Drew Richardson and I saw the final NY dress rehearsal of the Big Apple Circus' 31st production, Play On last night.
Carrie Harvey
Barry Lubin
Rodion Troupe
Luciano Anastasini and his Pound Puppies
Glen Heroy
Mark Gindick
Olivier Taquin
Valdis Yanovskis
Christine Zerbini
Sultan Kumisbayev
Nanjing Acrobats
The Flying Cortes
The LaSalle Brothers
Sarah Schwarz
GuiMing Meng
Regina Dobrovitskaya
Andrey Mantchev
Virgile Peyramaure
Christian Atayde Stoinev
MUSIC
Michael Valenti
DIRECTOR
Steve Smith
The clowning was excellent as always. Glen Heroy hit one out of the park last night by picking an adorable 3 year old volunteer who was as happy to participate in the gag as he was just to run around the ring. Glen played each moment absolutely perfectly.
Stand outs in the show for me include Luciano Anastasini comedy dog act which I worked with on Hamid two seasons ago and GuiMing Meng who I worked with on McConnell's show. Both acts are outstanding. The LaSalle Brothers come into New York heavily hyped by the show and live up to every word that you've read; they are the most entertaining juggling act that I've seen since this group in 2005...
I'm not sure of the name of the wire walker, but that was another act that I found outstanding in both it's conception and execution.
The set design was very innovative and brought the band much closer to the action and the show benefited greatly from the return of Steve Smith's direction, which always brings a warmth and flow to the production that seems to be missing when he's not at the helm.
For more, click here.
4 comments:
I wish they could come here to the windy city steve smith's home when he was on a show called kidding around here on a local channel nbc infact
You are correct sir !
A group of us from the Ringling Red show were able to make it up to see the show.
(we are in Bridgepor, a mer 1 hour away)
We had a blast, and throughly enjoyed the performance!
Glen was did a great job, his audience management of the kiddo was great!
A lot of "audience participation" clowns could learn a lot from watching how he handled it!
Larry
Hi Pat,
The wire walker that you admired is Big Apple Circus company member Sarah Schwarz. Her act, produced completely in house, is her own creation.
Those jugglers in the video are Elena Drogoleva and her Gentlemen, an outstanding act from the Nikulin Circus in Moscow.
All the best,
Don Covington
Dear Pat,
So great seeing you! AND the Red Show Alley. And so many other former CC Grads, clowns and dear souls.
Many thanks for the kind words.
And how surprising to read that someone actually remembers "KIDDING AROUND" which aired in Chicago from 1978-1985.
Be well...
Scatter Joy,
steve smith
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