Holiday Showcase | |
---|---|
Show type | Annual holiday production |
Date of premiere | December 9, 2006 |
Final show | December 6, 2008 |
Location | Hoffman Estates, Illinois |
Creative team | |
Music director | Robert Hanson |
Aerialists | Cirque du Soleil |
2006 Host | Doug LaBrecque |
2007 Host | Diane Penning Benjamin Brecher |
2008 Host | Jodi Benson |
Orchestra | Elgin Symphony Orchestra |
Olympic ice skaters 2007, 2008 | Melissa Gregory Denis Petukhov |
The Holiday Showcase was an annual musical holiday stage show presented at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It was put on by the Elgin Symphony Orchestra and featured Cirque du Soleil.
The Phantom of the Opera star, Doug LaBrecque hosted the first Holiday Showcase at the newly opened Sears Centre in 2006. [1] It featured the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, Cirque du Soleil aerialists, and a chorus of over 400. [2] The one-night event was a success leading to the Holiday Showcase continuing the next two years.
Reflecting on the prior year's Holiday Showcase, music director of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra Robert Hanson stated, "The move to the Sears Centre came about when an ESO Elgin Symphony Orchestra board member, who also is a Sears Centre board member, suggested we consider having our holiday show at the Sears Centre." [3] For the past 25 years, the Elgin Symphony Orchestra had held holiday concerts at The Hemmens Cultural Center. The 2007 Holiday Showcase was hosted by soprano Diane Penning and tenor Benjamin Brecher and featured Cirque du Soleil aerialists and jugglers, director Michael Weber, the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, and Olympic ice skaters Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov.[ citation needed ]
Tony Award-winning vocalist Jodi Benson hosted the third annual Holiday Showcase in 2008 and the show became known as the biggest holiday event in the area. [4] It featured Cirque du Soleil aerialists and jugglers, the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, and Olympic ice skaters Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov. [5] They also teamed up with charity Toys for Tots collecting before the start of the performance. [6]
Cirque du Soleil is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, Montreal, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 June 1984 by former street performers Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix.
Quidam was the ninth stage show produced by Cirque du Soleil. It premiered in April 1996 and has been watched by millions of spectators around the world. Quidam originated as a big-top show in Montreal and was converted into an arena format beginning with its 2010 tour in North America. It then changed back to the Big Top for a 3-month run in Seoul, South Korea before returning to an arena show for its tour to Oceania. The show performed for the final time in Christchurch, New Zealand on February 26, 2016.
Saltimbanco was a touring show by Cirque du Soleil. Saltimbanco ran from 1992 to 2006 in its original form, performed under a large circus tent called the Grand Chapiteau; its last performance in that form was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on December 10, 2006. A new adaptation of the show started touring North America on July 31, 2007, with its first stop in London, Ontario, Canada. The new version was staged in arenas with fewer performances in each city it visited. The new version closed at the end of 2012.
Mystère is one of six resident Cirque du Soleil shows in Las Vegas, Nevada. Held in a custom theatre at the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino, the show was first performed on 25 December 1993, making it the company's longest running show. As with many Cirque du Soleil productions, Mystère features a mixture of circus skills, dance, elaborate sets, opera, worldbeat music, and street theatre-style comedy. Featuring a musical score composed by René Dupéré and Benoît Jutras, the show was created under the direction of Franco Dragone.
La Nouba was a Cirque du Soleil show that ran for 19 years in a custom-built, freestanding theater at Disney Springs' West Side at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. It was a contemporary circus performance featuring acrobats, gymnasts, and other skilled performers. The show's creation was directed by Franco Dragone, who also directed many of Cirque du Soleil's earlier shows. Its title derives from the French phrase faire la nouba, meaning "to party" or "to live it up".
Corteo is a Cirque du Soleil touring production that premiered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on April 21, 2005.
The Elgin Symphony Orchestra is a regional orchestra founded and headquartered in Elgin, Illinois. Its Music Director is Chad Goodman, former conducting fellow of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida. The Orchestra's season includes some 40 performances annually at the 1,200-seat Hemmens Cultural Center in Elgin and various locations in the greater Elgin area.
