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Ring-less Ringling

The circus has a new format: no rings. Some love the new show, while others miss the old way.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published January 5, 2006

	[Times photo: Stefanie Boyar]
	The Yunan Troupe juggles hats during opening night Wednesday of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa. The Greatest Show on Earth runs through Sunday at the Times Forum. Tickets range in price from $15 to $35. RELATED: Ringmaster of his own design From center stage to center ring All new show? Not quite

TAMPA - Mary Oliver, 65, gulped a spoonful of ice from a rainbow snow cone in a plastic orange clown-head cup and settled in to watch the new, first-time-ever ring-free Greatest Show on Earth.

Not that anyone had to convince this denim-wearing, rhinestone sporting, blue-eyed security guard from Manatee County that the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is fabulous. She's been attending the circus for 63 years. It hooked her the moment she saw the animals file into a tent from a train.

"No other circus compares!" she said Wednesday, as lights inside the St. Pete Times Forum dimmed on a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey show unlike any since 1881, when the circus first added its third ring.

The new format, circus officials promised, would give American families a less distracting and more focused entertainment experience.

Mary Oliver, who left home at 4:30 p.m. to attend the 7:30 p.m. event with her 61-year-old pal Marti Palm, was skeptical.

"I just can't imagine them without three rings," she said, shaking her head.

Then, it started.

A clown-faced announcer got the audience to "Oooh!" and "Ahhhh!" He measured the audience's laughter on a Laugh-O-Meter projected on a circular video screen that became the show's glue - chuckle to giggle to hearty laugh.

And when the Laugh-O-Meter hit "bust-a-gut," the clown yelled, "Ladies and gentleman, ... I hereby declare this audience ready for the show!"

A woman appeared from behind a red-and-white-striped curtain on a moving stage.

Jennifer Fuentes, a former American Idol finalist, sang of a "circus of dreams" and spread her red ballroom skirt, revealing the word "Circus" in blue letters. In a flash, horses galloped from behind the curtain, and then - the biggest "Oooh!" before intermission - the elephants strode out carrying women with red and yellow fans arching behind them like halos.

The audience rocked along with them. And when the singer invited a "family" to be a part of the circus, the first-ever showlong story line began to develop. Dad would be ringmaster. Mom would be an acrobat. Jan, the bratty teenage daughter, would become a dancer. And Dan, little Dan in an orange ball cap, just couldn't decide what to be.

Some of the adults watching said they loved the new format.

"I like it better because you can focus on one thing without your mind going all over the place," said Lindsay Rosato, 23, of Apollo Beach, who was there with two of her neighbor's kids, 8 and 11.

Four-year-old Raegan Collins couldn't complain. The wild cat tamer was the most amazing thing this Tampa tot had ever seen. "The kittens!" she exclaimed, her tongue stained blue from a snow cone.

But Oliver, the seasoned circus veteran, was lukewarm by intermission. She had shuffled in her seat and crossed her arms during the cat tamer, jumped to applause and laughter during the clowns and was amazed by the acrobatics.

But it wasn't the same, she said. She missed all the animal action, all the activity. Still, she liked the new video screen and reckoned she'll keep coming every year, even if the rings don't return. "But I'll miss the traditional show," she said.

[Last modified January 5, 2006, 14:05:04]