Welcome to the latest edition of Fascination, the Unofficial Cirque du Soleil Newsletter.
Greetings!
It’s been a little while since we last spoke – I apologize – but in that time there has been a number of developments at Cirque du Soleil: the closings of shows, the announcements of new shows, some layoffs, and new musical albums for fans to enjoy.
However, we sadly must announce the passing of Dominique Lemieux, Costume Designer for many of Cirque du Soleil’s iconic productions. The announcement of her passing was made on November 27, 2024. On many of Cirque du Soleil’s social media accounts, the following wasposted: ” Dominique Lemieux was a visionary artist whose creativity knew no bounds. Today, we celebrate her extraordinary legacy as the costume designer for Nouvelle Expérience (1990), Saltimbanco (1992), Mystère (1993), Alegría (1994), Quidam (1996), “O”, La Nouba (1998), Corteo (2005), ZAIA (2008), Banana Shpeel (2009), Sep7imo Dia–No Descansaré (2017), and her enchanting reimagining of Alegría (2019).”
She was 67 years old.
Probably one of the biggest things to come out of Cirque du Soleil since we last spoke was the quiet closure of SongBlazers, the company’s “Journey into Country Music” on November 5th. While no official reason has yet to be provided (Cirque itself only posted “Our journey has come to an end” on the SongBlazer’s webpage before taking it completely offline shortly thereafter), one article I saw online said the closure was due to “logistical reasons.” Ultimately, what it came down to was ticket sales. They just weren’t as robust as either Cirque itself or Universal Music (their partners in this endeavor) would have liked.
Keen-eyed fans also noticed that Messi10 was also quietly pulled from Cirque du Soleil’s website without any fanfare. It’s last performance, apparently, was August 11th in Lima, Peru.
On November 22nd, a memo was distributed to all employees of Cirque du Soleil outlining “a number of initiatives” that would consolidate Cirque’s achievements over the last three years, and “solidify” their foundations. It, of course, meant saying goodbye to some of the employees there…
At the beginning of 2025, the Blue Man Group show in New York (which has been running for 34 years) and the Blue Man Group show in Chicago (which has been running for 27 years) will close. The memo suggests demand for tickets for these two shows has softened to a point they’re no longer profitable. At IHQ and offices in Las Vegas, a number of positions were eliminated or consolidated. And in Las Vegas itself, Cirque announced the closure of the fabrication and costume workshops that were launched there following the pandemic in order to help get the Vegas shows up and running again. These workshops were also used to launch “Mad Apple” last year, and have been used to help launch “‘Auana” and other VSTAR shows. According to Cirque, these workshops are no longer needed, and the positions can revert back to their individual shows. Meaning: things go back to the way they were pre-pandemic. However, we’ve heard that “‘Auana” has gone way over budget, so these cuts track.
And, on November 25th, the cast of BAZZAR was told that their final performance would be sometime in January 2025, as apparently ticket sales for the show are very soft in Gran Canaria.
Naturally fans began to do a little soul searching with regards to these sudden closures, asking if anyone felt that Cirque was a bit aimless – a whirlwind of shows, one fan put it – that nothing the company produced (recently) had any longevity, and why that might be so.
Any answer is going to be a complicated one, because there is no single right answer – it’s a combination of a lot of factors: from over-expanding its show count to launching shows in markets based on poor market studies, to needing more return on investment for its partners (first Nakheel, then TPG/Fosun/Caisse, and now Catalyst Capital/Shenkman Capital/Providence Equity’s Benefit Street Partners/CBAM), and, of course, other factors outside of Cirque’s control. (Cirque was stretched financially well before Covid, so while Covid was quite a disruptive force, sending the company into bankruptcy, it was teetering well before then.)
Ramping up production of shows and launching them during the global recession of 2008/2009 did not help. When Cirque focused on launching 3 or more shows a year, the harder it became to make each show unique acrobatically, and strong thematically. Cirque went from having one team come together to create a brand-new spectacle every couple of years, to multiple creative teams churning out several shows at the same time. Time, budget, talent, oversight, creativity, and energy had to be shared across several concepts rather than nurturing just one. When you stretch yourself like that it’s just untenable, regardless of the number of creatives you might employ – someone’s got to wrangle the kittens.
