Here's how incestuous this really is: Last year, the Allman Brothers Band, which for over twenty years plays an annual multi-night gig at the Beacon Theater had to detour to the uptown (175th St) United Palace Theater (Rev. Ike's church by day/ playhouse by night) because Cirque du Soleil booked a multi-month vaudevillian show called 'Banana Schpeel' at their traditional NY home, the Beacon Theater. The concerts were ill-received not only due to being a new venue, but one that was 100 blocks (and a different nabe) away. The Cirque show, likewise bombed, closing after six weeks (2 months less than it's scheduled run).Said the NY Times, “Banana Shpeel” will go down as one of the most frustrating failures in Cirque’s history."
The Tony's called Radio City Music Hall home for the last 13 years, It's a 6,000 seat showcase big enough to hold the producers (some shows have hundreds of them) actors, guests, dignitaries, plus a slice of the public and located at the edge of the Theater District. But, there's those pesky Cirque folks again, with "Zarkana" -- another attempt at a non-Grand Chapiteau (Big Top) production booked for an extended run (I'm seeing it in July). What to do with Broadway's biggest night? Believe it or not, early discussions mentioned the same United Palace Theater but wiser heads prevailed and the Beacon Theater was booked. At 2,864 seats it is less than half the size of Radio City, so for sure there'll be some people expecting to attend who'll be left out. So, where's the inbreeding? Well, CBS owns the broadcast rights, but good old Cablevision, Dolan & Son's money-monopoly that has held much of NY and NJ under its thumb for years before SBS came into play, owns Radio City Music Hall; the Beacon Theater; and has an equity stake in Cirque's 'Zarkana'. I have to think that content owners who are also broadcast distributors and live venue owners are a recessive gene's playground. Ron Casalotti Wayne, NJ P.S. - hough not a traditional Broadway house, the Beacon Theater is at least located on Broadway (at 74th St) so there's a bit of logic to having it there. On May 10, 8:56 pm, Bob in Jersey <bob.in.jer...@juno.com> wrote: > Mark J., in part: > > > They're at the Beacon this year, which I thought was a rock concert > > hall--Radio City being used by someone else on the 12th? > > "Cirque du Soleil invites you to Zarkana, a fantastically bizarre > journey premiering exclusively at Radio City Music Hall. This epic > spectacle takes audiences into a fantastical and suspenseful world > where highly-acrobatic feats are heightened by original live music and > interactive multimedia elements. Zarkana transforms the grandest stage > in the world into a world of unreality as only Cirque du Soleil could > imagine." > > http://www.radiocity.com/events/cirque-du-soleil-zarkana-2011.html > > -- > BOB -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
