PBS Returns to Circus Tonight: Will Binder Blow His Top Again? Can Lubin Control His Ego? Will the Bomb Kid Return? & How Will Steve Smith Cope?

Are you geared up for tonight's hours 2 and 3 of the 6-hour Big Apple Circus documentary, Circus, on PBS? I am for sure. Can't wait.

Last week's first two hours were sufficiently entertaining, mainly because the cameras rolled while familiar BAC figures revealed very-human personality traits I'd not known about. We got to see founder Paul Binder in anger meltdown. We watched Barry Lubin pushing around new clown Glen Heroy, trying to lock him into strait jacket direction. Look over there. Right hand move this way. Now turn. Pause. Look up! No, not right. Do it again!

And, in dubious retrospect, I asked myself: Hmmmm, yes, hmmmm. Let's see. Director Steve Smith ran the Ringling Clown College for ten years; in fact, he was a Ringling joey for six seasons, and on this show, he was, of record, the official "director." Of record, Lubin was a "production consultant." (says so in my copy of that year's program magazine), not the "Director of Clowning" for BAC that his Wikipedia profile claims him to be.

So I'll be watching to to see who directs Heroy the most, Smith or Lubin.

We got a prop kid getting tossed behind bars for allegedly wondering on his PC how one could plant a bomb under the big top. I saw somebody near the end of the program who looked like him, leading me to wonder if he's back.

Lots of tense plot threads that could explode into high drama. I'm taken by the premise, in which it appears the producers were given fine and full access to freely walk the lot and record whatever they found.

Last week I wondered if the unbecoming hissy fit thrown by Mr. Binder might have been staged for theatrical effect. Evidently not, comments posted here state clearly (as did a comment posted last year), that this is in fact the real Paul Binder. (For the record, Mr. Binder graciously granted me a long telephone interview five years ago; not once did this side of his personality surface.)

I'm not any where near as surprised with the Barry Lubin I am seeing for the first time. I've always had the impression that he lusted after as much power as he could grab. Among the perks he has extracted from management, getting long periods away while an understudy played his "Grandma" character, unheard of, to my knowledge, in big top history.

Binder's obvious fear of a performer so much as stubbing a toe has only added to my suspicions that he is one very cautious producer, perhaps too much so.

And then there's new artistic director G. Dufresnoy (I have HAD IT trying to spell this man's first name, and my exasperated spell checker is filing for divorce). In my first glimpses of G.D., I enjoyed yet another surprise and a favorable one. Mr. D. said almost nothing last week, but his few words struck me as strong and authoritative, and in his fleeting persona I could see an impresario in the making. I noticed him sitting a few rows above Binder & Christensen -- power play? I'm hoping to see more of him in action tomorrow night. Whether he will endure in his new post is far from a settled matter; Early luke warm reactions to his first fully controlled opus, Dance On!, do not bode so well. The show on TV is getting immense amounts of media attention, far more than it's getting for its new opus in Gotham.

So here they come -- explosive outgoing founder-artistic director. Clown Grandma who seems hungry for greater power and recognition. Bomb kid possibly just misunderstood. And the endearing director of record brimming with enthusiasm in the face of it all. I will be studying Steve Smith's subtle facial expressions, looking for deliciously telling hints he may be telegraphing our way. Oh, the fun of it all.

Big Apple Circus, bring it on!

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An American in Paris: In It's Ageless Magic, I Rue the Demise of Romanticism

Will the generation now growing up on hip hop power, or on Britney and her peers, ever in a future day, then wrapping their emotions around the songs and cinematic images they once embraced, feel anything close to what I embraced a few evenings ago watching the MGM musical, An American in Paris?

Or are we all doomed to the replay of feelings as distinctly different as were the entertainment forms that first engendered those feelings? The fifties was a romantic era. Few people resisted the artifice of "breaking into song" as they now do. Today’s younger set responds to sounds and images decidedly more smug, more cynical. Some would argue, more realistic. Perhaps they simply will never feel what I felt, nor what I still feel when confronted by The Bandwagon, Singing in the Rain, or Gigi, to name a few.

