Cirque du Soleil picks Berlin for first permanent European show

Cirque du Soleil will kick off its first permanent European show next year in Berlin's central Potsdamer Platz, the Canadian circus company announced on Wednesday, promising a production that would push the boundaries of the imagination.

The show, called Alize, will require the Theater at Potsdamer Platz, which hosts scores of celebrities during February's Berlin Film Festival, to be redesigned to meet the production's unique technical requirements, the company said in a statement.

The theatre with over 1,700 seats is one of Germany's biggest and has hosted acts including the Blue Man Group.

Tickets for the show, set to begin in November 2025 and co-produced by LiveNation, will go on sale from Friday.

Alize will feature acrobatic performances, breathtaking magic and enchanting artistry as audiences follow the protagonists' journey into a surreal world, the circus said.

The Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil, which grew from a troupe of street performers in the 1980s to a company with global reach, began touring in Germany 30 years ago.

"With its cosmopolitan and international appeal, Berlin is the ideal location for the first permanent Cirque du Soleil show in a European metropolis," it said in the statement.