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Company type | Private corporation |
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Industry | Entertainment |
Predecessors | Vee Corporation Blue Star Media, LLC |
Founded | March 14, 1980 |
Headquarters | , US [1] |
Number of locations | 2 |
Key people |
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Parent | AUA Private Equity |
Divisions |
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Subsidiaries | Cirque Dreams [2] |
Website | Official website |
VStar Entertainment Group is a family entertainment production company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It produced Sesame Street Live, a live touring stage show based on the television series. It has also produced stage shows based on The Muppet Show and Muppet Babies , PAW Patrol , Barney & Friends , Trolls , Bear in the Big Blue House , Dragon Tales , Baby Shark's Big Show!, and Curious George .
Vee Corporation was started on March 14, 1980 [3] from an idea by founder Vincent Egan to produce a live character show just for Sesame Street. At the time, there were only three touring family shows, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and two ice shows, Ice Follies and Holiday on Ice. [4] He based it off his time working for the Ice Follies which had a segment with those Sesame Street Muppets. Egan approached Jim Henson's company and Children's Television Workshop, who were interested. He then found an investor in Gordon Stofer, whose Norwest Growth Fund took half ownership in the company for $500,000. Egan refinanced his home mortgage for $25,000 in additional funding. [1] With the funding, Vee was able to sign a licensing agreement with the Children's Television Workshop for the characters. [4]
The first Sesame Street Live show opened in September 1980 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in Bloomington, Minnesota for a five-day run. That show was successful. The following shows in five locations had lackluster attendance costing VEE the profits made in Bloomington. Egan figured that the marketing material was confusing people in those markets as what type of show was not specified. He overhauled the script and marketing while getting his creditors to wait for payments. That Christmas, the show went on to play for four weeks at Madison Square Garden's 4,000-seat Felt Forum in New York City before an audience of 100,000 people. [1]
Around 2000, Egan purchased Norwest Fund's stake in the corporation. He also formed two divisions, Vee Costumes & Creatures and Vee Production Services, to successfully diversify the company. [1]
Sanjay Syal started Blue Star Productions before 1995 to produce trade shows. Where Syal produced over 100 events per year, Syal then formed Blue Star Media in 2011 for the traveling exhibition, Discover the Dinosaurs, which became one of the most successful traveling family events in the country with over 120 event per year. With the success of the exhibition, Syal then proceeded to wind down Blue Star Productions as contracts expired. [5] Blue Star Media then started to look for a partner finding AUA Private Equity, who purchase a share of the company from Syal in early June 2014 via a leverage buyout. [5] [6] A tented version of the Discover exhibition was launched in 2014 at two state fairs, New York State Fair, and the California State Fair, and had 14% of total yearly attendance for the exhibition. [5]
On April 1, 2015, Blue Star Media, LLC under the direction of Sanjay Syal as CEO purchased VEE Corporation with Egan continuing as a consultant. [5] In 2015, VEE Corporation and Blue Star Media, a producer and promoter of consumer shows and events, became VStar Entertainment Group. [3] In August 2015, the company agreed to partner with the Pro Football Hall of Fame for a mobile tour. [7] In April 2016, Vstar hired Eric Grilly as CEO from Comcast Sports Group. [3]
In November 2016, Sesame Workshop announced an agreement with Feld Entertainment for a new Sesame Street Live show thus ending VStar's arena version in July 2017. [8] The company continues to support and produce other Sesame Street shows at various locations and the United Service Organizations tour while still providing costumes. [2]
In January 2017, Vstar acquired Cirque Productions, based in South Florida. Neil Goldberg, Cirque Productions founder and Broadway director, was retained as president of Cirque Dreams. [2]
On July 5, 2018, Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group announced that it was acquiring VStar. [9]
On June 29, 2020, Cirque du Soleil filed for bankruptcy in Canada. Three days later, on July 1, 2020, they filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy. [10] [11]
James Maury Henson was an American puppeteer, animator, actor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notability as the creator of the Muppets. Henson was also well known for creating Fraggle Rock (1983–1987) and as the director of The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986).
Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character created in 1955 and originally performed by Jim Henson. An anthropomorphic green frog, Kermit is the pragmatic everyman protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably as the showrunner and host of the sketch comedy television series The Muppet Show and a featured role on Sesame Street. He has appeared in other television series, feature films, specials, and public service announcements through the years. He also served as a mascot of The Jim Henson Company and appeared in various Henson projects until 2004, when the character was acquired by The Walt Disney Company.