Still, I feel sorry for those who may never thrill to the dancing of Gene Kelly, the songs of George and Ira Gershwin, the artful cinematic genius of director Vincente Minnelli, the remarkable scripting of Alan Jay Lerner in his prime. Perhaps the best hope is the fresh inspiration that more recent pop stars, like Rod Stewart, are bringing to the Great American Songbook.

A few weeks ago, I re-watched Hairspray, a contemporary movie musical that lifted my spirits as high as a fifties MGM song and dancer when it first came out. I remember being mightily impressed. So what has happened since then? Somehow since, I’ve lost my taste for the film. I can still appreciate its high qualities, yes, and yet the second time around, for me the thrill was gone.

How strange, or might it be merely fateful?, that we each, in our own younger years, may acquire feelings unique to our time, feelings that possibly may never again be felt by others who succeed us. If that be the case, how glad I am that I was born when Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron were the stars. When we all sang and danced in the rain.

I have very few DVDs on my shelves. I think I'll add An American in Paris, and maybe send Hairspray to my sister -- younger then me by one significant year.

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Sunday Morning with Frank Braden: Rack Up Another Record Ringling Ramble ...

"Confounding big top strategists and its own high command, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus last spring began topping its 1948 banner Manhattan business even before it opened the 1949 season in Madison Square Garden.

By April first, the advance mail orders for seats had reached a new high. Modest, but striking, display ads in the New York newspapers had precipitated the golden deluge of check-enclosed letters, for these ads alone annually inform the New York public of the when, where and how for ticket purchases by mail. Then, as the lines stormed the selling windows in the Garden, John Ringling North's 1949 edition of The Greatest Show on Earth, the best in 79 years, was in the bag before the band played opening night.

New York acclaimed the new performance, told the nation via newspapers, radio, magazines and word-of-mouth, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Minot to Miami . Capacity and turnaway business prevailed throughout the four-and-a-half weeks Garden run, and often one day's gross exceeded a week's abundant "take" for a two-train circus of former years, Of course, nowadays, there are no other circuses half as large, so there is no current comparison. The Big Show, railroading from Coast to Coast on its four long streamlined carriers of ninety 72-foot and 84-foot steel cars, is as conspicuously supreme as is the love of liberty in the heart of mankind."

-- from his route book summary of the season, 1949.

Oh, the talk of turnaway crowds, of Ringling exceptionalism by this exceptionally gifted press agent and writer, gives me the urge to watch my DVD of The Greatest Show on Earth tonight!

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Open Memo to John Ringling North II: Please Hire Steve Smith To Direct Your Circus

Dear Mr. North,

In lieu of a cell call (I don't have your number) or a letter (time is of the essence), or a Twittergram (I've not yet taken up texting or tweeting or -- the latest -- micro-chanting) I am using this platform to reach you, optimistically assuming you will not deem my open memo pushy, but understandably urgent, trusting it will find its way to your attention. either in Oklahoma or Ireland.

I think I've found the perfect director for your show. His name is Steve Smith; you may observe this effervescent soul in action on the PBS series, Circus, about the making of a Big Apple Circus show. He strikes me as amply savvy to circus programing, a decisive figure yet armed with loads of lovely humanity for the job, not the type to traumatize your favored artists (or those you can afford, in default, to engage).

A nuts and bolts sort of guy, I can see Mr. Smith blending in well with your own more laid-back ways (not having seen you profiled on PBS, a la Paul Binder, I still assume you are laid back); a spark plug to jump start your visions into specific circus imagery.

