By Samir Mathur
Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey present DRAGONS is at the Amway Center now through Monday (1/16). Click here for showtimes and ticket info.
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Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey present DRAGONS is at the Amway Center now through Monday (1/16). Click here for showtimes and ticket info.Photo at left courtesy of FELD Entertainment
Last night, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey rolled The Greatest Show on Earth into Orlando, with its brand new production, 'Dragons'. TheDailyCity was invited for a pre-show backstage tour and conversation with the company's AGM David Bailey. The logistics of such a large-scale performance are astonishing: over 300 people from 16 countries are involved with the show, among them 142 performers; it took five weeks to build all the sets, props, costumes, etc; and it takes 18 hours to set up everything at each venue. Last night was the premiere of Dragons - the show is set to run across the country for another 49 weeks, with up to ten shows a week.
The company is very aware of the criticism it often faces in regards to the treatment and welfare of the animals involved with the show. Mr. Bailey seemed to acknowledge that in the past, animals should have been handled better, but pointed out that Ringling Brothers is now one of the most inspected entities in the world, and they are continuously meeting all regulations. He also indicated that the circus' elephant preservation center in Sarasota is one of the world's most advanced and successful, and that their elephants have longer life spans that those of other conservation sites. Another thing that I thought interesting was that the guy who performs with the lions and tigers actually owns the lions and tigers, so he's unlikely to do anything that would be detrimental to their well-being.
As is the case before every Ringling performance, there was a pre-show segment where ticket holders could come down to the floor, meet some clowns, try on some costumes, and pet a goat. Just before 7.30, the lights went down and the real fun began. There were a few high-energy songs, performed by ringmaster Johnathan Lee Iverson. One of the songs had the word "swag" in it. The animal acts were all good - the big cats seemed to be engaged in a dangerous reenactment of that one OK Go video - but I was a lot more worried for some of the human performers. Among other things, there are guys riding motorbikes on high-wires, multiple people riding motorbikes in a giant metal globe like in The Simpsons Movie, girls dangling from the ceiling by their hair, and one particular Shaolin monk who does something involving fire, a blindfold, and swords, that I'll leave to your imaginations. I don't want to say much about the acts, because they all deserve to be seen without any preconceptions or expectations. These are performers from all over the world, the best at what they do, and it makes for an incredible spectacle.
There were a lot of kids at the opening night performance, and it was equally fun to see how enthralled they all were by everything that was going on, although at 2 and a half hours, some got tired and/or asleep before the end. There is still something genuinely thrilling about the circus, and nobody does it bigger or thrilling-er than Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey.
Photos by Lauren Gibaldi Mathur
Photo below courtesy of FELD Entertainment
