Opening ceremony slammed as ‘glorified school concert’
SYDNEY Olympics “ringmaster” Ric Birch has slammed the Games opening ceremony as a glorified school concert.
The entertainment guru who masterminded the Sydney Olympics opening and closing showpieces was one of several unsuccessful bidders for the rights to produce the Gold Coast spectacular, which were controversially handed to US-based consortium Jack Morton Worldwide.
Mr Birch declined an approach from the Bulletin to review the opening ceremony last week because he did not want any criticism to be seen as sour grapes and did not even watch it as he is travelling overseas.
However, he said the muchmaligned opening had been the talk of the industry.
“What I have been told makes it sound like a school concert and given the role of Schoolies Week in the Gold Coast, perhaps that was the idea,” he said.
“When I’m planning a ceremony, I try to create truly important, memorable and symbolic sequences that act as the central core for the whole ceremony ... but nothing I’ve heard about GC2018 so far anyway, sounds as though the producers planned anything other than a parade of songs and singers with a kind of ‘hit parade’ choreography to represent the Gold Coast.”