In UT-San Diego, reporter Peter Rowe writes:
Valitar, set in a fantasy kingdom of sleek stallions and acrobatic equestrians, was touted as a matchless spectacle. Even before the Nov. 16 “world premiere” at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, the Rancho Santa Fe producers were planning a U.S. tour. “It’s like Cirque du Soleil with horses,” co-producer Tatyana Remley told a television reporter, “but it’s its own type of show.” What type of show was it? A disaster.
The Remleys closed Valitar after just five performances, leaving employees and vendors in the lurch, and the lawsuits have begun.
As Rowe told me in our interview, millions of dollars are still owed. "They promised this was going to be a spectacle beyond the likes of anything we'd ever seen in San Diego," Rowe said, "And in a certain tragic sense, they redeemed that promise. We've never seen anything quite like the disaster that was Valitar."
In this case, Yelp! contributors seem to have gotten it right:
- Ok, so I was comped several tickets, but getting comped doesn't mean I'll get back 2 hours of my life.
- ...i guess you have to be a horse person to "get" the nuances of what the horses were doing, because to me I really thought they were just walking around.
- It was "Cirque" lite.
- Sadly there were others sitting around me and my friends that were audibly laughing at how nonsensical it was or making snide comments to their friends about how bad it was.
- I have bought VIP tickets for 3p show tomorrow November 24th for my 94 year old mother and my son and I === they say it is canceled!!! How do I reach someone for a refund?
Rowe says the Remley's refused repeated interview requests.
If you want to see a real horse show, try Odysseo, the Cavalia spinoff, in Burbank through April.
