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| Singing show guide Lauren Irving introduces the Greatest Show on Earth |
The big news of 2023 was the return of the Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey's Greatest Show On Earth, revived and reinvented after a six year break. And I have to say I loved it. You can read my review here.
This year sees a revamped iteration of the arena-sized spectacular. Is it bigger and better? Would it wow me just as much?
Well.
Hmm.
Notwithstanding a couple of standout moments that we will come to in a moment, I found it harder to get engaged with, let alone excited by, the show this time around.
Part of that might just be my familiarity with the format. You only once get the excitement of seeing something for the first time, and I seldom enjoy things as much the second time around.
Because this is not in any way a new show. It's the 2023 edition with a few tweaks of the kind that any circus makes to its programme from season to season.
The colourful set, resembling a child's building blocks, is largely the same, and many of the same (excellent) acts are back, including the Navas Troupe's double wheel of death, and the criss-crossing flying trapeze of the Flying Caceras.
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| Criss-crossing trapeze flyers |
Do I detect, though, a slight dialling back of the budget?
The cast seems to have been reduced from 75 to 65, which may not be particularly noticeable.
But I definitely noticed the absence of the raised, illuminated revolving stage that formed a colourful centrepiece to the original show.
That central island, which continually changed colour, added a touch of real pizzazz. It's been replaced by a flat swirling pattern on the floor, which just isn't the same.
In fact, that flat central floor emphasises the fact that we are in a big impersonal sports hall, and magnifies one of my problems with the original production. Ringling may have a hundred year tradition of producing three ring circuses in giant tents, and may have moved into arenas of this type in the 1950s... but for me circus isn't suited to such big spaces.
I prefer the intimacy of a single ring in a cosy big top where everything is up close. Where you can see the sweat on a performer's brow and feel the perilous height of aerialists who are almost directly overhead.
In a cavernous arena, by contrast, all the empty space above and around acrobats reduced by distance to the size of stick men seems to drain any sense of connection to their performances.
Unless you go equipped with binoculars, it would be hard to appreciate the flexibility of contortionist Jordan McKnight when you can barely see her.
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| Jordan McKnight |
As for Ringling's robot dog... Paulos Circus in the UK has one (in their case it's dressed as a lion) and it works as a fun gimmick trotting around in a traditional size ring. But in the centre of a huge arena... it's just a speck from most seats, and makes no impact at all.
The only Ringling acts that really need such a big space are the criss-crossing flying trapeze, the 34-foot-tall unicycle of Wesley Williams, and Skyler Miser's climatic Ringling Rocket - a human cannonball act that sees her flying 40 feet in the air over a 110 foot distance that spans the entire arena.
All the other acts, I am sure, would have far more impact in a one-ring big top.
Ringling does its best to fight the lack of atmosphere with a lot of music and ensemble dancing, but it often comes off as padding.
Despite these criticisms, however, there are strong acts on display. The truly large-scale acts of Williams and Miser are definite highlights.
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| Henan Acrobatic Group |
The standout moment for me comes during a display of trick bicycle riding by the Henan Acrobatic Group. The finale of their act sees nine cyclists race across the arena in a straight line towards a tenth performer standing in front of them.
At the last moment, he leaps over the head of the first cyclist. Then he runs along the shoulders of the following eight cyclists, using them like stepping stones rushing beneath him, until he lands again on the floor.
I've never seen that before. And it's for those 'never seen that before' moments that you buy a ticket to the Greatest Show on Earth.
