Rebooted Ringling Bros. show born in Manatee County aims to fill arenas

It's been 16 months since Feld Entertainment announced plans to reboot the “Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.” Manatee County-based live production and performance giant Feld Entertainment has spent that past year and change in preparation mode, from casting to scripting to rehearsing. 

The result is a show titled “The Greatest Show on Earth,” scheduled to debut Sept. 29 in Louisiana. After that comes a 50-city North American tour with stops from Phoenix to Philadelphia. A Florida swing, with stops in Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville and South Florida, is scheduled for January. 

The original show, under the Ringling name, ran for 146 years, through 2017. Feld Entertainment removed elephants from the show in 2016, and company officials later said a drop in ticket sales sans elephants was greater than expected, which led to the eventual shuttering of the show. One thing the audience won’t find is a circus. The word circus isn’t part of the show this time around, in branding, marketing or even the name.