Cirque du ‘Lion King’
This show may have “Cirque” in the name, but it’s (a) not from Vegas and (b) not connected with Cirque du Soleil.
The touring, family-friendly acrobatic spectacle “Cirque Dreams: Jungle Fantasy” comes from Cirque Productions, a Florida production company that also recognized, in the 1990s, the commercial potential of European-style circus extravaganzas.
Neil Goldberg, creator and artistic director of Cirque Productions, prefers to compare this show to an entirely different kind of popular extravaganza: Broadway’s “The Lion King.”
“We have over 150 costumes which resemble animals in the jungle,” said Goldberg, by phone from the company’s training facility in Fort Lauderdale. “For kids, it’s like waking up and finding themselves in the middle of ‘The Lion King.’ “
That would be a particularly athletic version of “The Lion King.”
The cast consists of 23 acrobats, “world-class gymnasts and artists who can translate their disciplines into what animals are doing in the wild,” said Goldberg.
“Butterflies will be flying on wings over the audience,” he said. “Monkeys will be swinging on vines, tossing huge objects around the jungle. Frogs will be juggling and hopping at the same time. Birds will be swinging on trapezes.”
The show also has an original musical score with songs sung by one of the characters, who plays the role of the Lady Bug. An electric violinist also performs. The rest of the music is recorded.
Cirque Productions gets many of its performers from countries with a long tradition of the circus arts, primarily Russia, Mongolia and China. Goldberg said that Moscow alone has more than a dozen circus training and performing facilities in a five-mile radius.
“We spend a lot of time over there with our scouts,” he said. “Most of these countries support the circus arts in a way that America promotes musical theater on Broadway.”
Goldberg got into the “cirque” business in the early 1990s when he created an international corporate show for IBM.
He recognized the potential of the art form. By 1996, he had created Cirque Ingenieux, which went on tour and was featured on a PBS special.
“Jungle Fantasy,” his latest touring show, has appeared at the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City and began its national tour earlier this month in Minneapolis.
The difference between his shows and the glitzy Cirque du Soleil shows?
“A lot of people are attracted to the ‘cirque’ genre because of its sexiness and adult appeal,” said Goldberg. “The great thing about this show it that it has all of that, but it’s also a visual feast for kids.”