Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus: The Greatest Show on Earth Is Back but With Big Changes

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is reopening in 2024, and it may look a little different than you remember it being. Once known as “The Greatest Show on Earth,” the circus opened in 1871 and kept pumping people into the big top until 2017. (The company credited the changing entertainment landscape for that closure at the time.) Now, new owners Feld Entertainment, are looking for a little throwback magic. They told The Tampa Bay Times about the animal free tour beginning in Tampa this weekend. Now, that’s right, there’s no animals, the clowns aren’t going to be painted up, and there’s a robot dog in the mix. Don’t worry, there are still aerial acts, of a kind, so gear up for a reimagining of the circuses you might have attended as a child.

“We’ve spent several years now thinking and imagining what could be possible,” CEO Juliette Feld Grossman said while previewing the circus at the Feld Entertainment complex last fall. “The biggest thing that made a difference to us was a whole lot of soul-searching: What is the heart of this property?”

Biggest Changes To Ringling Bros.

So let’s break down some of these differences shall we? Dan Shipton and Ross Nicholson will handle directing duties. They come from the Jurassic Live World Arena Tour , So they’ve been around the block with a massive property before. “Coming from the U.K., we have a different cultural relationship with circus,” Nicholson told the Tampa Bay Times. “So we didn’t miss” animal acts, Shipton chimed-in. “I don’t think we’d know where to even fit in an elephant.”

Humans takes center stage in this version of the iconic circus. They’ll be performing acrobatic feats in the same vein as Cirque du Soleil. There will also be a double Wheel of Destiny, trapeze artists, and a human cannonball which is a Ringling favorite. Three people will split the duties of a traditional ringmaster, including Lauren Irving, a singer who welcomes fans into the show with covers of popular songs. Ringling is also bringing back the three ring layout of the circus. It will be at with a modern twist their LED rings to help indicate where your attention should be drawn at any given time.

Clowns, in this case, are a Ukrainian training trio named Equivokee, who will help keep the energy up. The third host named Nick Nack also gets in on their act as the comic relief. Now, there is a narrative element where the three hosts help a young performer navigate the show. In this new configuration, the young person on the unicycle end up doing a death-defying stunt by the end of the show. Also, we have to talk about the robot dog. Named Bailey, they perform some cute tricks for the audience and link back to the iconography of this brand.

“Historically, the circus was a place where people came to see new things — the first light bulb was exhibited at the circus,” Nicholson told the press. “We wanted to incorporate future-forward technology into our show and give people the experience of seeing something for the first time.”

So, What Happened To The Elephants?

Well, in 2016 Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey got rid of their elephants. The retired pachyderms now reside at Florida’s White Oak conservation Center, where there heard now roams together away from the spotlight. CBS News spoke to some of the people at the conservation center about their efforts to create a better life for these elephants. Allegations surrounding the elephants’ treatment at the circus persisted around 2016 and the decision was made to move into the future without the signature animal of most circuses.

“They seem to have sorted out a hierarchy amongst themselves,” she said. “They regrouped right outside the fence and again reassured each other. Rumbled, touched each other, put their trunks in one another’s mouths.”

“They don’t need to be ridden or trained or do tricks or travel the world,” she said. “Just let them be where they are and there’s nothing more beautiful than that.”

Would you travel to the circus this year? Let us know down in the comments!