Canada's online magazine: Politics, entertainment, technology, media, arts, books: backofthebook.ca

Politics, tech, media, culture and more, from a Canadian point-of-view

  • Politics
  • Media
  • Culture
  • Science and Tech
  • Living
  • Arts and Books
  • Features
  • The Video
You are here: Home / Culture / Cirque du Michael?

Cirque du Michael?

04/21/2010 by backofthebook.ca 1 Comment

By Rachel Krueger

cirque-du-soleil_michael-jacksonIn the world of unlikely pairings, Cirque du Soleil and Michael Jackson is right up there with peanut butter and neoprene.  Both are great; both have no business calling each other up on a rainy Saturday to hang out.

One of the more appealing aspects of the 40-year-old Cirque is that the more it changes, the more it stays somewhere along the ethereal-yet-wackily-French-Canadian continuum.  No matter which of its many manifestations you plunk your change down to see, there will be contortionists in body paint and clowns on trampolines and someone will dangle from two sashes for longer than is actually worth watching. 

And while I’m all for changing it up, I’m heartily against fixing what ain’t broke, as well as shoe-horning what will not be gracefully shoe-horned.  Cirque has joined up with the omnipresent Michael Jackson Estate to form a new series of shows which, from the looks of the trailer

will be a mash-up of clips from This is It and the Cirque-robats wasting their trapezial talents popping and kicking and crotch-grabbing. 

These aren’t the first famous coat-tails Le Cirque has attempted to ride on, and the bastards they bore with both the Elvis and Beatles franchises are the ones best forgotten.  Jackson’s dance-floor tunes are even less suited to their majesti-comic atmosphere, leading me to the cynical?  Nay, obvious conclusion that this is a money-grab. 

You break my heart, Cirque.  You are supposed to be a thing of purity and preternaturally strong ladies.  Why can’t you just stand on your own bedizened feet?

Filed Under: Culture Tagged With: celebrity, Cirque du Soleil, entertainment, Michael Jackson, showbiz

Subscribe to BoB by e-mail or RSS

Comments

  1. Fyoder Larue says

    04/24/2010 at 3:19 pm

    Cirque took the tired old Barnum Baily routine and energized it to create something exciting and relevant in contemporary terms. I can understand them not wanting to become themselves the new old shtick. Unfortunately, their style is so much of what makes them what they are, that any radical departure from it would make them not them. The Beatles kind of fit because of the dreamy/surreal quality of much of their music.

    But Michael Jackson? Doesn’t fit, isn’t Cirque, looks like pure exploitation. Something like this takes investigation before committing, then a lot of planning and organization. They must have started while Jackson’s corpse was still warm.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Google+
  • Living
  • Politics
  • Media
  • Culture
  • Arts and Books
  • Features
  • The Video
Fire sale sign

Fort McMurray: Shopping time!

By Brady Tighe We’re now officially in the aftermath phase of the northern Alberta wildfire crisis. The fire is long gone, and everyone with a home to return to is back in its … [Read More...]

Nathan Cullen

Electoral reform: Hashtag fresh thinking

By Alison@Creekside The most interesting and innovative idea to come out of the first meeting of the all-party Special Committee on Electoral Reform, or ERRE, was Nathan Cullen's suggestion, … [Read More...]

Trudeau on quantum computing

The Trudeau gush fest is getting old

By Jim Henshaw There have been several bewildered as well as angry accounts coming out of the USA lately about how little media time has been spent covering the Democratic Presidential Primary … [Read More...]

Rick Meyers in Nanaimo Pride Parade

My friend, Rick, at the Pride Parade

By Frank Moher On this dreadful day, I don't want to write about the shootings in Orlando. I want to write about my friend, Rick. Rick lives just outside of Nanaimo, a city of about 80,000, … [Read More...]

Stephen Colbert on Late Night set

Triumph of the drama nerds

By Frank Moher Two drama nerds have recently moved into high profile positions. Before I name them (or perhaps you’ve already guessed who they are; or perhaps you’d like to scroll down and look at … [Read More...]

From “Our Rape Blog”: Shooting the Moon

Originally published on Our Rape Blog, the author's account of the aftermath of a violent sexual assault. By Mary Fraughton Have you ever played Hearts? It’s a card game. For our purposes, … [Read More...]

First Nations defending Lelu Island

The video: Lelu Island: “They will come.”

From Creekside: The B.C. provincial government is trying to green light the construction of a massive LNG terminal on Lelu Island in the Skeena Estuary -- Pacific Northwest LNG, backed by Malaysian … [Read More...]

Google

Follow Us!

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter

RSS CBC News



Recent Posts

  • Fort McMurray: Shopping time!
  • From “Our Rape Blog”: Shooting the Moon
  • Electoral reform: Hashtag fresh thinking
  • The fish hotel
  • Hatred on an Alberta golf course
  • The video: Lelu Island: “They will come.”
  • My friend, Rick, at the Pride Parade
  • Our selective sympathy
  • The Water Bomber, The Frogman and The Great Canadian Novelist
  • Komagata Maru: The story behind the apology

Tags

9/11 Afghanistan Alberta bad behaviour books British Columbia business Canada Canadian military Canadian politics CBC celebrity computers Conservatives crime environment family film G20 Globe and Mail internet Jason Kenney journalism Justin Trudeau law Liberals Maclean's music National Post NDP newspapers oil sands online media Ontario Quebec RCMP religion sports Stephen Harper television theatre Toronto U.S. Vancouver women

Archives

The Video: Lelu Island: “They will come.”

Pages

  • About
  • Privacy

Copyright © 2023 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in