The New American Circus [Hardcover]

Ernest Albrecht (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a plodding academic study, Albrecht, who teaches English at Middlesex County College in New Jersey, tells the story of four modern circuses that evolved after the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus abandoned the big top in 1956. They are the Pickle Family Circus in San Francisco, the Big Apple Circus in New York City, Cirque du Soleil in Montreal and Circus Flora in St. Louis. Each offers one-ring productions in the European style, and each operates from a different home base. Albrecht maintains that, combining elements of the counterculture of the 1960s like street performances with those of legitimate theater and dance, these four represent a new brand of circus. Describing their histories, he summarizes the trials brought by economic crises, battles with animal-rights activists and the founding of circus schools, no longer a rarity in the U.S. While Albrecht distinguishes the "alternative circus" from its ancestors, the presence of trapeze artists, jugglers and clowns suggests that it's the same old material wrapped in new diction. Photos.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The author of A Ringling by Any Other Name (Scarecrow, 1989) here chronicles the development of troupes that might better be termed theater than circus. Unlike more traditional circus productions that offer a series of unrelated routines often occurring simultaneously, companies like the Cirque du Soleil, Circus Flora, and the Big Apple Circus typically combine elements of dance, music, comedy, theater, and circus to form a cohesive program that tells a complete story. Personal interviews as well as items like souvenir programs and press kits from individual circuses are among the sources used in compiling this work. An interesting account, this is more appropriate for performing arts than general collections.?Carolyn M. Mulac, Chicago P.L.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Florida; First edition (September 28, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081301364X
• ISBN-13: 978-0813013640
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,994,941 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At last an intelligent book about the circus!, June 14, 2000

By 

Dominique Jando - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New American Circus (Hardcover)

In America circus books come in two categories: Children books, giving an infantile look at a kind of circus which exists, most of the time, only in the author's imagination; and "circus history" books, usually compilations of previous works on the subject repeating the same anecdotes, collection of trivia, and "facts" whose sources are often mysterious (and thus make these facts often arguable).

Ernest Albrecht's work is different: It is a knowledgeable study of the state of the American circus today -- more specifically, its recent evolution from a three-ring, commercial spectacle often disconnected with the reality of the modern world to a contemporary form of performing art.

This evolution -- or revolution -- didn't happen in one day, and its pioneers (Pickle Family Circus, Big Apple Circus and, of course, Cirque du Soleil) were not born out of thin air. When and where did their creators find their inspiration? Who were these revolutionary creators? Why did people who, by in large, had originally nothing to do with the circus decided to reinvent it? And did they actually reinvent anything?

Ernest Albrecht, a theater critic who came to develop a keen interest in the "new circus" movement, asked himself these questions and went on to find answers.

Here is a rarity in this country: a book on the circus that dispenses with the usual nostalgia attached to anything regarding the American circus and treats its subject seriously, as would be any other perfornming art. As such, it is a must read for anyone interested in the theater, the performing arts in general, and (evidently) the circus arts. It is also a must read for any curious mind -- any one who wishes to see the circus from a point of view different from what P.T. Barnum wanted us to believe when he launched his "Greatest Show On Earth" as a uniquely American commercial venture more than one and a half century ago.

Dominique Jando

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars this book treats circus as an art form, August 26, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The New American Circus (Hardcover)

This book fills a much-needed gap in the literature on circuses, which for the most part have only examined three-ring circuses--despite the fact that circus in the United States had one ring before it had three. These books focusing on three-ring spectacles have also been, for the most part, rather dry histories that take all of the excitement out of a topic that is (to me) very stimulating. This book treats circus as the art form that it is, and puts interesting individuals and characters back into the story of the American circus with its excellent personal interviews. I wish other literature on the circus could be as engaging.