Forget Punxsutawney Phil. Forget Staten Island Chuck. They are so February. For a true indicator of the advent of spring, nothing beats the arrival of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. And this year’s edition, titled “Zing Zang Zoom,” is an artful eyeful, liberally spiced with mystifying magic. If Sandburg’s fog arrives on little cat feet, this extravaganza has made its way Thursday to Madison Square Garden — after stops in New Jersey and on Long Island — on the paws of testy tigers, the hooves of pirouetting zebras and the oversize feet of capering clowns. That is
For the 125 years since the Bailey Circus first merged with Barnum, it’s been known worldwide as “The Greatest Show On Earth.” Today, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is a national treasure, as American as apple pie, hot dogs, and hamburgers. The 136th Edition of Ringling Bros. will be at Madison Square Garden March 23rd through April 17th. But this won’t be the same Ringling Bros. we remember. Impresario Kenneth Feld wants us to forget the circus we’ve known in preparation for a bold new staging that eliminates the traditional three rings and brings audiences closer to
When Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey decided to replace its traditional three-ring format with one giant performance area, many circus freaks and fans didn’t exactly embrace it as the greatest change to “The Greatest Show on Earth.” “I’ve been asked, what’s it like to go down to just a one-ring circus, but I don’t look at it that way,” says Shanda Sawyer, the San Francisco native chosen to reinvent the 136th edition of Ringling Bros., which makes its way to the Oakland Arena on Thursday. “I think of it more like we’re coming up from the confines of three
Step right up, ladies and gentleman, and witness the “Greatest Show On Earth” — like you’ve never seen it before. The 136th edition of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will roll into the Wachovia Spectrum on Thursday for ten days of rip-roaring thrills and fun for the whole family. Amidst the clowns, trapeze artists and jumbo elephants that everyone has come to expect from circus shows, Ringling Bros. has incorporated a cavalcade of new attractions that promises to make this new edition its most tantalizing yet. “Ringling Bros. has made a bold move in breaking away from
Shanda Sawyer, Director, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus By Robert J. Hughes 545 words 2 June 2006 The Wall Street Journal W9 English (Copyright (c) 2006, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) SHANDA SAWYER bosses clowns around for a living. While many managers might think that job description sounds familiar, Ms. Sawyer is the director of the 136th edition of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. When Feld Entertainment, which produces the circus, went looking for a new director, they “wanted to look for a director who had never worked in the circus industry, who could bring
But the real circus — Ringling Bros/Barnum & Bailey — opened last night in New York at Madison Square Garden. I hadn’t seen it in about 20 years, but my almost nine year old nieces Hannah and Charlotte wanted to go. What a great surprise: the circus is great. They’ve given it a taste of Bollywood, too. Beautiful costumes, amazing acrobats and jugglers, and happy enough looking elephants, tigers, horses and poodles perform dazzling routines that really do suggest The Greatest Show on Earth. If you’ve been away from the circus, a real three ring circus, it’s time to go
The offbeat series “Who Needs Hollywood?” (8 p.m., Oxygen) travels to small towns all over America, where host Katie Puckrik and her flamboyant choreographer Marvin Thornton recruit local talent to perform thematic, improvised song-and-dance numbers. Combining the “Let’s put on a show” spirit of old Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland movies and the cringe-worthy humor of the Christopher Guest comedy “Waiting for Guffman,” the series walks a careful line between celebration and condescension. Tonight’s first show takes place at the Raleigh Hotel in South Fallsburg, N.Y. This time-capsule resort is one of the last remaining hotels in the old “Borscht
One-hour comedy/reality show transforms aging guests and hotel staff into variety show performers in 72 hours Hollywood, Calif./Nov. XX, 2002 – Who Needs Hollywood?, the one-hour comedy/reality series produced by Shanda Sawyer and Katie Puckrik and directed by Sawyer, drops host Puckrik and flamboyant choreographer sidekick Marvin Thornton into a fading Catskills hotel and gives them a mere 72 hours to convince aging guests, un-enthusiastic teens and hotel staff to participate in a live talent show. “We wanted to know if Borscht Belt hotel staffs really scamper around doing Patrick Swayze-like mambo moves,” Shanda Sawyer, Executive Producer and director, said.
… a charming comedy-reality show, ”Who Needs Hollywood?,” directed by Shanda Sawyer, that will debut on the Oxygen cable channel on Nov. 27. In it Katie Putrick, the host and a co-producer, travels around the country coaxing ordinary people to put on performances. In one hourlong episode, she and a flamboyant choreographer, Marvin Thornton, travel to the Raleigh Hotel, one of the last remaining Catskills resorts, to see if they can persuade the aging employees and guests to stage a variety show à la ”Dirty Dancing.” The hotel staff and clientele are Borscht Belt old, and Borscht Belt cranky. The
The road to Darien, Ga., may be long, but once there, you’ll find its residents are quirky, funny, receptive and talented. Or so it seems from the evidence brought back by a “Who Needs Hollywood?” crew, which captured the town’s essence. “Who Needs Hollywood?” is directed and co-exec produced by Shanda Sawyer. This reality series goes all out to entertain by going where some folks dare not go — to small-town America. Within this episode’s rustic setting you’ll find a barbershop quartet, a Baptist choir and a Scottish bagpiper — an eclectic group indeed — all on the same stage