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T h e U n o f f i c i a l
C i r q u e d u S o l e i l N e w s l e t t e r
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E X P A N D E D I S S U E
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VOLUME 10, NUMBER 3 MARCH 2010 ISSUE #74e
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CONTENTS
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o) Cirque Buzz -- News, Rumours & Sightings
o) Itinéraire -- Tour/Show Information
* Touring Shows -- Productions under the Big Top
* Resident Shows -- Performed en Le Théâtre
* Venue Shows -- Arena & Seasonal Productions
o) Outreach -- Updates from Cirque's Social Widgets
* Club Cirque -- This Month at CirqueClub
* Networking -- Cirque on Facebook, YouTube & Flickr
* Gatherings -- CirqueCon & More!
.) NOTE: Special CirqueCon 2010 Event Updates!
o) Compartments -- A Peek Behind the Curtain
* Didyaknow? -- Facts About Cirque
* Historia -- Cirque du Soleil's History
o) Fascination! Features
*) "Cirque in Your Ear (Part 2 of 2)"
By: Keith Johnson - Seattle, Washington (USA)
{Issue Exclusive}
*) "Cirque du Soleil Unveils VIVA ELVIS!"
By: Cirque du Soleil, Press Room Materials
*) "The Press on VIVA ELVIS" [EXPANDED]
A Special Collection of Reviews in the Press
*)"Robin Leach on VIVA ELVIS - In Four Parts" [EXPANDED]
A Special Collection from the Las Vegas Sun
o) Subscription Information
o) Copyright & Disclaimer
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CIRQUE BUZZ -- NEWS, RUMOURS & SIGHTINGS
=======================================================================
Banana Shpeel Open House
{Feb.05.2010}
-----------------------------------------------
As reported through Theater Mania and Cirque du Soleil's
Facebook pages, the company of Banana Shpeel is set to
participate in an open house on February 10th at New York City's
Beacon Theatre. Information regarding festivities follows in
this excerpt from TheaterMania:
# # #
The festivities will get underway at 4:30pm with the unveiling
of the show's marquee at the theater. Performers will arrive,
accompanied by musicians, to greet fans. In addition, the first
100 guests who arrive with a banana will win two complimentary
tickets to the show. The bananas will be donated to Life Center,
a local New York homeless shelter.
At 4:45pm, the Banana Shpeel cast will lead the public into the
theater for the Open House with an exclusive sneak peek at the
show's creative process in the newly-restored Beacon Theatre.
Guests will see rehearsals on stage, make-up demonstrations,
costume displays, and take photos with costumed performers.
Local restaurants and businesses will provide complimentary
snacks.
{SOURCE: Theater Mania}
A Rotten "Banana"? [EXPANDED]
{Feb.10.2010}
-----------------------------------------------
Wow, Michael Riedel of the New York Post, wrote a scathing
review of Banana Shpeel today and from the way he describes the
situation, the show has gone from bad to worse.
# # #
Its tempting, if obvious, to say that Cirque du Soleil has
slipped on its new show, Banana Shpeel. But that would be an
understatement.
What's set to open Feb. 25 at the Beacon Theatre is no minor
accident. It is, according to several people working on the $20
million production, a "train wreck," a "catastrophe," a
"nightmare" and, not to put too fine a point on it, "one of the
worst shows you've ever seen." (Get your tickets now!)
Performers and writers have been fired (only, in some cases, to
be rehired the next week); rehearsals are chaotic; the director,
David Shiner, is described as "clueless"; and Madison Square
Garden Entertainment, which owns the Beacon and has shoveled $10
million into this fiasco, is furious.
Banana Shpeel opened to dreadful reviews in Chicago and was
set to undergo major retooling before opening in New York. The
show was supposed to be Cirques attempt to create a Broadway-
style musical with circus acts. Michael Longoria (Jersey Boys)
and Annaleigh Ashford (Wicked), two talented musical-theater
performers, were hired as the leads. Theater composer Laurence
OKeefe (Bat Boy) was brought in to write the score. But the
plot, which was improvised by the actors because nobody else
bothered to come up with a script, was incomprehensible. And no
one with any real authority was in charge of the production.
While Banana Shpeel was foundering, Cirque founder Guy
Laliberte (net worth: $1.5 billion) was orbiting the Earth
aboard the Soyuz TMA 16 spacecraft. Because of Lalibertes
passion for the Final Frontier, Cirque insiders call him The
Man in the Moon which, seeing as hes French Canadian, we
might amend to LHomme de la Lune.
After the critics savaged Cirque in Chicago, the Broadway actors
and composer were let go. The plot (such as it was) was tossed
out, the New York opening was delayed a month, and the show went
back into rehearsal. Actually, rehearsal is not a word used by
the Cirque crew. They prefer to call whatever it is theyre
doing a creation.
Thats a great choice of words, says a source, because they
are proceeding without a script or any idea of what they need to
do in order to fix the show. They operate by someone in the room
having an idea and then they try it, and if it works at all they
keep it.
A couple of scary clowns, played by Daniel Passer and Wayne
Wilson, were let go - they looked like John Wayne Gacy, the
Chicago serial killer who entertained kids as Pogo the Clown.
The two were replaced by a single female clown who doesnt come
across as a psychopath.
Another composer, Simon Carpentier, was also dismissed.
Last week, LHomme de la Lune beamed himself down to New York to
check up on the revised Banana Shpeel. He didnt applaud at
the end. In fact, sources say, he thought the show was worse.
The show had minimal appeal in Chicago, one person says. Now
it has no appeal. But the two Pogos are back. After last weeks
run-through, Laliberte rehired the scary clowns. He thinks they
give the show an edge, says a source. What are they smoking up
there on the moon?
{SOURCE: New York Post}
CDS Worried About DubaiWorld? [EXPANDED]
{Feb.10.2010}
-----------------------------------------------
Is anyone at Cirque du Soleil worried about the pending sale of
its shares by Dubai World? According to Pat Donnelly of the
Montreal Gazette, the answer is NO.
# # #
For two reasons. Number one, he doesn't believe it's going to
happen. "To me, it's still a rumour," he said.
Second, and even more important, "They can't sell us to anybody
without Guy Laliberté's approval," he said. "We're well
protected. That's why you're talking to a very calm man. Guy
still owns over 80 per cent of the company, so he decides what
to do."
In the event of a sale, Everything would have to be put on the
table. But frankly, its not a conversation right now.
Would the Cirque consider buying back its own shares? Sure, he
replied. All possibilities will then be put on the table. But
we dont have any conversations in that regard. We were talking
to them (Dubai World) two weeks ago. And it was not in the
cards. And as far as Im concerned its still not in the cards
because were a good investment for them.
The Cirque is still making money, he said. Even in recession-
pounded Las Vegas, where the Cirque is due to open its seventh
permanently based show, VIVA Elvis, next week at the Aria Hotel
in the new $8.5 billion CityCentre development, also partially
bankrolled to the tune of billions by Dubai World through its
subsidiary, Infinity World.
{SOURCE: Montreal Gazette}
Colonel Marshals Elvis Troupers [EXPANDED]
{Feb.12.2010}
-----------------------------------------------
When Logan's Garrett Eugene Case, Jr., signed on to play the
role of Elvis Presley's manager Colonel Tom Parker in a new
Vegas show, at first he thought he had landed a small part.
As originally written, it was a small part, and he was sharing
it with other actors. Still, the Odyssey Dance Theatre alum was
happy to be cast in the new Cirque du Soleil production, "Viva
Elvis," which opens Feb. 19 at the just-opened Aria Resort and
Casino.
