Exclusive | Cirque du Soleil returning to NYC for the first time in nearly a decade

Cirque du Soleil will set up its big top in the Big Apple for the first time in nearly a decade as the popular troupe continues its high-wire act to expand the brand after going belly-up during the pandemic, The Post has learned. The production – called “Luzia,” based on a waking dream of Mexico – is slated to run from March 5 to March 30 at a temporary tent on Randall’s Island, according to CEO Stephane Lefebvre.  Tickets for the 2,500-seat venue will go on sale this week with a $55 starting price.“We haven’t been in New York since, I believe, 2016,” Lefebvre told The Post.“So it’s been a long time.

It’s such an important market.”Lefebvre helped revive Cirque after it went dark in 2020 – when it laid off all its acrobats, strongmen and trapeze artists at stages from Las Vegas to Lyon, France.He led a group of deep-pocketed investors that included private equity firm Catalyst Group and Los Angeles Dodgers owner Todd Boehly in wresting control out of bankruptcy from co-founder Guy Laliberté and backer TPG Capital, as The Post previously reported. “We got out of COVID a leaner organization,” Lefebvre said.

“We really started the business from scratch.When you think about it, in March 2020, we had to let go of pretty much 90% of our people.

So when we restarted business in 2021, we had to literally restart from scratch and hire every single performer to come back and work with us.”Cirque – which currently has residences at five different hotels in Vegas, including its water-based spectacle “O” at the Bellagio, as well as Orlando and Germany – is breaking even on a cash flow basis, according to a Moody’s Investors report issued last March.It has about $200 million on its balance sheet, according to Moody’s.Last month, the Cirque Group, which also owns the company behind the Blue Man Group, hired Amanda Moore-Saunders from Live Nation as the new Global Head of Marketing and Growth for its resident shows division. Now,...