Banana Shpeel is
billed as "a new twist on Vaudeville" that is "not circus," not
"a musical," not "a variety show," nor "even vaudeville." Our
take is that it's a unique blend of skills, techniques and
disciplines all tidied up and held together with a story line.
In this case it's boy (Emmett) meets and falls in love with girl
(Katie) while enduring the machinations of "a cruel and
irritable producer" (Shmelky), and a bunch of strange
characters, including the mysterious Banana Man
NoteShpeel was scheduled to begin previews Feb 4th
but pushed back to Feb 25th, possibly for reworking due to poor
reviews during its Chicago run. On Feb 12th Cirque announced another
pushback, now with previews scheduled to start Mar 17th. No word as
yet on new opening date. Sorry about the confusion on this, but
there appears to be a lot of trouble trying to get the $20 million
dollar Shpeel ready for the stage
And more trouble. Just days before the purported Mar 17th previews
Cirque again pushed the first NYC performance back -- this time a whopping
six weeks! -- until Apr 29th. Now, consider this: Shpeel
started performances in Chicago on Nov 29th 2009 (!!); as of Mar
14th it will have had 15 weeks to get ready for its New York City
run. Fifteen weeks (!!) -- that's more than many Broadway limited
runs -- and the producers still think it needs six more weeks of
tweaking before it's ready for prime time?
So, for now, Apr 29th previews looking toward a May 21st opening
with a run until Aug 29th