But then the part developed into something more prominent. Case
plays Parker, who serves as a narrator connecting the show's
musical, visual and acrobatic elements. "We are using Colonel
Parker as the narrative through line to the show and also as a
witness to Elvis' life," said Armand Thomas, director of
creation for the production, noting how Parker managed the
singer's career from 1956 until his death in 1977. "He is the
raconteur, the privileged witness to Elvis life. We have created
monologues in which the Colonel dips back in his memories in
time and shares anecdotes that really enlighten us to who Elvis
really was."
Produced in partnership with Elvis Presley Enterprises, the show
incorporates historical footage of the singer and his
recordings, plus cover versions of his songs performed live.
It's billed as a fusion of dance, acrobatics and live music,
blending "nostalgia, modernity and raw emotion" to pay tribute
to Presley's voice and the sheer energy of his songs.
The white-suited, cigar-chomping character of Colonel Parker
guides a cast of 76, which includes 30 dancers, 26 acrobats, a
live nine-piece band and four female singers, performing in a
state-of-the-art, 1,800-seat theater built for the production.
As Parker, Case takes part in some of the show's most
spectacular special effects. In one scene, he's lowered on a
filmstrip eight stories from the top of the stage to the floor.
In another scene, he flies across the stage while images of
Elvis are playing.
In a newer scene, just recently added, the actor drives a three-
wheeled car similar to the one the real Elvis gave to the real
Colonel Parker.
"There are so many dancers and acrobats who tell the story in
their own right," Case said. "It is beautiful to watch them
perform. My role sets up the past and narrates it. I try to give
insight information as to who Elvis was."
One scene tells the story of Elvis's twin brother, who died at
birth. His memory is portrayed through an acrobatic duet,
performed through the props of a white piano and a huge silver
guitar.
Case doesn't sing in the show, and the 38-year-old performer
relies on the magic of makeup to age through the years. Then
there's the matter of the fake cigars he chomps on, props made
in China, which had to be modified, because the power tasted
"nasty. "We had to fix them so I don't have to inhale that
stuff," he says.
One of the performer's challenges in preparing for the Feb. 19
opening, after a month and a half of preview shows, is how the
script has evolved. "With my role, it has been finding the
script, and finding the right words that work with what the
narrative needs to be and where it goes," he said. "I have been
memorizing, then memorizing something else, and trying to
forget. It's been a fun challenge to put myself through as an
actor to step up to the next level."
The "Elvis" tribute, opening in the 75th anniversary year of the
singer's birth, is different than the other Cirque shows playing
on the Vegas strip. It's even markedly different than the other
big-name music show, "The Beatles Love," playing at The Mirage.
"Love" incorporates original Beatles songs that were
redigitalized for the show, utilizing characters from the songs.
In contrast, a live band and singers are on stage for most of
the "Viva Elvis."
"With the Las Vegas shows, we are in this diversification mode
that no two shows should replicate the other, especially in such
close proximity," Thomas said. "We have to create new art every
time."
Thomas and the rest of Cirque's producers focused on the
cultural history embedded in the singer's life and music. "Elvis
is the star of this show," Thomas said. "We had to capture him
in many ways, through visuals, his voice, storytelling, the
atmosphere, our choice of colors and our choice of sets. We had
master tapes where we could listen to Elvis in a studio doing 14
different takes on "Hound Dog"and everything that goes in
between each take. All of that allowed us to really be almost
eavesdroppers on his life."
{ SOURCE: Salt Lake Tribune }
Donated Circus Tents Shelter Haiti's Government [EXPANDED]
{Feb.12.2010}
----------------------------------------------- ----------
The old big top that Cirque du Soleil first used in the Mirage
parking lot 20 years ago for "Nouvelle Experience" is now going
to Haiti, to replace their destroyed government buildings!
# # #
Several large circus tents previously used by Cirque du Soleil
are on their way to Haiti to be used as a temporary headquarters
for the Port-au-Prince government, according to the man donating
them.
The self-contained tents would replace government buildings
destroyed a month ago by the devastating earthquake that killed
at least 200,000 people, Nevada real estate developer Tom
Schrade said Thursday.
An urgent effort is under way to provide shelter for in Haiti,
ahead of the rainy season expected to hit the island nation at
the end of March.
Much of the government is operating in small tents or cramped
quarters in buildings that survived the January 12 earthquake.
Schrade, who bought the tents after Cirque du Soleil retired
them, said his wife got the idea to donate them while they were
watching coverage of Haiti relief efforts.
"It seemed like a good thing to do," Schrade said.
The tents have 33,000 square feet of interior floor space,
including heating and air conditioning systems, interior and
exterior lighting, toilets and 900 padded chairs, Schrade said.
Thirteen steel shipping containers hold the 400,000 pounds of
cargo, he said.
"Even the shipping containers can serve as apartments," Schrade
said.
After an aide to the Port-au-Prince mayor confirmed the
government would welcome the tents, Schrade said he called
Barron Hilton -- the son of Hilton hotel founder Conrad Hilton -
- for help in getting them from storage in Reno, Nevada, to
Haiti.
The Conrad Hilton Foundation, already involved in Haiti relief
projects, agreed to finance the shipment, he said.
Gregory Anderson, the international project manager for the
Hilton Foundation, confirmed its participation.
The William J. Clinton Foundation -- the former U.S. president's
nonprofit group -- will coordinate getting the big tents to
Port-au-Prince, he said.
A convoy of tractor-trailer trucks left Reno Monday night with
the tents bound for the port of Miami, Florida, he said. They'll
be loaded onto a ship chartered by the Clinton Foundation next
week for the voyage to Port-au-Prince, he said.
Technicians hired by Schrade will travel there to supervise the
set up, he said.
The tents, which initially cost about $5 million, were first
used by Cirque du Soleil at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas a
decade ago. They also spent time at a Myrtle Beach, South
Carolina, theme park before Schrade bought them with the idea of
using them at a Reno hotel, he said.
The economic downturn derailed Schrade's plan to use the tents
at a hotel in Reno, he said.
{ SOURCE: CNN }
Banana Shpeel Delayed Again?
{Feb.15.2010}
-----------------------------------------------
According to Variety.com, the debut of Cirque du Soleil's newest
venue production - Banana Shpeel - in New York City has been
pushed back yet again. Previews will now begin Wednesday, March
17th. Why?
"Latest delay is attributed to the fact that creatives, who are
busily reworking the production, need more time to integrate new
performance elements."
{ SOURCE: Variety }
Sophisticated KA Evolves With New Tech [EXPANDED]
{Feb.16.2010}
-------------------------------------------------
One of the things at KÀ we think is really cool is all of the
unique technology we use to support what our human artists do on
stage. In fact, we are downright geeky proud about it, so it's
nice when we find someone else to geek out with. Enjoy this
behind-the-scenes look at KÀ's technology from a fellow geek at
WIRED.com!
# # #
When you design and produce the most expensive and
technologically advanced stage show in history, you face a
constant flow of mechanical and practical challenges. The Cirque
du Soleil crew behind Kà at the MGM Grand takes on those
challenges with ever-evolving technology and innovation.
After a $220 million construction project to build the shows
stage and 1,950-seat theater, Kà opened in February 2005 four
months behind schedule as Cirque du Soleil worked through the
obstacles of designing and producing the most complex show in
the troupes history. Now, almost five years later, producers
and designers are introducing new advancements and refinements.
Cirque du Soleil invited Wired.com backstage for a tour of the
massive stage and a look at the latest updates to Kàs
production.
