Allimp41041111111110111111NOMNIS..

Posh Circus

Showman Neil Goldberg brings European-style entertainment to Detroit's Fisher Theatre.

BILL CARROLL

Special to the Jewish News

T

he circus is coming to town —
and to Detroit's Fisher
Theatre, of all places.
No, southeastern Michigan's premier
playhouse won't be the scene of ele-
phants, tigers, sword-swallowers or
clowns in mini-cars with big horns. It's
an elegant circus with a refined name,
Cirque Dreams, and it more closely
resembles a big-top spectacle turned
Broadway-type stage show.
Cirque (which means circus in
French and is pronounced "sirk")
comes from a European entertainment
culture initiated by author Jules Verne.
In 1874, be built the largest circus in
France, called Cirque Municipal, and
the single-ring tents and theater-like
performances spread throughout
Europe. The modern-day Verne is pro-
ducer Neil Goldberg, who hails from
an Orthodox Jewish family in New
York and attended yeshivot, Jewish day
schools, through high school.
Goldberg conceived and directs
Cirque Dreams, the latest in a series of
the sophisticated circus events, as a
90-minute, two-act show with 20 per-
formers — most of them European.
The show will play eight performances
at the Fisher, from Tuesday, March 29,
through Sunday, April 3.
"In our show, the circus becomes
performance art," Goldberg explained
from the troupe's rehearsal headquar-
ters in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. "Basically,
we take the old-style circus out of the
circus and stylize it. It's more captivat-
ing than a regular circus; it creates a
fantasy wonderland on stage. I like to
refer to it as a cross between a
Salvador Dali painting and a Dr. Seuss
book."
The show personifies Goldberg's sig-
nature style of inventive acrobatics,
costuming, choreography, music and
unique visual effects.
There's an aerial ballet that takes
place over the audience, an interactive
musical symphony and four-legged
stilt creatures that walk around the
theater. A pair of Canadian trapeze
artists spin, jump and twist on and
over each other. A Russian acrobat
performs on five rolling cylinders.
Three muscular Russians balance on

Neil Goldberg-, at right, with performers from "Cirque Dreams"• 1A. cross between a
Salvador Dali painting and a Dr. Seuss book."

each other's heads, hands and sculpted
bodies, defying gravity. Two
Mongolian contortionists literally tie
themselves in knots.
One of the performers is Jewish,
Zachary Sandler of New York, who is
a "trickster character," according to
Cirque Dreams General Manager
Richard Kilman, a New York native,
who also is Jewish. Kilman joined the
troupe 10 years ago to handle all of
the business aspects. "Our show is the
circus genre carried out to its most
modern style," he said. "I call it an
artsy way of performing a circus.
"The show is easy to do on the road.
We fit all of our equipment into one
truck, roll into town and unload.

Theaters like the Fisher provide plenty
of room for our performers."
The troupe must endure a strict
training regimen, including countless
push-ups and sit-ups, and they under-
go about two years of rehearsals before
a new show takes to the road, begin-
ning months of rugged international
travel.

Behind The Scenes

Goldberg is a divorced father of two,
who explains that he's "more than
twice older than chai (18)." His father
was president of an Oceanside, Long
Island, Orthodox synagogue and
worked in Manhattan's garment dis-

trict.
As a youngster, the impresario cou-
pled his yeshivah training with the
usual singing, dancing and piano les-
sons, "until I realized I really didn't
want to perform because I was more
interested in the technical, behind-the-
scenes aspects of shows," he explained.
"My artistic inclinations had to be
expressed in a different form."
He obtained a degree in scenic
design from New York's C.W. Post
College.
"I became a freelance producer and
corporate and entertainment party
planner, and I designed and produced
shows for more than 2,000 corpora-
tions and private groups throughout
the world," he said.
He achieved much acclaim and
notoriety for putting together a huge
event for IBM International in the
mid-1980s and also handled events for
Coca Cola and American Express. He
produced two Super Bowl shows, two
Miss Universe pageants and various
shows for the Walt Disney World Co.
His work also has been featured on
several television specials.
Goldberg launched Cirque Ingenieux
in 1996 and successfully toured North
America through 1999, demonstrating
his concept of inventive theatrics and
European artistry, not to mention a
limitless imagination that has become
the signature style of Goldberg shows.
"The circus becomes performance
art," he says. "It's the hottest thing
going in Las Vegas, Off-Broadway,
even on cruise ships. Cirque Dreams is
a throwback to the circuses of the old
European days, except that everything
is more professional." ❑

Cirque Dreams opens Tuesday,
March 29, at Detroit's Fisher
Theatre and plays through
Sunday, April 3. Performances
are 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday;
8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m.
Saturday, and 1 and 6:30 p.m.
Sunday. Tickets: $16-$49. Call
the Fisher box office, (313) 872-
1000, or Ticketmaster, (248)
645-6666, or go to:
www.nederlanderdetroit.corn.

3/24

2005

45