CIRQUE DU SOLEIL

Cirque du Soleil

Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY3

INTRODUCTION3

DISCUSSION4

CONCLUSION6

REFERENCES8

Cirque du Soleil

Executive Summary

Cirque du Soleil is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy Laliberté and Daniel Gauthier.[1] The company is the winner of the 1991 Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience.

People who have scored an invitation to that revelry with the Cirque's founder and owner describe the experience in terms usually saved for old Fellini movies. The festivities have featured bands, exotic food and bonfires with Robert De Niro, Sylvester Stallone and other celebrities and moguls. Former guests recall the son of a South American head of state gawking in disbelief as a fat, milky moon rose over the lake - a trademark Cirque du Soleil prop, since another, smaller moon was already shining in the sky. With jugglers, fire-eaters, clowns, masseuses, fortune tellers and acrobats on hand for the guests - who usually number up to 1,000 - all would testify that Guy Laliberté is one genial, generous host.

Introduction

Not to mention resilient party animal: breakfast, then lunch, allow the fun to stretch over two nights. And the suggestion that the place has swarmed with beautiful women in smart outfits checks out, as does the absence of unfashionable reporters toting cameras and microphones. Security has been tight, with B-list guests being asked to sign a confidentiality pledge before being ushered in.

It is in that environment, in the summer of 2000, that a woman we'll call Michelle recalls chatting with an older guy with a British accent who told her, while standing in a food line, that he used to play guitar in a now-defunct rock band. The woman said how interesting, and moved on amid the excitement of the night. The man was George Harrison, now a dead Beatle, then a certified motor-car racing buff and, as such, a friend and guest of Laliberté - who is known to hopscotch to Grand Prix races worldwide aboard his private Global Express executive jet.

But Laliberté's parties are not just a Cirque signature, and part of its creative lifestyle. They're also corporate strategy: a good way to have fun, make friends, impress potential partners. It was there, at that Grand Prix party in 2000, that an outlandish union was conceived: the Mop Tops from Liverpool, playing with the stilt-walkers from Baie St-Paul. George Harrison saying that the Cirque doing the Beatles would be a cool idea...

Discussion

When a small clique of nomadic, fun-loving, pot-smoking clowns, jugglers and acrobats gelled together around 1984, promising to reinvent the circus under the Cirque du Soleil's big top, the Beatles had long since flamed out. But even now, their iconic melodies still resonate. And the Cirque has long since outgrown its original, nomadic format to become, arguably, the world's fastest-growing, diversified live entertainment conglomerate. So, after years of negotiations with surviving Beatles, ...