To offer a sense of the shows scale, Keith Wright, Kàs
operations production manager, laid out the theaters
dimensions: The stage is 120 feet across. From the high grid
rigging at the ceiling to the pit (the lowest floor level), its
149 feet (about 15 stories). Its 98 feet from the stage level
to that high grid. And its 120 feet from the stage level to the
pit.
Filling those dimensions is an elaborate set of mobile stages.
Five stage lifts moving 25 feet up and down transport props and
performers during the show. The rear stage segment (the Tatami
Deck) slides forward 50 feet and weighs more than 37 tons.
Finally, the Sand Cliff Deck (a 25-foot by 50-foot platform that
weighs 40 tons) is controlled by a vertical gantry crane and a
robotic arm attached to four 75-foot-long hydraulic cylinders
running along two support columns.
The gantry crane can lift the Sand Cliff Deck 72 feet, rotate
360 degrees and tilt from flat to 110 degrees all at the same
time, Wright explained. The deck is powered by five 250-
horsepower pumps and a 4,000-gallon oil reservoir.
When dealing with dimensions like that, the wellbeing of the
artists is always the primary concern. And one of the
productions recent improvements forced the entire cast and crew
to devote even more attention to safety.
When the crane moved during the show, it made its fair share of
hissing and humming. For some time, the production sought a
design to eliminate that sound. Once a groundbreaking hydraulic
improvement finally eliminated the fuss, Wright envisioned a
potential problem for the cast and took special care to preempt
it.
(The performers) could hear those sounds night after night.
They were basing cues and movements off of them, he said. So,
once we eliminated the noise, we had to call the 80-member cast
together and work through the cues to make it clear that the
environment changed.
While the performers are doing their aerial stunts or wire acts,
legions of stage crew workers rearrange nets and airbags beneath
the stage to provide security should an accident occur. That
system also underwent an update as the improved hydraulics
arrived.
Kàs technical crew stays on top of the latest developments in
light telemetry and video projection. The Sand Cliff Deck plays
host to a mix of computer-generated effects and human input as
the stage transforms into a cinema screen. To create and perfect
the interactive projections that follow an artists actions, an
infrared-sensitive camera above the stage tracks all movements.
The system we have in place now allows the artists to control
what takes place on that screen, Wright said. Cirque du Soleil
is always about the artist and humanity, and the tools we use
no matter how advanced must serve the human artists.
Merge Kàs elite human performances with the ever-evolving
technology put at Cirque du Soleils disposal and you are left
with a stunning show that stays with you for days.
{ SOURCE: Wired }
Tour 2010 Creation Team Announced!
{Feb.17.2010}
-----------------------------------------------
Cirque du Soleil released information pertaining to Cirque2010
yesterday through its Facebook page. Check it out!
# # #
Cirque du Soleil is thrilled to introduce the creation team for
its next touring show, premiering in Montreal next spring,
followed by Quebec City.
Directed by Robert Lepage, Cirque 2010 (working title) is a show
about creation myths and the evolution of the human species.
This will mark Robert Lepage's second collaboration with Cirque
du Soleil, following KÀ at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, which has
just celebrated its fifth anniversary. Including Robert Lepage,
the Cirque 2010 team consists of 13 creators under the artistic
guidance of Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix:
Robert Lepage - Director
Versatile in every form of theatre craft, Robert Lepage is
equally talented as a director, scenic artist, playwright, actor
and film director. His creative and original approach to theatre
has won him international acclaim and shaken the dogma of
classical stage direction to its foundations, especially through
his use of new technologies. Contemporary history is his source
of inspiration, and his modern and unusual work transcends all
boundaries.
Neilson Vignola - Director of Creation
A long-time collaborator of Robert Lepage, Neilson Vignola has
worked as stage manager, production manager and staging
assistant in the theatre, opera and circus worlds. With Cirque
du Soleil, he has previously participated in the creation of KÀ,
DELIRIUM and ZAIA.
Carl Fillion - Set Designer
Highly sought after by directors on both the Quebec and
international theatre scenes, Carl Fillion has worked alongside
Robert Lepage on over a dozen productions. Parallel to his work
as a designer, Carl has taught set design at the Conservatoire
d'art dramatique de Québec and the National Theatre School of
Montreal. Cirque 2010 marks his first collaboration with Cirque
du Soleil.
Kym Barrett - Costume Designer
Kym Barrett began her career on the Australian theatre scene as
a costume and set designer. In cinema, she was responsible for
the costumes in the popular Matrix trilogy. She also designed
the costumes for the movies Three Kings, Red Planet, Gothika and
Monster-in-Law. Cirque 2010 marks her first collaboration with
Cirque du Soleil.
Bob & Bill - Composers
Bob & Bill (Guy Dubuc and Marc Lessard) have previously worked
on several Cirque du Soleil albums and special events, but this
is their first time as composers for a show. They have produced
numerous albums for artists such as Pink Floyd, Monica Freire
and Luck Mervil. They have also worked as arrangers and
musicians on albums by Daniel Bélanger, Daniel Boucher, Kevin
Parent and Zachary Richard, to name just a few. In addition to
overseeing the musical direction of various Quebec television
shows, they have designed sound and musical effects for the X-
Box and Playstation consoles and video games in 2003.
Jeffrey Hall - Choreographer
As co-artistic director of PPS Danse, Jeffrey Hall has worked
with Pierre-Paul Savoie, Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon. He has
also acted in the plays Café des Aveugles and Le Dortoir as well
as in their movie adaptations. Le Dortoir, adapted for the big
screen by François Girard, has been highly acclaimed. Jeffrey
has also worked with renowned Quebec theatre directors such as
Gilles Maheu, Marie Brassard and Robert Lepage. At Cirque du
Soleil since 2005, Jeffrey has worked as the Artistic Coach on
LOVE and Acrobatic Choreographer for ZAIA, and has also coached
artists in general training.
Étienne Boucher - Lighting Designer
While Étienne Boucher is fond of the theatre, he also creates
lighting designs for dance, musicals and opera productions. His
work has earned him several nominations at the Soirée des
Masques awards. In 2007, he won a Masque for his lighting
designs for Du vent entre les dents (directed by Martin Faucher)
and La Dame aux camélias (directed by Robert Bellefeuille).
Étienne has also worked with Sylvain Émard, Brigitte Haentjens,
René Richard Cyr and Robert Lepage. Cirque 2010 is his first
collaboration with Cirque du Soleil.
Pedro Pires - Projections Designer
Pedro Pires has a background in plastic arts, special effects
and 3D graphics. He has worked with François Girard on The Red
Violin as well as on The Sound of the Carceri, for which he won
an Emmy and a Gemini award. Pedro has worked closely with Robert
Lepage on numerous occasions prior to Cirque 2010. This is his
first collaboration with Cirque du Soleil.
Jacques Boucher - Sound Designer
While studying bass and classical music at the Conservatoire de
musique de Québec, Jacques Boucher also played in a number of
rock bands. He has worked in sound since 1984. In addition to
his ten years as head sound technician at Quebec City's Théâtre
Capitole, Jacques has worked as sound technician for various
Quebec artists, including Richard Séguin, Laurence Jalbert,
Diane Dufresne and Bruno Pelletier. Jacques then became an
expert in sound design for musicals and special events,
including Robert Lepage's Moulin à Images and the Cirque du
Soleil show to mark Quebec City's 400th anniversary in 2008.
