MONTREAL – Cirque du Soleil announced the launch of a new division called Cirque du Soleil Theatrical this week.
It will be headed by Scott Zeiger, a co-founding partner of Base Entertainment and a former executive at Clear Channel.
Zeiger’s job will be to develop new theatrical opportunities for Cirque du Soleil and to create content intended for Broadway, Las Vegas, London’s West End and other major theatre destinations around the world.
At the moment, Cirque shows play under the big top, or in arenas or specially designed permanent mega-theatres, mainly in Las Vegas.
When Cirque du Soleil CEO Daniel Lamarre spoke to The Gazette on Tuesday evening at the opening of Robert Lepage’s Jeux de cartes, Pique at Tohu, he said Zeiger was someone Cirque du Soleil knew well. The company has collaborated with him before on its New York projects.
“Scott has a lot of experience on Broadway,” Lamarre said. “He has produced a lot of Broadway shows.”
Zeiger has been hired to help Cirque du Soleil produce a type of show that Lamarre frankly admits his company doesn’t know well. (There’s no better proof of this than the fact that the Cirque’s Banana Shpeel crash-landed on Broadway in 2010.)
But Cirque Éloize, which recently affiliated itself with Cirque du Soleil, has always specialized in producing circus shows of a more intimate nature for theatres. And another Montreal-based circus company, Les 7 doigts de la main, also works the theatre market.
Won’t the Cirque be cutting into Éloize’s turf? Not at all, according to Lamarre. “We’re quite involved with Cirque Éloize,” he said.
This deal should help them attain a new level, he added.
“Jeannot Painchaud (artistic director of Cirque Éloize) has already started to work with Scott to develop new content for theatres,” Lamarre said.
Cirque Éloize has been very successful internationally. “But I think there is a huge market for them in North America, particularly in the U.S.,” he continued. “They needed someone who knew the theatre business in the U.S. for that.”
That’s one element of the Zeiger hire. “The other element is that we want to use our production house here in Montreal to develop our own Broadway shows. Or for the West End,” Lamarre said.
Just for Laughs also recently created a theatrical division, headed by Adam Blanshay, in New York, which is where Zeiger will also be based.
But Lamarre said Cirque du Soleil wasn’t taking its cue from the comedy festival, but rather from Zeiger.
In Las Vegas, his Base Entertainment was behind the truncated Phantom of the Opera, which ran for six years at the Venetian resort, and Jersey Boys at the Paris resort. He sees a bright future for Broadway.
Although Variety reports that overall Broadway attendance dropped from 12.16 million in 2012 to 11.58 million last year, a handful of shows, like The Lion King and Wicked, remained highly profitable. And London’s West End has been boasting record-breaking box office figures.
The launch of Cirque du Soleil Theatrical does not mean the Cirque is throwing in the towel on its movie division after its inaugural 3D film, Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away, co-produced by James Cameron, failed to live up to financial expectations. “That’s a different business,” Lamarre said.
What the launch of Cirque du Soleil Theatrical means, along with the company’s 2012 partnership with Bell Media to create content for television, film and other platforms, “is that we want to work with partners in the future,” he said. “Because we are able to manage our business within the traditional Cirque du Soleil type of shows, but we’d like to work with partners in segments (of the market) that we don’t know that well. That’s the idea.”
It’s not that they’re taking on the Disney empire, he said. “We’re a small, small potato compared to that big empire. We don’t see ourselves like an empire.”
When will Cirque du Soleil Theatrical launch its first project? “We have a lot of ideas,” Lamarre said. “So the next step for us is to establish which one we want to do first.”
Cirque du Soleil isn’t planning to throw millions into theatrical productions just yet. Au contraire — this could actually represent a step toward relative frugality.
The company usually bankrolls its own shows 100 per cent, except for Las Vegas, where resorts normally throw in 50 per cent of the financing. “On Broadway the business model is very different,” Lamarre said. “You bring in a pool of investors that get involved.”
Everyone shares the risk.
What if Just for Laughs boss Gilbert Rozon wanted to dive into the pool, with Just for Laughs Theatricals, for a Cirque du Soleil Theatrical show?
“Why not?” Lamarre replied with a smile. “He’d be more than welcome.”
{ SOURCE: Montreal Gazette | http://goo.gl/tQYcT3 }
