Two critics discuss the issues on CBS Radio's The Podcast, hosted by Jian Ghomeshi, left. I found it very interesting.
Essentially, they acknowledge marketing blunders in the last five years, when the show went from creating one new show each year to as many as three.
Another word they dare to drop is "mediocrity."
Yes to that. I find this all rather refreshing, because Cirque has tended to receive generous regular support and praise from Canadian media and broadcasters.
They trace the beginning of this drastic drop in luck to Banana Shpeel. Going to a Cirque show, they say, is now a matter of "hit or miss." Until Shpeel, the company virtually never produced a flop. Now there are four or five turkeys in the barn. And the number of Cirque staff laid off likely exceeds 400, as claimed by the show's PR office.
They are, as I see it, dead-on right about the utter failure of Iris in L.A., a prime reason being that tourists to Hollywood do not go there to see shows, but to view the area.
Another of their points is that Cirque may have wandered to far, artistically, from the product style which its original director, Franco Dragone, gave it in the early years, before he left. I disagree. Dragone had nothing to do with three of my four favorite CDS shows -- Varekai, OVO, and Kooza.
Also to their credit, they dismiss as excuse making Cirque's blaming its bum luck around the world on earthquakes and economic downturns.
Here is a link. Once there, you've got to move the marker to the right, beyond the half way point, to reach the point in the program when the Cirque matter is raised. This is arguably criticism and reporting at its finest.
http://castroller.com/Podcasts/CbcRadioQ/3317079
No comments:
Post a Comment