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UPDATE: Banana Shpeel Discount Offer
Posted September 15, 2009
UPDATE: 05/22/10 The show is officially open, and we have an even better discount code. Save 45% on shows before June 13 by using code 45CIRQUE at TicketMaster.com.
UPDATE: 04/16/10 It looks as though this show may finally be opening. Use code 35CC here to save 35% on performances before May 28.
UPDATE: 03/06/10 When we originally posted this show last September, it was supposed to open February 4. The NYC opening has been delayed multiple times; rumors include bad Chicago reviews, cast changes, and the official version: "integrating new performance elements." In any case, it's now scheduled to run March 17–May 30. We've adjusted the headline to avoid confusion, but as it may well change again, we might not keep updating the item body. Best bet is check the Cirque du Soleil website directly: cirquedusoleil.com.
Note: Last April we gave a heads up on all the new Cirque du Soleil shows coming to NYC (see item), but we didn't anticipate the Quebecois behemoth sending out press releases saying, "The Soleil never sets on New York"! Although the press for Banana Shpeel specifically disavows the exact qualities we want to see (circus and vaudeville), we'll give it a chance. Here's an early bird ticket offer and a New York Times article. We'll post a reminder closer to the show's February, 2010 opening. Details posted as received.
Cirque du Soleil presents Banana Shpeel: A New Twist on Vaudeville
Banana Shpeel is a roller-coaster mix of styles that blends comedy with tap, hip hop, eccentric dance, and slapstick, all linked by a narrative that ignites a succession of wacky adventures. This is not circus, or a musical or a variety show, or even vaudeville. It is Banana Shpeel!
Propelled by crazy humour and intense choreography, Banana Shpeel plunges us into the world of Shmelky, a cruel and irritable producer who dangles fame and fortune in front of Emmett, an innocent and romantic actor who has come to audition for him. Emmett soon finds himself trapped in a flamboyant, anarchic world where Shmelky sows terror and reigns supreme. Emmett falls in love with the beautiful Katie and meets a bunch of absurd characters, including the strange Banana Man. But who is this mysterious Banana Man, and how can Emmett escape the clutches of Shmelky and his henchmen?
When:
Opening in previews February 4, 2010
Scheduled dates through April 10, 2010
Where:
Beacon Theater
2124 Broadway
New York, NY 10023
(212) 465-6500
beacontheatrenyc.com
Tickets:
$45–$199 through beacontheatre.com
Presale for Club Cirque members: cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/banana-shpeel/tickets/new-york.aspx (membership to Club Cirque is free)
Video, Creation Journal, & More Information:
cirquedusoleil.com
Banana Shpeel in The New York Times
(Reprinted from http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com,
September 9, 2009)
Cirque du Soleil Tackles Vaudeville
By Glenn Collins
Cirque du Soleil previewed its new show, Banana Shpeel: A New Twist on Vaudeville, on Wednesday.
With a jokey name and a whitebread spelling of "spiel"—Banana Shpeel: A New Twist on Vaudeville—a new vaudeville show will be landing on Feb. 11 at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan, originally conceived as a sumptuous mecca for vaudeville acts.
But on Wednesday, when Cirque du Soleil unveiled the details of the 33-performer show that could be its first permanent presence in New York, the Montreal-based circus empire was careful to distance itself from bumps, grinds, and sleaze. "This is not a nostalgic look into the past," said Daniel Lamarre, president of Cirque. "It is, as the title says, a vaudeville show with a twist." He said the production budget would be $20 million.
David Shiner, the show's writer and director, whose Broadway show with Bill Irwin, Fool Moon, won a special Tony Award in 1999, said: "It will be a family show with a simple and compact narrative," featuring short, fast-paced comical variety performances in which choreography, dance, and acrobatics play a part.
With that, 15 performers from the show took the stage of the opulent 2,829-seat 80-year-old theater (refurbished last year to the tune of $16 million), to tap, sing, and cavort for a 15-minute preview.
Mr. Lamarre said the show was open-ended, and could tour at other venues across the world, returning to the Beacon as an annual presence if popularity warrants. "We see this as an entry for Cirque into proscenium venues like the Beacon," he said, "and we see it as our entry into comedy as well." The show, created for the Beacon in Montreal, is to be in tryouts in Chicago from Nov. 19 through Dec. 31 at the Chicago Theater.
The company has put on hold its longstanding plans to build a New York City space that would give it a permanent home in Manhattan. Cirque has announced, in addition to the recurring Beacon show, that it will establish a four-month summer extravaganza in 2011 in Radio City Music Hall as a warm-weather counterweight to the "Christmas Spectacular," populated with acrobats and clowns but no Rockettes.
And Wintuk, Cirque's $20 million annual winter holiday show at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden, is expected to continue.
"It would be our dream to have our vaudeville show in the Beacon year-round," Mr. Lamarre said.
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