When the circus comes to town, will the animals be missed? Feld Entertainment is betting no
When the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus closed down in May 2017, a victim of changing tastes and years of protests by animal-rights groups, The Greatest Show on Earth seemed like the Deadest Show on Earth.
But owner Feld Entertainment, based about 2 hours south of Orlando in Ellenton, has resurrected — and revamped — the iconic American spectacle with a new tour that’s on the road now and stops in Central Florida this January.
“We’ve spent several years now thinking and imagining what could be possible,” said Juliette Feld Grossman, the company’s chief operating officer. “The biggest thing that made a difference to us was a whole lot of soul-searching: What is the heart of this property?”
Eventually, Feld officials came to believe it wasn’t the lions, tigers and elephants the circus had been known for; it was the emotion that the animals inspired.
“We knew what was really important was to leave our fans with that sense of wonder and awe and joy,” Grossman said.
She, along with other officials and performers, spoke with media during a preview of the new version of the circus at the Central Florida Feld Entertainment complex this fall.
Directors Dan Shipton and Ross Nicholson spent three years assembling the new show, which maintains a high level of energy with flashing lights, upbeat music, singers and dancers alongside acrobats, jugglers and other typical circus performers.
After a legal battle, the circus’s elephants had been retired to a Florida reserve back in 2016. The other animals were similarly dispersed after the shutdown the following year, with the tigers, for example, going to a Tennessee sanctuary.
In the 2023 reboot, also gone is the traditional ringmaster; the replacement is a trio of diverse show guides, including singer Lauren Irving who’s known as Aria in the show.
Irving is an Orlando theme-park alumna, with gigs in Disney World shows such as the “American Idol Experience” and “Disney Channel Rocks” under her belt, as well as a star turn as Celestina Warbeck in Diagon Alley at Universal Studios’ Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Feel free to ask her if she ran away to join the circus, because she’s not only heard it a thousand times, she has embraced it.
“I can’t get sick of that joke because I’ve actually done it,” she cracked. “Keep it comin’.”
Irving admires how Feld has rethought its circus: “They’ve taken advantage of the opportunity to showcase the human talent.”
In that regard, the revised circus follows the lead of Cirque du Soleil, featuring a parade of people performing feats that lead a wide-eyed audience to gasp — in Irving’s words — “Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!”
Like Montreal-based Cirque, Feld Entertainment has assembled a cast of international performers.
“To deliver ‘The Greatest Show on Earth,’ we had to find the best cast on Earth,” is how casting director Giulio Scatola described it. “There was so much choice out there.”
The circus cast includes 75 performers — Feld’s biggest touring show ever — who hail from 18 countries, including Brazil, France, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Ukraine and Mongolia.
“Mongolia has a long tradition of circus arts, and the skills are incredible,” Scatola said.
As important as the skills of those performers: Their charisma — and their attitude.
“We wanted people with personalities, people who could ‘spark’ during the show,” he said. “And we wanted team players, people who could dance and try something different.”
The casting was part of the master plan to bring the circus from its exotic-animal 19th-century roots into the present.
“We want the traditional circus arts because everybody loves that, but how can we put it into today’s world?” Scatola explained the thought process. “Everyone wants to be wowed.”
Even the costuming helps. Many of the more than 150 costumes created for the show hide technology among the sequins to control things like spotlight tracking and sound.
“This show is completely different than what we’ve done in the past,” said Dawna Oak, senior director of costumes. “It is much more performer-oriented, much more about where they come from and who they are.”
But some circus fashion choices remain eternal: “Lots of sparkle,” Oak said. “That makes everything better, always.”
The merchandise, too, reflects the new ideals behind the circus: The fantastical, like glowing wands, and human artistry, like musical instruments including tambourines, maracas and drums. The only animals represented, besides a traditional teddy bear, are from the realm of make-believe: Plush unicorns and dragons.
“We wanted to focus on the fantasy animals to give kids fun and play,” said Chuck Knapp, Feld director of sales and operations, domestic arena tours. “Stuffed animals are always popular.”
To pull together the vision for a modern-day show, the Feld brass brought in Shipton and Ross, who were veterans of Feld Entertainment’s “Jurassic Live World” arena tour, one of the company’s properties along titles such as Disney on Ice, Monster Jam and Marvel Universe Live.
“What we’ve been known for is big spectacle shows,” said Shipton, listing the Eurovision song contest, Dua Lipa concerts and Olympics ceremonies as part of the pair’s portfolio.
Being British, the couple wasn’t familiar with the American animal circus concept — which made them an ideal choice to lead the new endeavor, said Shipton.
“Coming from the UK, we have a different cultural relationship with circus,” Nicholson said.
“So we didn’t miss” animal acts, Shipton added. “I don’t think we’d know where to even fit in an elephant.”
Celebrating human achievement is what gives this circus its thrills, they said.
“Audiences want to feel something and be visually and audibly excited,” Nicholson said. “We tick those boxes.”
From her platform among the tumblers and jugglers and dancers, Irving says she can feel the excitement.
“I have the best seat, you could say, in the house,” she said. “Right in the middle of everything.”
She still has to remind herself: “This is my job… I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
‘The Greatest Show on Earth’
What: A new, animal-free version of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
Where: Amway Center, 400 W. Church St. in Orlando
When: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 12; 11 a.m., 3 and 7 p.m. Jan. 13; 1 and 5 p.m. Jan. 14; 1 p.m. Jan. 15
Cost: Tickets start at $25
Info: ringling.com
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