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摘要

Back in 1980 Guy Laliberte was a street performer with a pair of stilts and a fire-breathing act. Today a talent for juggling and highwire balancing acts is more in order. Mr Laliberte is the boss of Cirque du Soleil, a valuable global entertainment firm that has helped to transform the traditionally seedy circus business into a high-class, highly-profitable enterprise. With this growth have come management challenges galore—not least the practical difficulty of masterminding and monitoring productions around the world. Cirque currently has five different shows touring in Europe, America, Japan and New Zealand, and four permanent spectaculars in America—three of them in Las Vegas alone. This week sees the premiere of its fourth and most expensive show to date in the city-a $170m extravaganza called Ka at the MGM Grand hotel. In April, another touring show will debut in Montreal. Next year Cirque plans a fifth Vegas show, this time in co-operation with the surviving Beatles.