Better yet, this Smith has extensive in-the-ring experience; he clowned six seasons for Ringling-Barnum (that other show that your uncles once ran) and he managed the Clown College for 10 years, 1985-1995. I feel sure Mr. Smith could lend guidance and emotional anchorage to your ambitiously dedicated clowns, Steve and Ryan, two guys who strike me as super consciousness, yet prone to intense introspective anguish whenever the audience looks the other way or fails to issue the expected guffaws.

Bottom line: I have a gut feeling you two would work well together. I realize, of course, this mere suggestion will ruffle some of your presently constituted staff. Blame it on me if you must. I can take the heat. I mean no harm to anybody in your employ, only a brighter future, possibly achievable through better or different direction. We here at Showbiz David (excuse the "we") just think you must advance to the next level of showmanship.

Smith is not permanently allied with Big Apple Circus, as you may know. Between you and me (all visitors, kindly advance to the next paragraph), since I imagine he would have more autonomy working with you than I assume he enjoys at Big Apple, he might well accept a modest compensation package, with or without mud-reflecting boots and a laptop for Kelly-Miller blogging thrown in.

Be assured I have no financial stake in this matter; I am not asking for a finder's fee or an agent's commission. I neither know the man, nor am I trying to establish myself (fun though it might be) as a talent clearing house for the circus industry, such as it is, in this country. Even were you to reward me with an under-the-table gratuity, like say a Ziplock wrapped package of those world famous peanuts you peddle so dramatically on your tenting tours, I would, a slave to my nutty archaic virtues, be forced to return them.

As you may or may not know, I've suggested right there that your show could benefit by sharper direction -- not necessarily a Dick Barstow ego-crusher, but a Mr. Smith -- assuming, (I must state in order to legally cover myself), that he is, indeed, the person I have so far witnessed him to be on the PBS program Circus. He seems to possess a rich range of attributes from diplomacy to cheer-leading, and this makes him the ideal candidate to help you produce a more finished and polished artistic attack on the audience.

Respectively yours,

Showbiz David
Unsolicited Mandatory Directives Division

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Sunday Morning, Looking Back: PBS Under the Big Top -- Accidental Revelations Add Fits of Fire to Underwhelming Big Apple Circus Reality Show ...

This first appeared on November 4, 2010


It grows on you in its own ersatz reality show way. It held my attention, despite a feeling that this story could have been as effectively told in half the time.

There is little of the drama here we expect of such an entity. Don't think the intensely emotional making of Cirque du Solei's Varekai on HBO several years back. Don't think even those contrived circus competition shows on TV. And certainly don't think The Greatest Show on Earth.

Circus is pleasant and agreeable. And not a little informative. Guest director that season, Steve Smith (left) is a winning asset, a likable spark plug, full of zest -- a nuts and bolts man for a show whose theme and its manifestations throughout are never adequately explained. These first two hours end with the company being told, they show has a new name: "Change on." They ended up calling it "Play On."

Luckily for the producers, who take a visitor's approach, aiming their cameras all over the lot in search of whatever human interest sparks may fly over the sawdust, they caught a few. Here are some sparks, as well as some surprises:

* A young prop hand intimating that he might plant a bomb in the big top and getting hauled off to jail.

* Paul Binder throwing a temper tantrum with the horse riders. Overall, the portrait of Binder here is a refreshingly unexpected one, showing him firmly in charge, though a curiously tepid impresario. Read on.

* Paul Binder's odd aversion to danger under the tent. Somebody needs to introduce the man to the real world of circus. One of his comments to an artist: "Don't do anything more than is absolutely safe." Another comment, stresses "simple and safe."

* Barry Lubin's intrusive ego. He nags new clown Glen Heroy in questionable ways, much in the vein of an insecure stage director blocking out an actor's every move, every gesture. I only hope that new artistic director Guillaume Dufresnoy (did I spell the name right?) loves the Grandma character, for if he doesn't I can see an epic a clash of egos.

* A contract for a flying act stipulating a triple -- signed by an act obviously ill prepared to deliver. (They did not catch it when I saw the show.) Interesting to see Smith making clear his feeling that no way should these flyers, a mix of pros and rank amateurs, end the performance; they are moved up near the beginning of the second half, though that too will change by the time the show reaches New York.

