Cirque du Soleil's return to glory is a long journey

Original title: "Can the Sun" Rise Again?

At the end of April, after more than a year of COVID-19, Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group (Cirque du Soleil) announced that it would gradually resume performances in Las Vegas and explore the possibility of resuming international tours in Europe, South America and Asia.

Start with a scheduled performance in Las Vegas

According to the plan announced by Cirque du Soleil, two of the oldest shows will be resumed in Las Vegas, "Mysterious Man" on June 28 and "Water Show" on July 1. Another show acquired by the troupe, the Blue Man Show, will also be released again on June 24. Tickets have now begun to sell and remain at pre-pandemic levels, with tickets ranging from $69 to $125 for Mystery Man and $79 to $180 for Water Show.

The pre-ticket sales of these performances will affect whether Cirque du Soleil's "Beatles Love", "Mike Jackson I" and "KA" can be launched in July, August and September respectively.

In the international performance market, Cirque du Soleil's KOOZA will be performed in Punta Cana, Dominica, in November. In January 2022, LUZIA, with Mexican-themed elements, will be performed in London, UK. Japan is one of Cirque du Soleil's key Asian markets, and if feasible, Cirque du Soleil will organize a year-and-a-half-long tour in the future, and will also consider touring South Korea at the end of 2022. In addition, Cirque du Soleil's collaborative project "Drawing Life" began this autumn.

Overall, Cirque du Soleil's road to restart is to take the Las Vegas fixed-point performance as the starting point and focus, and gradually explore the tour in the United States and other countries.

Many parties have made efforts to promote the restart of the show

Cirque du Soleil was able to restart the show in part because it received $375 million in start-up funding from its new owners. The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the international performance market hard, and Cirque du Soleil, a giant in show business, has not been spared. At the end of March 2020, Cirque du Soleil shut down 44 shows worldwide, laid off more than 3,500 people, or 95% of the total population, and filed for bankruptcy protection in June; in November of the same year, the deal with the new investors was closed, and the investment team led by The Canadian private equity firm took control, replacing the original plan for the government of Quebec to participate in financing.

The gradual relaxation of epidemic prevention and control policies in Nevada and Clark County (where Las Vegas is located) is also an important reason for Cirque du Soleil to restart performances. The state's governor, Sisolac, announced that from May, Clark County will allow entertainment venues to have a maximum attendance rate of 80 percent, but maintain a social distancing of 3 feet; from June 1, entertainment venues will be allowed to open, with attendance rates of up to 100 percent; if more than 60 percent of residents over the age of 16 are vaccinated and the test-positive rate is less than 5 percent, participation in activities can be exempt from social distancing restrictions, but masks must be worn in public places.

In addition, the bundled operation with MGM Group also helped Cirque du Soleil restart its performances. Cirque du Soleil's main strength lies in the creation and production of the repertoire, while MGM Group is responsible for marketing operations. Four of Cirque du Soleil's five performances were performed at MGM's hotel theatres, and the other performance was housed in a hotel managed by MGM.

The relevant person in charge of MGM Group said that with the increase in the number of vaccinations, the in-state market has gradually opened, and tourists and visitors have followed, and the weekend occupancy rate of its hotels can reach 90%, and the weekday is lower. The performance stage can provide food and drink for the audience, and since the ventilation system is complete, the theater does not need special adjustments, as long as it is strengthened in terms of non-paper tickets and enhanced cleaning measures.

Shift from relying on international tourists

Mainly American audiences

Las Vegas is one of Cirque du Soleil's largest and most attractive markets. Among them, "Mysterious Man" is the longest performed by Cirque du Soleil here. In 1993, the show, which combines acrobatics, high-altitude shows and burlesques without traditional circus animal performances, achieved unexpected success, not only improving the taste of local entertainment, but also playing an important role in promoting las Vegas from a casino city to a family-friendly tourist area. As Cirque du Soleil CEO Marie Ramary said, "Cirque du Soleil and Las Vegas are bound together by fate, I have you, you have me." ”

The relevant person in charge of Cirque du Soleil said that the epidemic prevention regulations of the local state and county governments will be implemented, all participants will be vaccinated and tested regularly, and the actors have begun to resume training.