Florence Pot - Acrobatic Performance Designer With a university
degree in physical activity and sports psychology, Florence Pot
worked as a gymnastics coach and choreographer before joining
Cirque du Soleil as Acrobatic Talent Scout and then Head Talent
Scout. In 2006, she took part in the creation of ZED as
Acrobatic Performance Designer, a role she takes on once more
with Cirque 2010.
Pierre Masse - Acrobatic Equipment and Rigging Designer Pierre
Masse has had the opportunity to work in just about every area
of the performing arts and to be involved in major productions
with the Opéra de Montréal, the Grands Ballets Canadiens, Les
Misérables and Céline Dion. With Cirque du Soleil since 1996, he
has taken part in the creation of Quidam, Varekai, Zumanity, KÀ
and CRISS ANGEL Believe. Cirque 2010 is his first show working
as Acrobatic Equipment and Rigging Designer.
Nathalie J. Simard - Make-up Designer
After a short stint in art school, Nathalie J. Simard soon
became immersed in the world of street arts in Old Quebec. A
self-taught artist with great curiosity and passion, Nathalie
has developed her craft at many festivals and special events
that have taken her all over the world. While travelling,
Nathalie founded Kromatik, a company that specializes in make-up
for strolling performances and street arts. Cirque 2010 marks
her first collaboration with Cirque du Soleil.
Cirque 2010 will be presented on the Quays of the Old Port of
Montreal as of April 22 and at the Port de Québec as of July 22.
For more info, visit http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/cirque2010
LVRJ Previews VIVA ELVIS [EXPANDED]
{Feb.19.2010}
-----------------------------------------------
Mike Weatherford of the Las Vegas Review Journal stepped into
the Aria theater recently to preview Cirque du Soleil's VIVA
ELVIS and here's a little of what he has to about the
production...
# # #
The voice is familiar. The music? Not always.
About 30 Elvis Presley classics are heard in "Viva Elvis," the
Cirque du Soleil salute to the king which has its invitation-only
premiere at Aria today after two months of previews. But the
nine-piece band playing the classics often steers those hits in
new directions, sometimes trying to imagine how Elvis would do
them today.
You won't hear much meddling with the lean rockabilly sound of
"Mystery Train." But "Jailhouse Rock" sidesteps into hip-hop and
"Got A Lot O' Livin' to Do!" ventures into Zeppelin-esque guitar
rock. "You have a lot of shows paying homage to Elvis doing
exactly the same stuff, but this is Cirque," says Erich van
Tourneau, the show's musical director and arranger. "Cirque is
innovative, Elvis was innovative, so I think that's the correct
way to approach it -- to keep him moving artistically."
The creators of "Viva Elvis" do not deny taking
inspiration from a popular remix of "A Little Less
Conversation," which caught on via a Nike ad after the original
resurfaced in the "Ocean's Eleven" remake. But that doesn't
fully explain the path of decision-making in the show's three-
year development.
Once Cirque committed to bringing Elvis back to the Strip in
2006, the producers set out to license his recordings. "The
voice of a man in this cannot be anyone but Elvis. Otherwise it
becomes an impersonator," says Gilles Ste-Croix, the veteran
Cirque executive overseeing the production.
But the other choice was to play all the music in the show live.
It creates a concert atmosphere and sets "Viva" on a different
track from the Beatles tribute "Love," in which Cirque acrobats
perform to remixes of the original recordings.
Matching recorded Elvis to live performance became "a big
puzzle," van Tourneau says, both technological and creative. The
music director listened to more than 900 Presley recordings --
interviews and home tapes as well as official studio albums --
deciding which songs were essential and what to sample for bits
of drop-in material.
The producers often had trouble isolating the vocal track --
Elvis liked to lay it down with the band, not in the isolation
of a vocal booth -- and they didn't have access to the masters
of early classics such as "Jailhouse Rock." Van Tourneau turned
to live recordings, often gravitating to the 1968 TV "Comeback
Special."
"He was at the top of his game then. I would go with the young,
dangerous and hungry Elvis first, every time I could," he says.
Since "Viva" is also biographical, the creative team decided a
few songs could take an outside perspective, voiced by the four
live female singers. Being freed from having to match time or
key signatures of the records opened the door to dramatic
reinterpretation: "King Creole" goes reggae; "One Night With
You" gets a wispy Norah Jones feel, with Presley coming in as a
ghostly backing vocal.
But preview audiences reminded the directors why Elvis hits are
seldom covered. He was the show, and the songs lose traction
without him.
"I think what people attach to is his voice," says Kit Chatham,
the percussionist, who, like other members of the band, shows up
in different places without being tethered to one bandstand. "If
that (voice) wasn't there, it wouldn't have the same meaning,
the same influence."
Since ticketed previews began in December, the dancing and
acrobatics have been souped up, "and Elvis has been put more
into the songs, which is great," Chatham says.
Tinkering kept the cast and crew still working past midnight in
post-show rehearsals last week, as they edged toward today's
premiere. "Burning Love" has gone through three treatments. "Are
You Lonesome Tonight?" was out of the show for a time, before
creators came to their senses. (It now accompanies a flying
duet.) At one point, "Suspicious Minds" was a duet between Elvis
and one of the singers.
"We ran it a few times and it didn't feel right," Ste-Croix
says. The song was "so big an Elvis piece, we could not go
there. We kept Elvis' voice with the backing vocals of the
girls."
The faithful who grew up with Elvis in the 1950s might yet be
the show's toughest critics. "I'm sure hard-core fans will find
something in this show, but they have to keep their mind open
and experience something new," van Tourneau says, noting the
original recordings still wait for them at home.
But "Viva Elvis" will have to have a multigenerational appeal to
be a long-term hit. And that means reintroducing the king on a
level deeper than the jumpsuited caricatures who roam the Strip.
Chatham was born in 1977, the year Presley died. "I have so much
more appreciation for Elvis than I did coming in," he says.
"Listening to some of the songs now and listening to him
singing, you're like, 'I never really listened to this. Wow!'
The dude could sing like crazy.''
Van Tourneau agrees. "He was so dangerous he was punk at the
beginning. If you listen to those tapes, he's, like, on fire."
{SOURCE: Las Vegas Review-Journal}
Cirque's High-Wire Act [EXPANDED]
{Feb.19.2010}
-----------------------------------------------
Steve Fress of Portfolio.com takes an interesting look at Cirque
du Soleil's recent activities - its triumphs and its "failures"
- and places them in perspective. From the article:
# # #
Cirque du Soleil's corporate ringmaster continues to break with
the entertainment company's signature productions rooted in
aerials and acrobatics. But can it win new fans with productions
about Elvis and vaudeville?
Its about 10 degrees Fahrenheit and windy in Montreal, and
thats not the only frigid breeze sweeping through this capital
of Cirque du Soleil.
For the first time, Cirque has a bona fide dud of a show in Las
Vegas, attendance is underwhelming for its production in Macau,
and critics are already sharpening their knives over two new
shows due to open this month, one in New York and another in
Vegas. A development deal with Dubai World isn't playing out as
expected largely because Dubai World's development activities
have been, uh, complicated by its financial implosion.
Yet somehow-per the company's name-it's always sunny inside the
office at Cirque's international headquarters of cheerful Cirque
CEO Daniel Lamarre. Not only is he undeterred by setbacks that
he's largely unwilling to acknowledge as setbacks, but he is
laying plans for even more rapid growth for the company that
could make the brand as ubiquitous as, say, Disney on Ice.