For these reasons -- wondering what next I might discover (the human interest stories are fairly lame) -- Circus held my attention. I also observed a natural team compatibility reminding me of a well-worn marriage between Binder and Christensen, who often appear sitting together in the seats monitoring rehearsals and making notes. Their body language speaks millions.

Most bothersome is the time given to one performer made to appear as if at any moment he could be axed from the company, an unrealistic story line that feels gratuitous. That would be the new clown, Glen, revealing at intervals all of his fears that the gig will fail. When finally he faces an audience, he holds his own, proving a natural flair for circus buffoonery. Binder is pleased, telling him, "We have found a new character for the show."

To my knowledge, he is no longer around.

This PBS entry treats circus in softer moods, absent the older fashioned hyperbole of tent show bombast and drama. Which probably suits BAC -- its finest opus that I've seen by far was the enchantingly surreal 2004-2005 Picturesque. In its weaker frames, Circus calls to mind, for me, how lackluster I found the book Mud Show to be, because it spent too much time doodling in dull backyard details.

It's good that BAC co-founders Binder and Christensen will have this television documentary as a record of their admirable achievement keeping their show on a higher road for thirty-plus years.

Bomb or no bomb, I'm waiting for the second of the three part series next Wednesday.

11.4.10

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"Banana Shpeel" (Remember, from Cirque du Soleil?) Slips Off Silenty, At Last, That Way to the Egress

Clowns Unwanted: From Banana Shpeel. Many disgruntled critics blamed them for mucking up an otherwise modest package of very good circus turns.

Cirque du Solei King Laliberte evidently was undaunted by the nasty reviews his stage vaudeville show suffered in Chicago, to a lesser degree in New York.

But he apparently is not up to dealing with insufficient crowds not swamping his box office ticket windows.

Following its aborted "limited" New York run at the Beacon Theatre, Banana Shpeel, to my awestruck surprise, looked to be hitting the road, first stop, city of my questionable birth: San Francisco. So I really wanted to take a look. Nothing like seeing for yourself -- how unfairly dissed it might have been, or what a colossal turkey it was. Gawking has its minor rewards.

Then I learned a few days ago, checking up on its earlier advertised Oct-Nov. date at the Golden Gate Theatre across the Bay in Navel Gazing Central, that the run had been shuttered in early October.

Nor does this well covered Broadway flop show its face on the Cirque du Soleil website, which lists 22 shows world wide, not a one of them flaunting fluffy Frenchy Fatuous banana shpeel looks. Director David Shiner seems to have escaped somewhere to Europe.

I am convinced (despite a curiously affirmative notice in Gotham from Variety hailing the clowning), that the clowning was the show's worst enemy. Number of critics recognized a few good circus acts. Public is still funny that way, looking for "circus acts."

Might this gigantic box office pratfall not cast ominous shadows over two upcoming other new stage shows from the Montreal Monster, one to spread its ambitious over Radio City Music Hall, the other in the seedy neon-coated center of Hollywood, CA, at the Kodak Theatre, a venue desperate ever since it was built for a viable attraction. A revamped Banana? (OK, I couldn't resist)

Fasten your seat belts, kid, with Cirque du Soleil, the admirable artistic courage is copious, capricious, relentless and redoubtable, the results often breath taking, though sometimes curiously still born, albeit, wrapped in exotic dazzlements and techno allurements fit for the fussiest of fickle culture vultures.

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Monday Midway Misc: Big Apple Circus Comes to PBS, Generates Few NY Reviews for Dance On! ... PETA Proposes Pachyderm "Empathy Center" for Venice...

Performance Unrehearsed: Enter a PBS behind-the-scenes look this week at Big Apple Circus, and already I’m skeptical. Oh, heck, sorry to have rained on a parade yet to march. Producers of the show said to have looked at several circuses, and settled on Paul Binder’s big top because it’s such a respected troupe, even though performance quality was was not their primary goal.

