Cirque Won’t Work in Miami Beach

For those of you who don’t know, Cirque du Soleil is thinking about setting up shop at the Jackie Gleason Theatre. The obstacle is they want the City of Miami Beach to pony up $150 million dollars before they come.

The Miami Herald has published a letter from reader Richard Rosichan about why Cirque du Soleil won’t work in Miami Beach:

“People go to Miami Beach for the beach, conventions and boat and car shows, and the younger folks also go for the clubs.

People who go to conventions are usually very busy. If they don’t have evening business, they like to have a nice dinner and kick back in their hotel rooms.

NOBODY comes to Miami Beach to go to the circus! I should add that Cirque du Soleil tickets are always expensive, and that it is basically a one-shot experience. Once someone has seen it, he or she probably won’t feel the need to go again.”

Richard Rosichan get’s it right in my opinion, when he says that it’s too expensive and visitors won’t go.

The way I see it, people go to Cirque du Soleil to have a mind blowing experience. When people visit Miami Beach, the kind of mind blowing experience they are looking for usually involves a day at the topless beach, or an all nighter at Club Space. Nobody will shell out $75 bucks to see acrobats dressed in spandex. 

I’m not knocking the Cirque. The performers are great, but they can’t compete with what is happening at Opium and Crobar, not to mention Goldrush and Miami Velvet.

The acts that seem to work best at the Jackie Gleason are: stand-up comedy and Latin American pop/rock bands.

The Theatre should think about the locals when choosing a season. We’re a pretty cool bunch. If you give us what we want, the visitors will come too.

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