This is, after all, the year that Lamarre expects the company to
surpass $1 billion in ticket sales for the first time on its 21
productions that include seven resident shows on the Las Vegas
Strip. The latest, Viva Elvis, officially opens tonight at the
new Aria Resort, with its vaudevillian offering Banana Shpeel
starting preview performances at the Beacon in New York on March
17. After that, a new, presently unnamed touring production is
due to bow in Montreal in April.
By the summer of 2011, the company expects to have opened
resident shows for two of the world's most famous venues, Radio
City Music Hall in Manhattan and the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood,
and still the machine in Montreal will continue to churn at high
gear.
"I can easily see Cirque developing two to three new shows a
year," said Lamarre, brought in as chief operations officer in
2001 by owner Guy Laliberte after helming Canada's top TV
network with the express mission of accelerating the company's
growth. "To produce three shows a year, it means I have to have
nine shows in the making. Right now I've got 2010, 2011, and
2012 planned out."
Such a notion is far afield of the origins of Cirque, which
Laliberte founded by pulling together a ragtag group of Canadian
street performers and acrobats in the early 1980s. Back then,
Lamarre was a public relations specialist who donated his
expertise to the group for free as a service to the arts. In
1990, the troupe famously performed at the Santa Monica Pier
where Vegas mogul Steve Wynn saw them, built them a permanent
theater at his new Treasure Island resort for a show called
Mystere, and launched them an empire.
Like the Roman and the British empires before them, though,
exponential growth brings its own set of problems, and Cirque
has no shortage of them. Banana Shpeel, which previewed in
Chicago in late 2009, received horrible notices there, with a
Variety critic terming parts of it neither creative commentary
nor inspired execution and an unfunny dollop of shtick.
Likewise, the early buzz for previews of Viva Elvis hasnt been
great either as it suffers in comparison to the unanimous praise
for Beatles-scored Love up the street at the Mirage, Cirques
first foray in centering a show around a music icon. (Time
magazine, however, raved about Viva Elvis in its current issue.)
These rough patches come amid the roughest patch of all, the
disastrous Criss Angel Believe magic show that opened to
miserable notices at the Luxor in 2008 and such weak ticket
sales that it has been discounted sooner than any Cirque show in
history. Also, by allying with a current pop star for the first
time, the company has had to repeatedly apologize for such
antics as the time he threatened to blind a local gossip
columnist or shouted expletives at attendee/nemesis Perez Hilton
from the stage.
Even 16 months after Believe bowed, Lamarre admitted the show
remains not on par with the quality of Cirque du Soleil, and
that once they add a set of new magic tricks in coming months
Believe will deliver at the same level as the other shows.
What these three shows all have in common is that they have
little in common with the traditional Cirque that made the
company famous. Those spectacles were known for stunning aerials
and acrobatics set against a surrealist construct and scored by
live, original music. A no-acrobatic magic show, a vaudevillian
comedy, and a dance-centric tribute to Elvis are new, uncertain
territory, and that has many wondering if theyre overreaching.
If you ask me if I would have done the same thing, I would have
told you, non, said Franco Dragone, the Belgian creator of six
Cirque shows, including Mystere, O, Saltimbanco, and Alegria,
before departing upon Lamarres arrival at the helm in 2001 and
who then created Celine Dions spectacle at Caesars Palace. If
they fill seven houses in Las Vegas at 60 percent, theyre
filling the house 60 percent, and we know what that means. There
will be a limit.
Lamarre wont reveal the occupancies of his seven Vegas shows
except to note that the 12-year-old aquatic spectacle Oone of
Dragonesstill sells out virtually every one of its 10 shows a
week. It is, Lamarre declares, the most important ticketed show
in the world, meaning that there is no other live production as
durable or profitable.
While the CEO is admittedly unhappy with Believe, he remains
confident that Banana Shpeel and Viva Elvis will be tweaked and
improved by the time they open. And to keep growing, Cirque had
no choice but to push into other genres.
The pressure is on us to make sure that every single show is
distinctive, he said. My party line is that I will produce as
many shows as there are theaters available to us with the caveat
that I have to make sure that whatever we produce has to be
very, very different than the others.
Just how many theaters that may be is unclear. MGM Mirage, the
casino conglomerate for which they have an exclusive deal in Las
Vegas, has no expectations of any vacant showrooms or the $100
million-plus to spend on transforming one for Cirque for the
foreseeable future. And the concept behind Lalibertes sale of
20 percent of the company to Dubai World in 2008 was that Cirque
could create new shows for each new development around the
world. That, Lamarre said, is on ice with Dubais highly
publicized financial woes.
For now, the focus is next years move into the Radio City
Musical Hall, where an as-yet-undefined production would occupy
the famous venue six months of the year after the Rockettes
season is over, and the Kodak Theatre. That one will have a
cinema theme to it and involve 10 shows a week for 11 months of
the year, Lamarre said.
Las Vegas-based critic Richard Abowitz is not among those
worried that Cirque will cannibalize itself in Las Vegas, but he
does believe that creating permanent shows elsewhereand
especially in Los Angelescould harm its Vegas attendance.
Abowitz, a columnist for the L.A. Times and blogger at
GoldPlatedDoor.com, noted that a quarter of Vegas tourists come
from Southern California.
What makes Cirque special is that its here in Las Vegas and
its permanent, so they can do things they cant do in touring
shows, Abowitz said. If you can do that in L.A., I find that
at least as threatening as another Cirque show on the Strip.
Then again, MGM Mirage doesnt seem bothered by that proximity.
Spokesman Alan Feldman believes that, just as the proliferation
of casinos in the United States merely whetted the publics
appetite to experience the real thing in Vegas, so too will
these other shows introduce audiences that might not have an
interest in the gaming capital to come for other reasons.
Lamarre and Feldman have another analogy for the question of
whether theres such a thing as too much Cirque in Las Vegas,
the companys golden egg. Lamarre pointed to the continued
success of the dozen or so companies of Phantom of the Opera to
prove that some material never seems to exhaust its demand. And
Feldman noted that nobody would ever suggest that the
Metropolitan Opera cut back on Puccini because theyve done too
much of his work.
Not that MGM Mirages objections would stop Lamarres expansion
plans anyhow. The CEO admitted that MGM wasnt happy when
Cirque built Zaia for Venetian Macao, owned by rival Las Vegas
Sands Inc. The two companies exclusivity is solely for Las
Vegas, and MGM Mirage didnt have a resort in the Special
Administrative Region that could house a Cirque show when the
deal with Sands was struck.
That said, Lamarre noted hes put a lid on an ambition of
Lalibertes to build Cirque-themed hotels, opting not to get
into businesses we dont know. The companys two forays into
the bar lounges that neighbor their showrooms at Mirage and Aria
are done in partnership with the Light Group, the citys top
nightlife purveyors.
That leaves Cirque to focus on how to further exploit its shows.
Last year, the company reformatted two existing big-top
productions as arena shows in order to play weekends in stadiums
of hundreds of medium-sized cities that wouldnt be able to
support the weeks of shows it takes for their tent appearances
to be profitable.
Lamarre sees opportunities everywhere he turns.
When I hear about overexposure, frankly, it is a Vegas
conversation, he said. Outside of Vegas, I still have a lot of
market to conquer around the world. I have two traveling shows
in Asia, but I dont have one in Europe. The last two years, we
have played 100 new cities we had never visited before. There is
plenty left for us to do.
{SOURCE: Portfolio.com}
Behind Cirques big top is Magician in Kitchen [EXPANDED]
{Feb.25.2010}
---------------------------------------------------------
Even before Cirque du Soleil rolled into the Del Mar Fairgrounds
last week to erect Le Grand Chapiteau, its trademark 66-foot-
tall blue-and-yellow big top, Nathan Chettiar was busier than a
one-armed juggler.
