Founded in 1980 as a dance troupe, Cirque du Soleil (Circus of the Sun) has had spectacular success internationally with itstouring New Vaudeville-style circus shows including Dralion, Saltimbanco, Quidam and Zarkana, and with specialty shows like Viva Elvis! and Michael Jackson: One in Las Vegas. In New York the shows have generally played at Radio City Music Hall and sometimes in a bigtop tent set up on Randall’s Island in the East River. For several years the Tony Awards had to vacate Radio City because Cirque had booked the theatre for the entire month of June. One of its few failures was vaudeville-influenced show, Banana Shpeel, which played a cut-short five weeks at the Beacon Theatre in 2011.

Riedel speculated that On the Town, which has not always covered its weekly costs since opening to strongly positive reviews last fall, could vacate the Lyric as soon as this spring, though no one from the production was quoted about that. The report came on the same day On the Town released its cast album.

Riedel said Cirque has been looking for a permanent home in New York and is developing “traditional Broadway musicals that will incorporate circus elements” a la Tony-winner, Pippin.