Varekai was a Cirque du Soleil touring production that premiered in Montréal in April 2002. Its title means "wherever" in the Romani language, and the show is an "acrobatic tribute to the nomadic soul".
Melissa Gregory is an American former ice dancer. With partner and husband Denis Petukhov, she is the 2005 Four Continents silver medalist, a 2006 United States Olympic team member, and a four-time (2004–07) U.S. national silver medalist.
Denis Alexandrovich Petukhov is a retired Russian-American ice dancer. With his wife Melissa Gregory, he is the 2005 Four Continents silver medalist, a 2006 United States Olympic team member, and a four-time (2004–07) U.S. national silver medalist.
Zaia was a Cirque du Soleil stage production based at The Venetian Macao on the Cotai Strip in Macau. The 90-minute show opened in August 2008, bringing together 75 high-calibre artists from around the world. Zaia was Cirque du Soleil's first resident show in Asia and was directed by Neilson Vignola and Gilles Maheu. The custom-built theater housing the performance was capable of seating 1,800 spectators at a time.
Ovo is a touring circus production by Cirque du Soleil that premiered in Montréal, Canada in 2009. Ovo's creator and director, Deborah Colker, took inspiration from the world of insects. The idea for Ovo was not to be about the acts, nor dancing, nor insects, but about movement. The movement of life permeates the entire show, with creatures flying, leaping, bounding, and crawling. Composer Berna Ceppas brought additional life to Ovo with a score inspired by the music of Brazil. Ovo means "egg" in Portuguese and represents the underlying thread of the show. Graphically, inside the logo of Ovo, is an insect. The two O's represent the eyes and the V forms the nose and antennas.
Koozå is a touring circus production by Cirque du Soleil which premiered in Montréal, Quebec, Canada, in 2007. The show was written and directed by David Shiner, who had previously worked as a clown in Cirque du Soleil's production of Nouvelle Expérience. His experience as a clown and his time with Switzerland's Circus Knie and Germany's Circus Roncalli informed his work on Koozå.
Totem is a touring show by Cirque du Soleil that premiered in Montréal on April 22, 2010. It was written and directed by previous collaborator Robert Lepage (Kà). Cirque du Soleil describes Totem's theme as the evolution of humanity from its primordial, amphibian state toward the aspiration of flight, taking inspiration from many of humanity's founding myths. The show was awarded the 2013 New York Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience.
Cirque Productions, also known as Cirque Dreams, is a subsidiary of Cirque du Soleil.
Banana Shpeel was a touring stage show created by Cirque du Soleil which premiered on November 19, 2009, at the Chicago Theater. The vaudeville-based show was directed by David Shiner, who also created Koozå. The show lasted less than a year, only playing in Chicago, New York City, and Toronto. The show was cancelled in 2010, due to its poor reviews and many complications.
Zarkana was a Cirque du Soleil stage production written and directed by François Girard. It began as a touring show in 2011 and was converted to a resident show in Las Vegas in late 2012. It premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on June 29, 2011, and later toured to the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow and the Madrid Arena in Madrid.
Volta was a touring circus show by the Cirque du Soleil and was based on extreme sports; the principal character is a game-show host named Waz.
Crystal is an arena touring show by Cirque du Soleil that started previewing to the public in October 2017, with an official premiere in December 2017. It is Cirque du Soleil's 42nd original show since 1984, and the first one done on an ice rink, where most of the performers are ice skating throughout the show, and blends several circus acts with high-level ice skating. It is described as a woman shattering reality to discover herself in the world of possibility.
Cirque de la Symphonie is a touring circus troupe based in Athens, Georgia, first incorporated in 2005 by William H. Allen and Alexander Streltsov. Its performances involve a variety of minimalist contemporary circus acts synchronized to the music of a live symphony orchestra. Reception to the Cirque has been positive both commercially and critically, with shows typically selling out and being positively reviewed by critics.