As kitchen manager for the Kooza tour, which opens here
tonight, the 31-year-old Canadian and his crew of three cooks
are responsible for serving breakfast, lunch and dinner every
day for 150 cast, crew and family members.
If this were not a tall enough order, Chettiar has to stick to a
strict daily food budget of $12.15 per person and be mindful of
nutritional needs, food preferences and varied cultures 25
nationalities are represented on this tour. Plus, the cast and
crew basically eat all day long, most consuming small, protein-
rich portions frequently so their energy doesnt flag.
Since 1984, the Quebec-based Cirque du Soleil has been wowing
worldwide audiences with stylized acrobatics and clowning. Yet,
as jaw-dropping as the performers physical prowess is under the
tent, an equally impressive show is happening behind the scenes
in a double-wide trailer that serves as both Chettiars kitchen
and staff dining room.
This culinary high-wire act, while grueling at times, has an
upside for the cooks that no landlocked restaurant can provide.
* * *
Feeding the cast, crew and family of Cirque du Soleils newest
production, Kooza, takes fancy footwork. A look at the kitchen
choreography:
4: Cooks on tour, from Argentina, Portugal, Canada and the
United States
3: Meals a day for 150 people
10: Locally hired prep cooks and dishwashers
2: Trailers outfitted like commercial kitchens, with six
stovetop burners; a convection oven; two conventional gas
ovens; a flat-top griddle; a propane-fueled Chinese wok; a
Rational Combi oven that steams, dry roasts, bakes, blanches
and poaches; and a deep-fat fryer.
300: Pounds of red meat eaten per week
40: Pounds of bananas
45: Dozen eggs
200: Pounds of chicken
10: Gallons of orange juice
20: Gallons of milk
15: Gallons of borscht prepared for a Russian-themed dinner in
Orange County
* * *
During a lunch break yesterday, wardrobe mistresses, acrobats
and technical support staff were piling their plates with
mussels and Spanish rice, tofu Caesar salad and chicken panini.
The din in the dining trailer didnt faze cook Augustina
Ballina, who was preparing chicken lasagna for todays lunch
service.
Working for Cirque makes perfect sense for me, said the
Argentine, who has been with the company one year. Its the
only job I could have that lets me cook and travel. Ive been to
seven cities since Ive been with the company.
How else would I have gotten to see San Diego? she asked.
Ive already made plans to go surfing while Im here.
Even before the first plate of chicken mole is dished up during
tonights Mexican fiesta, Chettiar will have devoted weeks to
planning and prep. Its not just the vast quantities of food he
has to serve, but he also has to manage a chaotic kitchen on
wheels and all that entails, including hiring local dishwashers
and prep cooks when he hits town.
To adhere to the frugal budget, his team prepares every morsel
of food, from making stocks and dinner rolls to butchering
steaks and filleting fish. They even bake cookies each evening
for the performers to enjoy during intermission.
Having access to San Diegos bounty of sustainable seafood and
organic produce has been a boon to Chettiars menu planning. He
had heard of Chino Farm just down the road from the fairgrounds,
and he has discovered Catalina Offshore Products and the oysters
at Carlsbad Aqua Farm.
Personally, I like to make sure my ingredients are coming from
within a 100-mile radius, Chettiar said. Thats not easy for
me to do because we move around so much, but I do like things to
be as domestic as possible.
Because everyone on tour lives in furnished apartments during
the run of a show, many have their morning meal at home. But
Chettiar still offers a continental-style breakfast five days a
week. Lunch runs from noon to 5 p.m. before seguing into dinner,
which is available until 9:30 p.m. And then there are those
cookies.
Themed meals are popular in this mobile kitchen. A recent
Hawaiian lunch included coconut chicken, orange-beef skewers,
sweet-and-sour tofu and jasmine rice. In Orange County,
Koozas previous stop, they opened with a Nordic night.
The menus never ever repeat. The only constant is that on
the final day, Chettiar serves spaghetti Bolognese. It has
become tradition, he said.
To sustain the athletes, the menus are high in protein, with
three choices at every meal: two animal-based, one vegetable-
based (not cheesy, Chettiar said). Fat is used sparingly.
They will have a nutritionist come through a couple times a
year to help them figure out a diet that works for them,
Chettiar said of the artists nutritional needs. We are like
their mothers. We are here to make sure they are happy.
{ SOURCE: The San Diego Union-Tribune }
=======================================================================
ITINÉRAIRE -- TOUR/SHOW INFORMATION
=======================================================================
o) TOURING - Under the Big Top
{Corteo, Dralion, Koozå, OVO, Quidam & Varekai}
o) RESIDENT - en Le Théâtre
{Mystère, "O", La Nouba, Zumanity, KÀ, LOVE,
ZAIA, ZED, Believe & VIVA Elvis}
o) VENUE - Arena & Seasonal Productions
{Saltimbanco, Alegría | Wintuk, Banana Shpeel}
NOTE:
.) While we make every effort to provide complete and accurate
touring dates and locations available, the information in
this section is subject to change without notice. As such,
the Fascination! Newsletter does not accept responsibility
for the accuracy of these listings.
.) Dates so marked (*) are not official until released by Cirque
du Soleil.
For current, up-to-the-moment information on Cirque's whereabouts,
please visit our website < http://www.CirqueFascination.com/ >.
---------------------------------
TOURING - Under the Big Top
---------------------------------
Online at: < http://www.cirquefascination.com/?page_id=39 >
Cirque 2010:
Montréal, QC -- Apr 22, 2010 to Jul 11, 2010
Québec City, QC -- Jul 22, 2010 to TBA
Amsterdam, NL -- Oct 8, 2010 to Dec 18, 2010 (*)
London, UK -- Jan 5, 2011 to Feb 13, 2011 (*)
Madris, ES -- Feb 24, 2011 to May 1, 2011 (*)
Barcelona, ES -- May 12, 2011 to Jul 17, 2011 (*)
Gijon, ES -- Jul 28, 2011 to Aug 28, 2011 (*)
Zurich, CH -- Sep 16, 2011 to Nov 6, 2011 (*)
Lausanne, CH -- Nov 17, 2011 to Dec 18, 2011 (*)
Corteo:
Fukuoka, Japan -- Feb 11, 2010 to Apr 4, 2010
Sendai, Japan -- Apr 21, 2010 to Jun 6, 2010
St. Petersburg, Russia -- Jun 26, 2010 to Aug 8, 2010
Kazan, Russia -- Aug 21, 2010 to Sep 26, 2010
Moscow, Russia -- Oct 29, 2010 to Dec 12, 2010
Dralion:
New Tour Coming Soon!
