Banana Shpeel

Banana Spheel was a touring arena show created by Cirque du Soleil which premiered on November, 19, 2009, at the Chicago Theater. The vaudeville-based show was directed by David Shiner, who also created Koozå. The show only lasted for a very short time, only playing in Chicago, New York City, and Toronto. The show was eventually cancelled in 2010, due to the many complications and poor reviews it was receiving.

History

The promotional posters of Banana Shpeel. Left: The modified artwork removing Ashford, Passer, Wilson. Right: The original artwork.

Banana Shpeel was plagued with misfortunes, including original cast members and show creators being removed from the project. Prominent Broadway actors, Michael Longoria and Annaleigh Ashford, were written out of the production, along with original composer Lawrence O'Keefe.^[1] The show premiered to scathingly poor reviews from both amateur^[2] and professional^[3] critics, who found the show drenched in insipid humour and lacking in cohesion.

After its try-out run in Chicago during November 2009-January 2010 at the Chicago Theatre, the show moved to the Beacon Theater in New York, originally scheduled for additional performances for March to April 2010. The show's opening was delayed as it underwent a huge revision process, delaying the show's opening in New York from February 5 up to February 29, and was subsequently delayed twice more to March 17, and finally to April 29.^[4] The show had undergone rework, adding in new acts, actors, characters, and storyline. The changes included the removal of composers Scott Price and Jean-François Côté, who were replaced by previous Cirque composer Simon Carpentier. The two lead clowns, Daniel Passer and Wayne Wilson, were fired from the production, but were hired soon after.^[5] Thanks to the resultant delays of the retool, Ovo and Banana Shpeel were dueling shows in New York. Ovo would open first and receive much better reviews.

After much delay and misfortune, the show finally began its run in New York City on April 29, 2010. Once again, the show garnered an impressive array of bad reactions from the general public^[6] and media outlets.^[7] Neil Genzlinger of the New York Times wrote, "Should I feel guilty that, for me, the most satisfying moment of Cirque du Soleil’s Banana Shpeel came when a clown was riddled with mock machine-gun fire?".^[8] Banana Shpeel was scheduled to run at the Beacon Theater until August 29, but the company shortened the run to end on June 27.^[9]

Despite the show receiving a poor critical reception, Cirque insisted on continuing to showcase Banana Shpeel around the country, announcing that it would embark on a national tour later that year, starting in Toronto. The company’s president and chief executive, Daniel Lamarre, insisted that Cirque received no pressure from the Beacon Theatre and had voluntarily closed the show for a re-staging.^[10] The limited engagement of Banana Shpeel ran in Toronto from September 18 to October 10. Despite one positive review,^[11] the show again received a generally poor response.^[12] Though the tour had originally been scheduled to go on to play in San Francisco and the Orange County Performing Arts Center,^[13] the production's mediocre reception prompted Cirque to cancel its upcoming tour.^[14]

Despite any misgivings, a spokesperson from Cirque announced that the closure of the Banana Shpeel tour was done in order to "...re-evaluate the tour plan to determine the appropriate next steps", prompting an implication that the show may reappear in another form at a later date.^[15]

Act List

Acts Opening
Foot Juggling
Handbalancing
Hand to Hand
Juggling
Magic Show
Finale

Characters
Schmelky
Clowns
Margaret

Previous Characters:
Katie
Emmett
Banana Man

Tour

Banana Shpeel had a short tour history playing in theatres in North America.

The following colorboxes indicate the region of each performance:   NA   North America

Arena tour

2009 schedule

  NA   Chicago, IL - From 19 November 2009 to 2 January 2010

2010 schedule

  NA   New York, NY - From 29 April 2010 to 27 June 2010
  NA   Toronto, ON - From 14 September 2010 to 10 October 2010

References