The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an absurdist, slapstick, burlesque, and self-referential style of variety-sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, their media franchise encompasses films, television, music, and other media associated with the characters. Owned by the Jim Henson Company for nearly five decades, the Muppets and their franchise were acquired by the Walt Disney Company in 2004.
Big Bird is a Muppet character designed by Jim Henson and built by Kermit Love for the children's television show Sesame Street. An eight-foot-two-inch-tall (249 cm) bright yellow anthropomorphic bird, he can roller skate, ice skate, dance, swim, sing, write poetry, draw, and ride a unicycle. Despite this wide array of talents, he is prone to frequent misunderstandings, on one occasion even singing the alphabet as a single word. He would refer to grocer Mr. Hooper as "Mr. Looper", among other mispronunciations. He lives in a large nest behind the 123 Sesame Street brownstone and right next to Oscar the Grouch's trash can. In Season 46, the nest sits within a small, furnished maple tree, and is no longer hidden by used construction doors. He has a teddy bear named Radar.
Sesame Street Live is a live touring show based on the children's television show Sesame Street produced by Roundroom Live under license of Sesame Workshop.
Louise Gold is an English puppeteer, actress and singer. Her long career has included puppetry on television and roles in musical theatre in the West End, as well as other television, film and voice roles.
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.
Christmas Eve on Sesame Street is a Sesame Street Christmas special first broadcast on PBS on Sunday, December 3, 1978.
The Jim Henson Company, Inc., formerly known as Muppets, Inc., Henson Associates, Inc., and Jim Henson Productions, Inc., is an American entertainment company located in Los Angeles, California. The company is known for its innovations in the field of puppetry, particularly through the creation of Kermit the Frog and the Muppets characters.
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".
The Blue Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Loveland, Colorado, 55 mi (89 km) northeast of Denver. It has 24 luxury suites, 777 club seats and 6,800 general admission seats. The arena is located on The Ranch Events Complex and is owned by Larimer County, Colorado. The facility and ticket sales are managed by OVG360. It is home to the AHL Colorado Eagles ice hockey team and is the former home of the Colorado Lightning indoor soccer team, the Colorado Chill women's basketball team, and the Denver Dream women's football team. It was also home to the Colorado Ice/Crush indoor football team from 2007 until 2017 and will serve as home of the Colorado Spartans starting in 2024.
The Muppets Studio, LLC is an American entertainment production company and subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, that owns and produces media content for The Muppets franchise. The division was previously formed as The Muppets Holding Company, LLC in 2004 through Disney's acquisition of The Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House intellectual properties from The Jim Henson Company.
Abby Cadabby, is a Muppet character on the PBS/HBO children's television show Sesame Street, performed by Leslie Carrara-Rudolph. On August 14, 2006, Abby made her debut in the first episode of Sesame Street’s 37th season, when she moved into the neighborhood and met some of the Street's residents. On the day of her debut, her wand broke; Big Bird told her to take her wand to the Fix-It Shop where Maria would fix it. Season 40 features her CGI animated recurring segments titled Abby's Flying Fairy School which was adapted into a proper spin-off. She is also currently the host of another spin-off Abby's Amazing Adventures, with her stepbrother Rudy, which debuted in 2018.
Adapted live stage tours are theatrical or stadium productions, based on directly or indirectly on licensed properties.
Feld Entertainment Inc. is an American live show production company which owns a number of traveling shows. The company began with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus before expanding into additional live events, including Disney on Ice, Monster Jam, Monster Energy AMA Supercross and Sesame Street Live. The company is family-owned.
The American children's television series Sesame Street is known for its extensive merchandising. Licensees include a variety of companies which manufacture books, magazines, video/audio media, and toys using the characters and themes of Sesame Street.
Viva Elvis was the seventh resident Cirque du Soleil show on the Las Vegas Strip. It resided at the Aria Resort & Casino and premiered on February 19, 2010. The show closed on August 31, 2012. Cirque du Soleil partnered with Elvis Presley Enterprises to produce this show, similar to how they partnered with The Beatles' Apple Corps Ltd to produce the resident show Love at the Mirage.
Cirque Productions, also known as Cirque Dreams, is a subsidiary of Cirque du Soleil.
Vincent E. Egan was an executive and entertainment company founder. Egan founded VEE Corporation for the Sesame Street Live touring shows. He was a founder of the Event and Arena Marketing Conference. By 2009, Vincent had been married and divorced twice.