Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey will return in a little more than a year with a new variation of its traditional “The Greatest Show on Earth.”
Feld Entertainment, a family-owned company and owner of Ringling Bros, and Barnum & Bailey circus, announced Wednesday, May 18, 2022, that a new edition of its traditional show will debut in the fall of 2023 as a “multi-platform entertainment franchise” and that its creative team is now searching for acts around the world. Last fall, the company said it would relaunch its touring shows after a six-year break but without animals.
There is no reference to the word “circus” in the Feld Entertainment’s press release.
Chairman and CEO Kenneth Feld (above) said in a statement:
“As passionate stewards of Ringling, we are committed to creating a lifestyle brand that connects with families and sparks real fun 365 days a year through live performances, digital content, consumer products, school curricula, youth circus arts programs and more. We are innovating all aspects of the live show and modernizing the franchise to create an engaging property that is built for today’s families and will last for another 150 years.”
Feld Entertainment's press release included a YouTube video titled, "Ringling: The American Icon Returns."
Feld shut down the three-ring circus in 2017 after a 146-year run. Observers suggested at the time that years of animal rights protests against Ringling Bros. had led to a decline in ticket sales and the closing of the touring circus. Ringling was long known for its popular lions, tigers, elephants and other animal acts. Elephants were dropped from its shows in 2016.
Billed as the ‘Greatest Show On Earth’ Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus originally ran from 1871 until 2017 when Feld, faced by high operating costs, declining ticket sales and growing pushback from animal rights activists, announced on January 15, 2017, that the circus would cease operation. What many thought would be the final performance of the circus took place at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on May 21, 2017.
A clown takes pictures with his cellphone during its last live show in 2017 (Click To Enlarge)
The company said it will expand its operations to include a variety of consumer products and a licensing program with toys, games, packaged goods, collectibles and more. It also will seek to extend its brand through theme park attractions and touring exhibitions. Ringling also is producing a documentary backstage in the making of a circus show.
Ringling Brothers eliminated the elephants from their show act in 2016 in order to reduce costs (Click To Enlarge)
The refreshed look of Ringling, as conceptualized in a new logo, has been designed to evoke the brand’s rich heritage while also creating feelings of wonder, discovery and joy. The “R” in Ringling combines the inquisitiveness of a question mark, along with the punctuated excitement of an exclamation point. This unique design creates the Ringling interrobang, which is a perfect symbol to punctuate the “WOW” and curiosity of the brand.
The cast and crew of Ringling Bros. who performed in the last-ever show in Providence, RI. (Click To Enlarge)
An emotional Juliette Feld Grossman, Chief Operating Officer of Feld Entertainment and Producer of The Greatest Show On Earth said.
“The new Ringling logo illustrates the essence of the brand combined with modern simplicity. The logo is designed to flex and adapt across any brand communication. The contemporary look will invite curiosity and captivate families as they discover more ways to become a part of the awe-inspiring world of Ringling.”
The new Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey logo (Click To Enlarge)
Old Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey logo (Click To Enlarge)
COMMENTARY: The last time I attended a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus was back in the late 70's when I took my son and former ex to the Cow Palace in San Francisco. I lost track of the Ringling Bros circus and was surprised to hear that it had been shutdown in 2017 due to a decline in attendance, high operating costs and criticisms from animal rights activists.
The announcement by Feld Entertainment to relaunch Ringling Bros in the fall of 2023 is destined to become a textbook case study of how a historic touring circus died, re-invented itself by adopting a multi-platform entertainment business model, then relaunched itself after a six-year hiatus. I look forward to reviewing the progress of Ringling Bros' relaunch beginning with its Grand Opening in the fall of 2023 and evaluating whether their re-invention strategy is successful.
Getting rid of the animals, reducing operating expenses, and adopting a new business model should've been done a lot sooner because circus acts were already losing audiences to other forms of live entertainment and ticket sales were experiencing a steep decline.
Circustalk, the first online professional business-to-business social media platform that offers career resources and tools for the multidisciplinary performing arts from casting to training and recruitment of circus performers and supporting crews, made note of the challenges faced by circuses and said in a November 2017 press release:
"To those outside of the industry, circus may seem like a dwindling business. But the opposite is actually true—there is enormous growth internationally in the variety of shows available, and the (circus) industry is simply transitioning into a sleeker, more modern and thriving phase. By embracing that knowledge and technology, Circus Talk is at the forefront of helping that transition along."
Ringling Bros dropped "circus" from their name, but management must take full advantage of the huge nostalgia from the memorable acts that brought so much joy to families over the past 146 years that has been welded into the Ringling Bros brand. Animals have always been such a huge part of every Ringling Bros circus and should not be completely eliminated. Keep the horses and smaller animals. I hate to see the elephants, tigers and lions dropped from the show, but these animals cost a lot to house and maintain, and have been at the centerpiece of complaints from animal activists. I also believe leaving out the motto "The Greatest Show on Earth" from the logo is a mistake because in a nutshell that captures the brand value in it entirety.
I missed out when Ringling Bros shutdown the circus after its last show in New York in 2017. Luckily for all circus fans, I was able to find a YouTube video of that last show, and it is fantastic. I watched the entire show last night. Here it is:
Courtesy of an article dated May 18, 2022 appearing in The Guardian and a press release dated May 18, 2022 appearing in Ringling.com,
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