Koozå:
San Diego, CA -- Feb 25, 2010 to Mar 28, 2010
Portland, OR -- Apr 9, 2010 to May 23, 2010 (*)
Seattle, WA -- Jun 3, 2010 to Jul 11, 2010 (*)
Vancouver, BC -- Jul 22, 2010 to Sep 5, 2010 (*)
Houston, TX -- Sep 23, 2010 to Oct 31, 2010 (*)
Miami, FL -- Nov 18, 2010 to Dec 26, 2010 (*)
Ovo:
San Jose, CA -- Feb 4, 2010 to Mar 21, 2010
New York, NY -- Apr 9, 2010 to Jul 4, 2010
Hartford, CT -- Jul 15, 2010 to Aug 15, 2010 (*)
Boston, MA -- Aug 26, 2010 to Oct 3, 2010 (*)
Washington, DC -- Oct 14, 2010 to Nov 28, 2010 (*)
Atlanta, GA -- Dec 17, 2010 to Feb 13, 2011 (*)
Quidam:
São Paulo, BR -- Feb 26, 2010 to Apr 11, 2010
Porto Alegre, BR -- Apr 22, 2010 to May 16, 2010
Buenos Aiers, AR -- May 28, 2010 to Jun 20, 2010
Santiago, CL -- Jul 2, 2010 to Aug 8, 2010
Lime, PE -- Aug 22, 2010 to Sep 19, 2010
Bogota, CO -- Oct 9, 2010 to Nov 21, 2010
Varekai:
Manchester, UK -- Feb 25, 2010 to Mar 21, 2010 (*)
Munich, DE -- Apr 1, 2010 to May 2, 2010 (*)
Cologne, DE -- May 13, 2010 to Jun 6, 2010 (*)
Frankfurt, DE -- Jun 17, 2010 to Jul 18, 2010 (*)
Oostende, BE -- Jul 29, 2010 to Aug 29, 2010 (*)
---------------------------------
RESIDENT - en Le Théâtre
---------------------------------
NOTE: (*) Prices are in United States Dollars (USD) unless otherwise
noted.
(*) Ticket prices exclude the 10% Live Entertainment Tax, the
$7.50 per-ticket processing fee, and sales tax where
applicable.
Online at: < http://www.cirquefascination.com/?page_id=40 >
Mystère:
Location: Treasure Island, Las Vegas (USA)
Performs: Saturday through Wednesday, Dark: Thursday/Friday
Two shows Nightly - 7:00pm & 9:30pm
2010 Ticket Prices (adult) / (child 5-12):
o Category 1: $109.00 / $54.50
o Category 2: $99.00 / $49.50
o Category 3: $79.00 / $39.50
o Category 4: $69.00 / $34.50
o Category 5: $60.00 / $30.00 (Limited View)
2010 Dark Dates:
o March 10
o May 8 - 12
o July 7
o September 4 - 8
o November 3
"O":
Location: Bellagio, Las Vegas (USA)
Performs: Wednesday through Sunday, Dark: Monday/Tuesday
Two shows Nightly - 7:30pm and 10:30pm
2010 Ticket Prices:
o Orchestra: $150.00
o Loggia: $130.00
o Balcony: $99.00
o Limited View: $93.50
2010 Dark Dates:
o April 14 - 18
o June 13
o July 4
o August 11 - 15
o October 10
o December 8 - 21
La Nouba:
Location: Walt Disney World, Orlando (USA)
Performs: Tuesday through Saturday, Dark: Sunday/Monday
Two shows Nightly - 6:00pm and 9:00pm
2010 Ticket Prices (adults) / (child 3-9):
o Category 0: $120.00 / $97.00
o Category 1: $105.00 / $85.00
o Category 2: $85.00 / $69.00
o Category 3: $69.00 / $56.00
o Category 4: $55.00 / $45.00
2010 Dark Dates:
o March 23
o May 25 - 28
o June 1 - 4
o July 27
o September 21 - 24
o November 16
Zumanity:
Location: New York-New York, Las Vegas (USA)
Performs: Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday through Sunday
Dark: Monday & Thursday
Two Shows Nightly - 7:30pm and 10:30pm
2010 Ticket Prices (18+ Only!):
o Duo Sofas: $135.00
o Orchestra Seats: $99.00
o Upper Orchestra Seats: $79.00
o Balcony Seats: $69.00
o Cabaret Stools: $69.00
2010 Dark Dates:
o March 9
o April 6 - 11
o June 15 - 16
o July 13 - 14
o August 3 - 8
o September 14
o October 12 - 13
o November 30
o December 1 - 14
2010 Added Performances:
o March 11th
o June 17th
o July 15th
o September 16th
o October 14th
o November 29th
o December 30th
KÀ:
Location: MGM Grand, Las Vegas (USA)
Performs: Tuesday through Saturday, Dark Sunday/Monday
Two Shows Nightly - 7:00pm and 9:30pm
2010 Ticket Prices (adult) / (child 5-12):
o Category 1: $150.00 / $75.00
o Category 2: $125.00 / $62.50
o Category 3: $99.00 / $49.50
o Category 4: $69.00 / $34.50
2010 Dark Dates
o March 30 - 31
o June 1 - 8
o September 7 - 11
o November 16 - 17
LOVE:
Location: Mirage, Las Vegas (USA)
Performs: Thursday through Monday, Dark: Tuesday/Wednesday
Two Shows Nightly - 7:00pm and 9:30pm
2010 Ticket Prices:
o Lower Orchestra: $150.00
o Upper Orchestra: $130.00
o Lower Balcony: $99.00
o Middle Balcony: $93.50
2010 Dark Dates:
o April 8 - 12
o June 10
o August 5 - 9
o October 7
o December 3 - 13
ZAIA:
Location: Venetian, Macao (China)
Performs: Every Day, Dark: Wednesday
One to Two Shows Daily - Times Vary
2010 Ticket Prices (adult) / (child 2-11):
o VIP Seating: MOP$ 1288 / MOP$ 1288
o Reserve A: MOP$ 788 / MOP$ 394
o Reserve B: MOP$ 588 / MOP$ 294
o Reserve C: MOP$ 388 / MOP$ 194
2010 Dark Dates:
o March 29 - 30
ZED:
Location: Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo (Japan)
Performs: Varies
One to Two Shows Daily - Showtimes vary
2010 Ticket Prices (Non-Peek / Peek Time):
o Category 1 ("Premium"): ¥15,000 / ¥16,000
o Category 2 ("Stage-Side"): ¥12,500 / ¥13,500
o Category 2 ("Center"): ¥12,500 / ¥13,500
o Category 3 ("Wide View"): ¥9,500 / ¥10,500
o Category 4 ("Value"): ¥7,500 / ¥7,800
2010 Dark Dates:
o Not Available
BELIEVE:
Location: Luxor, Las Vegas (USA)
Performs: Friday through Tuesday, Dark: Wednesday/Thursday
Two Shows Nightly - 7:00pm and 10:00pm
NOTE: Children under the age of 12 must be accompanied by
an adult. Children under the age of five are not permitted
into the theater.