To me, though, the moment the company became more “entertainment” than “circus arts” is when things turned. When it became more about putting as many concepts into as many performance spaces as they could, that’s when it became less mysterious avant-garde circus and strictly entertainment for entertainment’s sake. And Cirque lost a bit of its soul in doing that. This isn’t a knock on any creative or artist or tradespeople who have given their all to see these productions to fruition… it’s just I feel the company was so preoccupied with whether or not they COULD do a thing, they didn’t stop to think whether they SHOULD do that thing.
Songblazers comes to mind, Bazzar comes to mind, R.U.N., Zarkana, Viva Elvis, Axel, BELIEVE, and of course, Banana Shpeel.
But if there’s one take-away here it’s this: despite the “failures”, Cirque du Soleil should never stop innovating and never stop experimenting, for that’s how Cirque du Soleil came to be in the first place. My advice would be to ask whether it makes artistic sense for Cirque du Soleil as a brand to do a thing; to proceed not because you can, but because you should. Not everything needs to be “though the lens of Cirque du Soleil” just because the money is right. Yes, Cirque du Soleil needs to be profitable, and I understand that’s a fine line to walk when you’re in need of profits and/or being pressured to financially perform. But there has to be some kind of brand integrity, does there not? Otherwise, you lose what made you THE Cirque du Soleil in the first place.
Cirque du Soleil may have quietly closed SONGBLAZERS and MESSI10, and semi-announced the early closure of BAZZAR now in Gran Canaria, it also announced two new shows for 2025!
On Saturday, November 16th, Vidanta World announced LUDÕ – a spectacular water-themed dinner show, blending gourmet dining, world-class artistry, and innovative scenography, housed in a custom-built theater at the heart of VidantaWorld Nuevo Vallarta’s BON Beauty of Nature Luxury Theme Park. LUDÕ uses water as both inspiration and performance medium, with artists creating breathtaking underwater imagery that mirrors the gravity-defying feats on stage.
The name LUDÕ originates from Latin, meaning “I play,” capturing the playful essence of both the narrative and the immersive experience. The diacritic ‘Õ’ mirrors the boundless, flowing nature of water, symbolizing the emotional and physical currents that carry the story. This show embodies the fluidity and freedom found in dreams—where time slows, gravity fades, and possibilities become limitless. LUDÕ will debut in November 2025 in Nuevo Nayarit-Vallarta, Mexico and runs for 75 minutes without an intermission. Learn more about this show within, as we share the full press release.
A few days later, Cirque du Soleil announced ALIZÉ, its first European resident show, which is scheduled to open in November 2025 at the Theater am Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. Keen-eyed Cirque du Soleil fans will recall this is the same location that NYSA was scheduled to open at when that show was announced for Berlin back in 2019, before that show was sadly canceled due to the one-two punch of the COVID Pandemic and Cirque’s bankruptcy. Although we’re told ALIZÉ is NOT NYSA reborn, that remains to be seen.
ALIZÉ depicts a journey into the unseen with a mix of groundbreaking artistry and breathtaking magic, embedded in an adventure that pushes the boundaries of the imagination. Tickets for the new production, presented and co-produced by Live Nation, are now on sale at: berlin.cirquedusoleil.de.
The full press release regarding ALIZÉ is also within.
In addition to the two new shows, two new musical albums were also released since we last spoke!
On November 15, 2024, Cirque du Soleil announced the soundtrack release to ECHO. Featuring 15 eclectic show tracks inspired by a mix of pop, electronic, vocal, and classical stylings, the music of ECHO defies any single genre. It is uniquely layered with depth and textures inspired by our relationship to the natural world. As Band Leader, Michael Lieberman describes it, “Our most natural instrument is the human voice, and so it makes sense conceptually to use vocals to establish a symbiotic relationship between humanity and the environment.” This is followed closely by strings and percussion, which represent the sounds, rhythms, and beating heart of nature.
And on the heels of ECHO’s release, on December 6, 2024, Cirque du Soleil released “40 Years Under the Sun: The Best of Cirque du Soleil”, a compilation album celebrated the company’s 40th Anniversary, which it celebrated earlier this year. This album, which features 18 cuts from across its vast musical catalog, is a long one… running 83 minutes and 15 seconds, and while it does sample every era of Cirque’s shows, there’s quite a bit missing.
Both releases are through the new Cirque/BMG alliance, and were released digitally. There does not appear to be a catalog number, UPC, EIN, or liner notes within the package, although Cirque did release some notes for the ECHO album, which we’ll share, as we briefly get into both albums within.
And there’s so much more. So, let’s get into it!
TEXT FILE — https://www.cirquefascination.com/Issues/Issue228.txt
