Cirque du Success
Behind the scenes at today's hottest live entertainment act
Pulled from a scouting database of about 20,000 acts from around the globe, the bulk of Cirque's 900 "artists" arrive as acrobats and gymnasts, including many former Olympians from the Russian and Ukrainian teams. The recruits spend their first months learning everything from how to apply their own makeup to the fine art of clowning on stage. Those who make the final cut are then paraded through Cirque's vast costume, shoemaking, hat-making, and props workshops, where each is sized up and outfitted from head to toe in exotic garb cut from more than 10 miles of fabric used each year, much of it dyed and printed on the premises. (The reason: With most Cirque productions running 10 years or longer, material purchased from outsiders is often discontinued before the show closes.)
The huge investment-$100 million and up per permanent show and up to half that for touring versions-means there is scant room for a flop. "We are condemned to success," St. Croix jokes as he and colleagues plan Cirque's next production.
Second acts. Indeed, unlike Broadway producers, who simply replicate their best productions and send them on the road, Cirque must reinvent itself each time it launches a new project. "We can't afford to have someone say, 'Cirque du Soleil? Oh yes, I've seen that,'" St. Croix says. "Otherwise, they won't come back."
It's just that sort of shoot-for-the-moon ideal that propelled Laliberté to woo George Harrison. Until then, the former Beatle and his bandmates had tightly guarded their musical legacy, even suing to stop the hit show Beatlemania.
So instead of approaching Apple Corps, the Beatles' company, directly, Cirque's shrewd owner merely planted the seed when he crossed paths with Harrison. Kismet prevailed in 2000, when Harrison showed up at Laliberté's annual party, picked up a guitar, and didn't leave until the next day.
"'I do believe it's time now,'" Laliberté recalls Harrison later telling him as they daydreamed the possibilities in Harrison's garden.
Sadly, the former Beatle, who died of cancer in 2001, didn't live to see the night this June when Love finally came to life. But thanks to Cirque, his dream surely did.
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