MANATEE COUNTY (WFLA) — Inside Feld Entertainment’s headquarters in Palmetto, 75 performers have been hard at work, rehearsing for the highly-anticipated relaunch of “The Greatest Show on Earth.”
In 2017, many thought The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performers were taking their final bow, but the show is back after a six-year hiatus and it is completely reimagined.
There will be no animals involved in the new production. Creators of the show want to give the audience an “immersive, 360-degree” experience with acts by some of the top performers in the world.
Casting teams scoured the globe to find 75 performers to take the on the road. There were more than 4,000 submissions.
Some of the acts include the triangular high wire, a crisscross flying trapeze, a double wheel, and much more. Spectators can expect an action-packed show from start to finish, which will include aerial arts, dance, music, comedy and countless jaw-dropping thrills.
“We found 75 incredible people that do the most incredible things. They have all trained really hard, they have worked these amazing things and now we get to put them all together in this space and we’ve got production numbers where everyone is out together, but we’ve also mixed up troops and kind of reworked things so we are kind of taking what you would know and expect, but then taking it to a whole new level,” said director Dan Shipton.
Shipton tells 8 On Your Side no one will get bored during this new and reinvented production.
“The biggest difference I think for the 2023 audience, and this new generation of circusgoers is essentially that they expect more. I think they’ve got shorter attention spans, so we have created this kind of amazing flow that never ever stops, it is always giving a whole new emotion and is taking you on this journey,” said Shipton.
The show will kick off in Lousiana at the end of the month. There will be a stop in the Tampa Bay area at Amalie Arena in January.
You can find ticket information on Ringling.com.
