Like gas station attendants, Pullman porters and Saturday-morning double features, the three-ring circus is history.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey comes to Denver next week a changed show. With 136 years of tradition now a memory, the same train tracks that carted a menagerie of animals and clowns through the 20th century are carrying a revamped circus across America.
Money, modernity and demographic research all played a part, but it was old-fashioned competition from Cirque du Soleil’s rocket to popularity and profit that forced Ringling Brothers into major modifications.
“It’s got a whole new look,” said Ringling Bros. spokeswoman Donna Larkin. “These are the greatest changes Ringling Brothers has made in the past 50 years.
“It really appeals now to the younger, iPod generation.”
This year, Ringling Bros. got rid of its rings, added a 24-foot circular video screen, hired a former “American Idol” finalist and mined Hollywood for directors, writers, and costume and set designers to create what they hope is a 21st-century show.
This certainly isn’t your great-great-great-grandmother’s circus. And for that, you can thank another circus founded in Quebec in 1984.
Since Cirque du Soleil came on the scene, it has became a cultural phenomenon with multiple traveling versions around the world and it presents some of the most successful shows in Las Vegas. The acrobatic ballet grew into what is estimated to be a $500 million annual empire. As a private company, Ringling Bros. does not release its annual revenues.
Cirque du Soleil’s scope and profit became too much for Ringling Bros. to ignore. It had a story line, with characters – an opera to Ringling Bros.’ petting zoo. So the circus borrowed ideas from the Cirque.
“They have different audiences,” Larkin said of the competition between Ringling Bros. and Cirque du Soleil. “We have a 136-year tradition that is family entertainment. But the delicate balance is to try to resonate with a younger generation while keeping enough around that would appeal to older audiences.”
For years, especially before the advent of television, the traveling circus brought the danger and mystery of the outside world to small towns across America. The fire-breather, the sword-swallower, the bearded lady, the lion-tamer – they were all part of a swirling spectacle, an extraordinary theater event that made life outside the circus tent seem more safe and secure.
But times changed. Entertainment became easy to find and the world grew smaller. So show producer Nicole Feld and crew polled moms across the country, asking them what they and their kids would like to see at the circus. Those moms said they wanted less craziness and more focus.
“They said their lives were almost three-ring circuses themselves,” Larkin said. “And they didn’t want to (pay to) see another one.”
For this tour, which opens Wednesday at the Denver Coliseum, Ringling Bros. created a story line about a family plucked from the audience and whisked away into the circus – albeit a contained circus with video projection and a plot.
And where Ringling Bros. once borrowed from Broadway, it now finds inspiration in Hollywood. Jennifer Fuentes, a former “American Idol” finalist, is the star of the show. Writer Bradley Zweig, a Nickelodeon and Disney Channel vet, and Colleen Atwood, an Academy Award-winning costume designer on “Memories of a Geisha,” work behind the scenes.
The circus is now more blockbuster than spectacle.
“It is an American tradition,” Larkin said, “but it’s a brand new show.”
Staff writer Nick Groke can be reached at 303-954-1015 or ngroke@denverpost.com.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey
CIRCUS|Denver Coliseum, 4600 Humboldt St.|WEDNESDAY THROUGH OCT. 15|7:30 p.m. daily, plus 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays |$15-$77|720-865-4220, denvercoliseum.com
