matches his sequined purple suit. He has lured his
former lover and muse, Liliane, to America, where
he hopes to impress her and possibly resume their
dalliance. The scheme starts off poorly when Liliane
rejects Caesar’s latest idea: hot pants for men.
The evening unfolds from there, with a dozen
performers taking the center of the floor in various
roles: two Chinese men, appointed as fashion police,
shed their uniforms and perform stunning aerial
acrobatics; a shy young woman chosen as a protégée
by Liliane is actually a mesmerizing hula hoop artist
and contortionist; two other actors ascend a pole in
a sensual vertical tango; two waiters engage in a circus act on a ladder—all an arm’s length, and sometimes closer, from the audience.
Food is somehow served without major catastrophe throughout the performance. The crowd’s
mood (the tents hold about 300 people) moves from
belly laughs brought on by Caesar’s improv to utter
captivation during Liliane’s soulful ballad, “Le
Temps,” in the darkened house. In the end, she proclaims the evening “fun, warm and divine,” an accurate summation.
The creative spirit
Teatro ZinZanni faces the same challenges as
any small business: finding the right employees (in
this case, world-class entertainers), maintaining
cash flow, choosing effective marketing programs
and keeping customers satisfied. But perhaps most
important to the show’s success is finding time and
energy to be creative while handling the daily chores
of running the business. A lot of that falls on Langill’s
Eclectic performances, fine food and
live music are the hallmarks of Teatro
ZinZanni shows. The show’s creative
force is Norm Langill, top right.
KEN HOWARD
WILLIAM ANTHONY
shoulders—and is spread over both the
Seattle and San Francisco shows.
“We have a creative team and a business team,” says Langill, a former vaudeville
performer and accomplished stage and screen actor
who has been involved in producing high-profile
projects for several decades. “I am in the middle of
the two. I do spreadsheets and balance sheets. I also
direct most of the shows and do most of the creative
work. But it’s a big process and involves influence
from a lot of directions, so it really relies on a collaboration between all of those elements—getting
the best ideas out of everybody, working together.”
Their goal is constant reinvention. “We’re putting on an interactive party with our audience in a
very intimate state. What can we do with the audience and the crowd?” Langill explains. “How can
we get them more involved? How can we break the
separation between performer and guest? They’re
really on stage with us here. You should think of
this not so much as a theater and a set but as a dinner scene, and we happen to be in it and you’re in
it, too.”
As to the next act, Langill discloses that Teatro
ZinZanni has received invitations from cities around
the world. The company is narrowing in on adding
one new location, but all the pieces must be in place
before making a commitment. “It’s important to us
that it’s the right city and we have the right friends
and producers in the city so that the labor-intensive,
handcrafted nature of our show is preserved,” he
says. “Anyplace we go, we have to keep the creative
spirit going.” C
member profile
Name: Teatro ZinZanni
Employees: 150
Locations:
Seattle (Seattle Center)
Box office: (206) 802-0015
San Francisco
(Embarcadero)
Box office: (415) 438-2668
Web site:
www.zinzanni.org
Available at Costco:
Costco offers $100 Teatro
ZinZanni gift certificates for
$79.99 in select Seattle and
Bay Area warehouses.
Comments about Costco:
“I love going to Costco. We
buy supplies, bulk materials,
that sort of stuff. As a shopping experience, I don’t think
there’s a more diverse customer base than at Costco.”
—Norm Langill
KORU
MBISCHOF
F
