If the folks at Sega and Nintendo had their way, you'd be watching "Mortal Kombat" on ice instead of "Snow White."

But one of the secrets to producing successful ice shows is knowing what won't work."There's the video game and the movie, but it's about violence," Kenneth Feld says, explaining why he turned down an idea to adapt "Mortal Kombat" as an ice show. "That's contrary to everything I believe in. Why would I get involved in that?"

Feld is arguably the most successful producer of live-arena shows in the business, constantly juggling multiple touring ice shows, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and Siegfried & Roy in Las Vegas. It is estimated that more than 25 million people worldwide see Feld's productions each year.

But he turned down "Mortal Kombat" - and he also turned down "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers." " `The Power Rangers,' " Feld says with a touch of bewilderment in his voice. "They're on TV, they're very popular. But I wouldn't be involved in it because it doesn't represent the kinds of things I would want my kids - my kids are older now, but if they were young - to go and see.

"And that's really the litmus test," he continues, going into a mock conversation with himself: " `Do I feel comfortable taking my family?' `Yes.' `OK, I'll do it.' "

Officially, Feld has been producing live family entertainment for about 16 years. But he really got started when he was a young boy and unofficially apprenticed under his father, the late Irvin Feld, who became marketing and promotions director of the circus in 1956. In 1967, the elder Feld saved Ringling Bros./Barnum & Bailey by purchasing the circus and revolutionizing the business.

Following in his father's footsteps, Kenneth Feld has seen some remarkable technical developments, but he feels live shows have remained basically the same for 2,000 years, and that the audience hasn't changed all that much either.

"My philosophy - and I can't separate my company and my personal philosophy, because it's the same - everything that we do has to be family entertainment," Feld said during an interview with the Deseret News. "That doesn't mean that it's kids' entertainment. But it has to be of the nature that you can take your whole family. There will be nothing in it that would be objectionable. But it may be sophisticated.

"It may be - and should be - targeted more for the adult than the child. Because I would much rather elevate the child's imagination than have an adult go and sink down and say, `Why am I here?' Or, next year (he'll) go around the neighborhood to see which parent will take all the kids. That's not what I want."

At the moment, Feld is juggling 13 shows - "Walt Disney's World on Ice: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (which opened at the Delta Center Wednesday and continues through Monday, March 18; tickets are $9.50 to $14.50, through Smith'sTix outlets and the Delta Center box office) and "The Wizard of Oz on Ice" (scheduled to arrive in Salt Lake City next January), each with several touring companies; two Ringling Bros./Barnum & Bailey circus tours; illusionists Siegfried & Roy, at the Mirage in Las Vegas; the Ringling Bros./

Barnum & Bailey Clown College; and he has mounted a musical stage adaptation of the Tom Hanks movie "Big," which goes to Broadway next month.

"Basically, every Tuesday or Wednesday is an opening night," he says with a chuckle. Feld brought his management staff to Salt Lake City last week for his company's monthly marketing meeting. He had planned to stay in Utah over the weekend and ski, but a business deal beckoned.

"I'm always thinking about, `What can we do next year?' " Feld explained. "Once it's done, we have the people who keep the show in good shape and all that, but then it's on to the next thing. My mind is always working at least a year or two ahead.

"Each show goes on for about six or seven years. So, we always ask, `Does it have an international life to it?' And `Snow White' is a story that is loved all over the world. So, it has that international ability, and this show will go to Japan this summer for 20 weeks, starting at the beginning of July. And four weeks prior to that, it's in Korea. That's the beginning of the international tour. Then it will come back to this country, then we'll follow up in Europe, then South America. . . ."

On the circus front, Feld is constantly on the lookout for something new and spectacular to highlight. "I have a group of people that are touring the world looking for circus acts - but more than looking for circus acts, they're looking for events and attractions to be adapted within the Ringling Bros./Barnum & Bailey.

" `The Human Arrow' will be the feature when the circus comes here next. It's something very special, and something we created. We built this giant crossbow and we found this lovely woman who actually has the nerve to get up on this crossbow and be released, and she flies clear across the arena, and actually goes into this target. If the target wasn't there, she'd probably go into the seats. It's extraordinary, and we have this huge event built up with it - the press is banned, all photographers. So, it's creating quite a stir around the country."

Feld remains undaunted by competition outside the "live" arena. "I think that it's stronger as a result of the cyberworld, so to speak. In many ways, (video games, movies, etc.) are one-on-one entertainment, and you're communicating or maybe interacting - but it's not emotional interaction.

"When you see `Snow White' and the old hag offers the apple, and everybody in the audience says, `No, no - don't do that' - you've got something. That just happens. It's a natural response. So, there's an emotional aspect to live entertainment, if it's done well.

"And what we do is larger than life. We're entertaining people in an 18,000-seat arena that's built for the last row, not for the first row. It's happening, you can get involved.

"Plus, there's always the aspect in live entertainment that it won't go right. It is sort of that unknown quality that makes it better when it does work out."

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The main ingredient for ice shows, Feld said, is that they be inherently familiar, which explains why previous shows have been built around Disney's animated adaptations of "Beauty and the Beast" and "Aladdin." The current "Snow White" and "The Wizard of Oz" tours are also derived from beloved classic stories that became immensely popular films. "I can't go with an unknown property into an arena in Salt Lake City, advertise it and expect to get 100,000 people next week. So, I have to take known quantities and slowly change and adapt them. And that's what really works.

"As long as we want to play to the masses, we've got to be mainstream . . . and there's a huge investment. Every time, before you play to the first paid person in these types of events, you've got anywhere from $6 million to $10 million invested. You know, that's a lot of money, a lot of capital to gamble with."

Ultimately, Feld says, audience appeal for live entertainment is based on the desire to simply see something real. "In the movie business, you can retake and reshoot and edit and cut-and-paste and go back - and what you see on the screen, it may seem real, but it's not. And in the future, I guess, all these movies are going to be computerized - even the people. Now you can put in another thousand extras that are just digitally scanned in.

"So, you know, the heart and soul of everything is live entertainment - and there's never a substitute for that."

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