Lamari said that the "Water Show" theater has 1800 seats, and the "Mysterious Man" theater has 1600 seats. While it wants to achieve 100% attendance without social distancing restrictions, Cirque du Soleil can break even with even a 40% attendance.

Despite Cirque du Soleil's optimism about the show's restart, the challenges remain daunting.

The first is that there has been a decline in tourists in Las Vegas. The latest data from the Las Vegas Convention and Tourism Board shows that the number of tourists to Las Vegas in 2021 fell by 54%, hotel occupancy rates fell by 45%, and airport passengers fell by 58% compared to the same period in 2020. Affected by the epidemic, the audience has had to shift from the millions of international tourists who used to be every year to the main audience in the United States.

Lamari believes that for at least a year, there will be more domestic audiences in the United States than international audiences. Over the past few months, self-driving tours have become an option for more and more people. At present, the Southern California area is the largest source market in Las Vegas and the source of the most purchased performance tickets. "The U.S. market is particularly important for Cirque du Soleil, which will gradually stabilize. In 2022, it would not be surprising if 3 tours were held in the United States. Lamari said.

Cirque du Soleil's former creative department said cirque du Soleil wants to win over younger audiences, but they may be more enthusiastic about other projects in the hotel (such as swimming), and it is difficult to say whether they are interested in Cirque du Soleil performances.

The actor industry under the epidemic

Facing the overall dilemma

Although Cirque du Soleil is preparing to restart the show, the problems it faces cannot be ignored. For example, the origin and stability of the cast. Cirque du Soleil adopts a project employment system, recruits actors from all over the world according to the requirements of the repertoire, lacks a long-term stable team, and the quality of the performance is difficult to guarantee; the actors who are dismissed due to the epidemic generally lack venues, equipment and props, especially for acrobats and actors who have switched from gymnastics and diving, the usual practice is insufficient, and the physical fitness and technical level will inevitably decline.

The New York Times reported on the training and life of several actors who worked at Cirque du Soleil during the pandemic. Trapeze actor PaKun and his two partners can only practice handstanding on the ground of their apartment in Montreal, perform some basic strength training, aerial skills can not be practiced at all, Pakun "feels that the muscles in her body have lost their memory", and it usually takes several months to resume normal performances; Mongolian jiu-jitsu actor Angarag in her home in Ulaanbaatar, due to the lack of room height, many skills can not be practiced, in order to live, she had to teach yoga on the Internet to obtain financial income Some acrobats at Cirque du Soleil headquarters have switched to café waiters; the 26-year-old French acrobats have taken advantage of their downtime to learn acting, arguing that the health risks during the pandemic will burden the already overloaded acrobats.

The overall woes of the actors' industry have forced Cirque du Soleil to contend with. According to a recent survey of more than 7,000 entertainment practitioners by the American Actors Foundation, the U.S. performance market is about to open, but the theater and entertainment community needs more help in the coming months. Since 2020, the foundation has provided $21 million in financial aid to 16,000 actors, and still 40 percent say they haven't solved their meal problems, 28 percent have rent difficulties, and 20 percent have had to change jobs. In terms of mental health, 79 percent believe they have been negatively affected by the pandemic, and 10 percent have been worried about losing health insurance.

Cirque du Soleil has been tracking and judging the covid-19 situation in Europe and Asia to plan its next global tour. However, the global epidemic situation is complex and changeable, and the epidemic situation and prevention and control regulations in various states in the United States are different, and it is very difficult to connect and operate the tour in different states, not to mention the differences in countries around the world. Before the epidemic, Cirque du Soleil toured more than 450 cities in the world, and if it wants to regain its glory in the future, the "sun" will rise again, and I am afraid that it will be a long journey. (Au Tingtao)

Source: China Culture Daily