LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BOYS AND GIRLS: The new version of an old standby has been eagerly anticipated. (Courtesy Feld Entertainment)
Revamped Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Is Off and Running
Juliette Feld Grossman (Feld Entertainment)
After the last bow took place in Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on May 21, 2017, Feld Entertainment said goodbye to “The Greatest Show on Earth.” The year before, the animals had been moved from the show to a sanctuary in Florida, and the final performance replaced elephants with mermaids. Gone were the days of elephant walks, clowns in heavy makeup and hundreds of people traveling cross-continent via train. Instead, Juliette Feld Grossman, Feld Entertainment chief operating officer, along with the rest of the team overseeing the traveling circus, a staple of American live entertainment that dates to the early 1800s, got to work on how to continue the 150-year legacy and recapture the attention of a digital generation. The attention-grabbing show has something new every 3.5 seconds. “We bring these acts from around the world. There’s no other kind of production that interweaves and incorporates performance in this way and is truly authentic to the performers and where they come from, understanding what they do,” Feld Grossman said. “It’s such a unique kind of entertainment.’