“We wanted to be with a traveling circus. We wanted to be with a group who lived together, ate together, performed together and traveled,” says producer Maro Chermayeff. “And so I think those were the major factors, (and) the quality of the show itself.” In fact, if I may interject, BAC has a very soft route, each town many days and cushy days in between. That an arduous season? I think not ...

If the PBS producers had really wanted “the major factors,” here’s where they might have gone: Kelly Miller Circus. They’d have found much more activity in a respectable tent show that moves virtually every day, that is not adverse to mud, sleet, hail and snow, and they’d have had a star witness bearing rich American circus history to interview in the show's owner, John Ringling North II, his story being a big story too. Anyway, since New York's PBS affiliate WNET is sharing in pre-publicity, perhaps they had a hand in selecting the town's own circus and in possibly underwriting the three part, six hour series, Circus. Follow the money. Let's face it, kids, Manhattan has slightly more clout and connections than Hugo, as in Oklahoma. And when last I checked, BAC employs an active PR dept., K-M does not. So there.

Theoretical Tanbark Plus: In Paul Binder, they have a true sawdust scholar to draw from — if he’ll talk, which I doubt. His type tend to hold back, tend to puff their properties like good press agents. What does he really think of the “Greatest Show on Earth”? Of Cirque du Soleil? Of the pathetic lack of effective circus schools in this country? I’m not expecting much.

Big Apple Circus Dance On! Reviews: Any out there? So far, only dribbles to draw from, which seems strange given the well publicized transfer of artistic power from Binder to his heir successor, Guillaume Dufresnoy. (I could scream every time I try to spell this man's name!!!) One from a blogger named One Savvy Mom, very high on the show and offering $25 discounts on tickets if you’ll mention her Mommy code. Sounds like shrewd marketing. Then there’s the lone media Big Apple bulwark, The New York Times, from which, as per custom, comes annually a rosy notice, this year’s endorsement penned by Lawrence Van Gelder, who has never to my knowledge(in recent times) reviewed a circus that he did not like. Maybe The White Tops really has it right. Around the ring(s), people prefer happy talk. And what a critical scourge I feel writing this.

If Van Gelder is correct, good news for Dance On! (its set seen in the photo at top) and Dufresnoy. I’d like to think a fresh vision has emerged to give BAC a genuinely fresh and exciting makeover. Only could I track down one other consumer posting, the adoring fan yet stating that she found more to her liking after intermission when the animals came on. And that is in essence what we were told right here on this blog by Agent A.

Shilling for Sawdust & Spangles: Perhaps many shows at one time or another practice the art of extracting feel-good notices for various payoffs. At the end of a remarkably intelligent review in The New Yorker of Banana Shpeel, one of the comments posted noted that, according to the Chicago Tribune, CDS had hired a firm in India whose employees were all instructed to post affirmative reviews of Cirque shows on theatre blogs, and that likely they were doing the same thing for Shpeel. At least the ticket agency Goldstar, which puts out a glowing paragraph about Dance On!, honestly acknowledges up front that it was prepared by Goldstar editors.


PETA Promotes Elephant Empathy Center: They’d like to open one down in Venice, Florida, if they could convince the Venice city fathers and mommies to ditch their sympathy for Tito Gaona’s great Ringling museum dream, to be housed in the old Ringling-Barnum barn (above), and instead, allow PETA to set up interactive exhibits to educate the public about animal abuse. One device would shackle visitors to confinement to approximate how elephants are assumed to feel while on tour. But Venice Mayor Ed Martin is not falling for such folly. “I didn’t see that as a serious offer.’ When I told my wryly philosophical friend Boyi about PETA’s campaign against the use of animals in scientific and medical research, he replied, “So let those people who are protesting be used for the research.” He smiled. I laughed.

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