Page 59 - ATA 13 NOV 2015

PEOPLE & ARTS A29
Friday 13 November 2015

Cirque du Soleil turns its attention to cracking New York

MARK KENNEDY good lately in pushing the Award winner currently on- Shpeel” and sensed quick- “The genre of circus is tradi-
AP Drama Writer boundaries of creativity stage in the play “Sylvia,” ly that it wasn’t a great tionally not one of storytell-
NEW YORK (AP) — After and also of technology.” was in the cast of “Banana match for the city. ing. It’s more abstract.q
years of treating New York “Paramour” at the Lyric
somewhat warily, like a Theatre marks the first time
dangerous high-wire act, Cirque has gone directly
Cirque du Soleil is ready to after the Broadway mar-
flip over the Big Apple. ket, with show creators
The Montreal-based cir- hoping to give the produc-
cus company is planning tion more story than tradi-
for two traveling shows to tional Cirque offerings.
land in the city next fall, Cirque du Soleil hasn’t al-

This image released by The Publicity Office shows a scene

from the Cirque du Soleil show, “Kurious.” The Montreal-based

hyperactive circus company plans for two traveling shows,

“Kurios” and “Toruk,” to land in New York City next fall, as well

as “Paramour” this spring specially designed for a Broadway

theater. (Martin Girard/The Publicity Office via AP)

as well as a new one this ways had roaring success
in the city. The female-
spring, “Paramour,” which centric “Amaluna” — the
Diane Palus-led melding of
Cirque has specifically Shakespeare’s “The Tem-
pest” with jaw-dropping
designed for a Broadway circus tricks — was well-
attended in 2014 at Citi
theater. Field. But “Banana Shpeel”
— a disappointingly spot-
“For us, New York is an ty program of acrobat-
ics, juggling, dance and
underdeveloped market mostly tiresome slapstick
— flopped at the Beacon
and it’s surprising because Theatre in 2010.
Annaleigh Ashford, a Tony
it’s still the world capital

ofentertainment,” said

Daniel Lamarre, president

and chief executive offi-

cer of Cirque.

“We are a strong player

worldwide with a world-

wide brand and we have

spent a lot of time devel-

oping the Las Vegas mar-

ket and not enough focus

on developing the New

York market,” he said.

Lamarre promised three

completely different

shows: In addition to “Par-

amour,” there will be the

eccentric and dreamy big

top show “Kurios” and the

new arena show “Toruk,”

inspired by James Cam-

eron’s movie “Avatar,”

which he described as “a

live, multimedia specta-

cle.”

“Our challenge is always

to be on the edge and al-

ways come with distinctive

types of shows that will al-

ways surprise our fans,” he

said. “I think we’ve been