I went and saw the show of the O by Cirque du soleil and Blue man group in Las Vegas at the end of the year. The O is based on the circus performance and added artistic elements and a stage direction which featured the theme of water. The blue man group show is a comedy show based on street performances by three blue painted face guys. Their performances were excellent, what's
more, I was surprised by their promotion skills which are very show-biz country America and how much American people have a lot of fun.
Speaking of their promotion skills, that means they established their own business style. They modified the circus and the street performance which are childish and cheap originally to high quality and adult oriented one. Therefore, they put a high price tag on their tickets. It's about two to three times price compared to normal circus.
Of course, they are investing their ticket price worth. Cirque scouts former Olympic athletes and dancers from all over the world and Cirque prepares the perfect facilities to train them and to get maximum performance show.
In addition, they make enormous investment for stage directions which is beyond audiences imagination. It's a surprising thing that they use 10 million dollars per year (approximately 1,100 million yen).
Meanwhile, they have a lot of cost saving ideas for their business.
For instance, their shows don't use language during their performance. That means they can use the same program in all over the world without any changes. In addition, they try to hide performer's personalities by not setting the star performers and giving them a strong makeup. That means avoiding the risk of performers from injury and retirement. Also, they don't use any animals in their performances like a typical circus. It's important for eye catching, but it costs too much to maintain a lot of animals. Therefore, they avoided the risk of cost eating program.
Now, Cirque du soleil is giving seven performances in only Las Vegas. However, it's not true that they made their original theaters by themselves. They co-fund with Hotels or finance in full by Hotels.
For example, as the permanent running show Ka( car ) in Las Vegas, MGM Grand hotel cast 135 million dollars (approximately 14,600 million yen) and built the original theater. Surprisingly, MGM hotel recovered their investment costs in only several years.
Meanwhile, how about Japanese show-biz situation?
Japan has some traditional entertainments such as Noh and Kabuki. Then after the Taisho era, a lot of Western culture based shows such as American musical, European operetta, stage show and French review were imported to Japan.
In addition, the pioneer of Japanese musical group the Takarazuka and the theatrical company Shiki famous for long running musical "Cat's" are running their own show business in Japan. However, I feel there are big differences between the US and Japan not only market volume but also people's sense of values for shows.
I mean that musical exist for few enthusiast in Japan, but in the US it's for everyone.
According to the data comparison of Japan and the US about live entertainment which I found on the internet, as for the market volume per person, Japan is 116 dollars and the US is 157 dollars. The US is approximately 1.4 times in Japan.
In addition, as for the number of times the live entertainment participation per one person in one year, Japan is 2.7 times and the US is 7.1 times.
I think expensive tickets prices is one of the big reason, but the prejudice could be the another reason. I mean, a lot of people think it's difficult to understand for a beginner. Also, as for a musical, it's only for people in the 20s to 30s to watch after five not casual and not for family like in the US. I hope going to see musicals will be more casual in Japan like the US.
I want people in Japan to see great shows and be able to smile and lift their spirits. Therefore, I hope people who work in show-biz world like the Takarazuka and the theatrical company Shiki will do their best and boost Japanese show-biz world.
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