Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

The Beacon Theatre (Broadway at 74th) has temporarily gone dark to prepare for a big arrival, and from what we can see, the preparation is pretty intense.  The venue has been closed since early January and remains closed until Thursday, February 25th, when the newest Cirque du Soleil presents its worldwide premiere, Banana Shpeel.  The upcoming show, running on a limited schedule at the Beacon until May 30th, includes “performance styles inspired by vaudeville and blends comedy with tap, hip hop, eccentric dance and slapstick… propelled by crazy humor and intense choreography, Banana Shpeel plunges us into the world of Schmelky, a brash, ambitious producer who is trying to put together a spectacular variety show.  His world is populated with sidekicks, dancers, singers and novelty acts – and a trio of badly-behaved clowns who crash the auditions spreading chaos in all directions.”  It seems that a huge production of Cirque du Soleil‘s will take some thorough setting up, which is exactly what is going on at the Beacon.  These photos were taken recently of just some of the equipment being brought in.  It’s easy to see that the preparation in transforming the Beacon stage to a Cirque du Soleil fantasy will take some time (and plenty of equipment and manpower).  If you want to catch a Banana Shpeel show, buy tickets at the Beacon’s website.

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Tags: Openings/Closings