein]
TBA - Don Juan DeMarco [New Line]
TBA - Dreamgirls [Creative Battery]
TBA -
Duet
TBA - Fallen
Angels (Shubert) [Kenwright]
TBA - Fool For Love (AA) [Roundabout]
TBA -
Gem of the Ocean [Sageworks]
TBA - If I'd Saved, I Wouldn't Be Here: Martin
Short On Broadway
TBA - Harmony
[Guiles, Karslake, Smith, Fishman]
TBA - Jerry Springer: The Opera!
TBA - Jesus Hopped The 'A' Train
(Circle)
TBA - Josephine [Waissman]
TBA - Legally Blonde [MGM/UA, Luftig, Fox,
Berinstein]
TBA - Lennon
(Broadhurst) [Lansbury, Scardino and McKeown]
TBA - The Little Mermaid (2007)
[Disney]
TBA - A Little
Princess [Dodger]
TBA - Lone
Star Love [Falstaff]
TBA - The
Mambo Kings
TBA - Mary
Poppins (2005) [Disney, CMI]
TBA - Midnight Cowboy [MGM]
TBA - Moonstruck [Pittelman, Azenberg]
TBA
- Mourning Becomes Electra [Haber,
Boyett]
TBA - Monsoon
Wedding
TBA - The
Night of the Hunter
TBA - The Odd
Couple
TBA - The
Opposite of Sex [Namco]
TBA - Paper
Doll
TBA - The
Pajama Game
TBA - The
Paris Letter
TBA - The
Philadelphia Story
TBA - Peter
Pan
TBA - The
Pillowman [Boyett, Fox, Shubert, NT]
TBA - Rain Man [MGM]
TBA - Robin Hood
TBA - Speed-the-Plow
TBA - Syncopation
TBA - Tarzan (2006) [Disney]
TBA - Three Penny Opera
TBA - Torch Song Trilogy
TBA - The Vampire Lestat [Warner]
TBA - The Wedding Singer [New Line,
Lion]
TBA - West
Side Story
TBA - The Wall
[Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Mottola, Waters]
TBA - The Wiz [Dodger]
TBA - The Woman In White (RUG)
TBA - Young Frankenstein
[Brooks]
This list is compiled from various
sources. If you have corrections to the Broadway Season,
please contact
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