2010 Ticket Prices (all):
o Category 1: $160.00
o Category 2: $125.00
o Category 3: $99.00
o Category 4: $79.00
o Category 5: $59.00
2010 Dark Dates:
o April 13 - 17
o May 25
o June 1
o July 6 - 10, 13 - 17
o October 12 - 16
VIVA ELVIS:
Location: Aria, Las Vegas (USA)
Performs: Friday through Tuesday, Dark: Wednesday/Thursday
Two Shows Nightly - 7:00pm and 9:30pm
Preview Performances: December 18th to January 28th
2010 Ticket Prices (Previews / Regular)
o Category 1: $149.38 / $175.00
o Category 2: $128.75 / $150.00
o Category 3: $108.13 / $125.00
o Category 4: $86.68 / $99.00
2010 Dark Dates:
o March 17 - 25
o May 11 - 13
o July 14 - 29
o September 14 - 16
o November 17 - 25
--------------------------------------
VENUE - Arena & Seasonal Productions
--------------------------------------
Online at: <http://www.cirquefascination.com/?page_id=251 >
[Arena Shows]
Saltimbanco:
Torino, IT -- Mar 3, 2010 to Mar 7, 2010
Pesaro, IT -- Mar 10, 2010 to Mar 14, 2010
Bologna, IT -- Mar 17, 2010 to Mar 21, 2010
Florence, IT -- Mar 24, 2010 to Mar 28, 2010
Stuttgart, DE -- Mar 31, 2010 to Apr 4, 2010
Bremen, DE -- Apr 7, 2010 to Apr 11, 2010
Valencia, ES -- Apr 14, 2010 to Apr 17, 2010
Santiago, ES -- Apr 21, 2010 to Apr 25, 2010
San Sebastian, ES -- Apr 28, 2010 to May 2, 2010
Sheffield, UK -- May 20, 2010 to May 23, 2010
Liverpool, UK -- May 26, 2010 to May 30, 2010
Glasgow, UK -- Jun 2, 2010 to Jun 6, 2010
Manchester, UK -- Jun 9, 2010 to Jun 13, 2010
Birmingham, UK -- Jun 17, 2010 to Jun 20, 2010
Newcastle, UK -- Jun 30, 2010 to Jul 4, 2010
Dublin, IE -- Jul 7, 2010 to Jul 11, 2010
Nottingham, UK -- Jul 21, 2010 to Jul 25, 2010
London, UK -- Jul 28, 2010 to Aug 1, 2010
Hamburg, DE -- TBA
Dortmund, DE -- TBA
Berlin, DE -- TBA
Munich, DE -- TBA
Alegría:
Hoffman Estates, IL -- Mar 3, 2010 to Mar 7 2010
Cedar Rapids, IA -- Mar 10, 2010 to Mar 14, 2010
Champaign, IL -- Mar 17, 2010 to Mar 21, 2010
Omaha, NE -- Mar 24, 2010 to Mar 28, 2010
East Lansing, MI -- Mar 31, 2010 to Apr 4, 2010
Cleveland, OH -- Apr 7, 2010 to Apr 11, 2010
Highland Heights, KY -- Apr 29, 2010 to May 2, 2010
St, Louis, MO -- May 05, 2010 to May 9, 2010
Kansas City, MO -- May 12, 2010 to May 16, 2010
Salt Lake City, UT -- May 19, 2010 to May 23, 2010
Fresno, CA -- May 27, 2010 to May 30, 2010
Sacramento, CA -- Jun 02, 2010 to Jun 6, 2010
Rio Rancho, NM -- Jun 9, 2010 to Jun 13, 2010
Cypress, TX -- Jun 16, 2010 to Jun 20, 2010
St. Paul, MN -- Jun 23, 2010 to Jun 27, 2010
Toronto, ON -- Jun 30, 2010 to Jul 4, 2010
Winnipeg, MB -- Jul 22, 2010 to Jul 25, 2010
Regina, SK -- Jul 27, 2010 to Aug 1, 2010
Saskatoon, SK -- Aug 4, 2010 to Aug 8, 2010
Edmonton, AB -- Aug 11, 2010 to Aug 22, 2010
Kelowna, BC -- Aug 25, 2010 to Aug 29, 2010
Kamloops, BC -- Sep 1, 2010 to Sep 5, 2010
Victoria, BC -- Sep 8, 2010 to Sep 12, 2010
Tacoma, WA -- Sep 15, 2010 to Sep 19, 2010
Spokane, WA -- Sep 22, 2010 to Sep 26, 2010
Honolulu, HI -- Oct 15, 2010 to Oct 31, 2010
Boise, ID -- Nov 4, 2010 to Nov 7, 2010
Stockton, CA -- Nov 10, 2010 to Nov 14, 2010
Phoenix, AZ -- Nov 17, 2010 to Nov 21, 2010
Tucson, AZ -- Nov 24, 2010 to Nov 28, 2010
Portland, OR -- Dec 1, 2010 to Dec 5, 2010
Oklahoma City, OK -- Dec 23, 2010 to Dec 26, 2010
[Venue Shows]
Wintuk:
Location: Madison Square Garden, New York City (USA)
Wintuk's 2009 Season has drawn to a close. See you next
winter!
Banana Shpeel:
Location: Beacon Theater, New York City (USA)
Schedule: Performances from February 25th through May 30th;
Days of the week and times vary.
2010 Ticket Prices (Regular Performances):
[TBA]
o Premium: $199.00 single / $199 group
o P1: $110.00 single / $75.00 group
o P2: $85.00 single / $60.00 group
o P3: $65.00 single / $45.00 group
o P4: $45.00 single / $39.00 group
2010 Ticket Prices (Previews):
[March 17th through TBA]
o Premium: n/a
o P1: $89.00 single / $55.00 group
o P2: $65.00 single / $55.00 group
o P3: $45.00 single / $45.00 group
NOTE: Prices include $4.50 facility fee.
There is no children's pricing.
=======================================================================
OUTREACH - UPDATES FROM CIRQUE'S SOCIAL WIDGETS
=======================================================================
o) Club Cirque -- This Month at CirqueClub
o) Networking -- Cirque on Facebook, Youtube & Flickr
o) Gatherings -- CirqueCon & More!
---------------------------------------
CLUB CIRQUE: This Month at CirqueClub
---------------------------------------
Recently CirqueClub went through a dramatic transformation -
refocusing and rebranding their efforts through their web page.
Currently a "Beta Version" of the website is up to experience for a
short while, but upgrades and new features will be rolling out soon.
In the meantime, brighten your comptuer in Cirque du Soleil stype with
some new wallpapers (http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/cirque-
club/goodies/wallpapers.aspx) and enjoy new behind-the-scenes videos
(http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/cirque-club/photos-
videos/videos.aspx).
Facing the Elements of KÀ
{Feb.02}
FOR MANY YEARS NOW, KÀ HAS CHANGED THE LAS VEGAS ENTERTAINMENT
WORLD. ON FEBRUARY 3, THE SHOW WILL CELEBRATE ITS FIFTH
ANNIVERSARY. TO UNDERLINE THIS GREAT MILESTONE, WE THOUGHT IT
WOULD BE INTERESTING TO LOOK AT ALL OF THE DIFFERENT ELEMENTS
THAT HELP CREATE THIS UNBELIEVABLY ARTISTIC EXPERIENCE EVERY
NIGHT.
Storm - The Storm is the scene in which, to escape the Archers
and Spearmen, the Nanny drags the Twin Sister onto a boat and
they escape by sea, only to encounter a massive storm that
capsizes their vessel. The specially designed boat structure
weighs almost 1,800 pounds and the rocking and turning movements
are completely manipulated by the artists onboard. Since the
opening of the show, this scene has not undergone any major
changes.
Snow - For the Mountain Tribe scenes, snow machines and fans
float very fine soap suds through the air to make a very
convincing snowfall.
Lightning - Lighting and video projections are two important
elements in the show. KÀ has over 3,600 lighting fixtures. As
for the projections, they are a mix of computer-generated
effects and human input. To create the interactive projections
that follow an artist's movement in some scenes, the artists are
captured by an infrared-sensitive camera and their movements are
tracked by a computer.
Sand - In the Wash-up on the Shore, the beach is created using
2,000 pounds of granular cork. Also in this scene are human-
sized puppets designed to accentuate the acrobatic proficiency
of the performers while maintaining the animals' natural
movements.
Thunder - To fill the KÀ Theatre with sound takes 524,150 total
watts of amplifier power pumping an intricately layered mix of
sound effects and music to 4,774 loudspeaker drivers in 2,139
cabinets. Every seat in the KÀ Theatre has two speakers built
into its headrest, which allows sound effects to be targeted,
manipulated and customized to any of 16 seating zones. As for
the music, it is played by 8 musicians.
Fire - During the pre-show, approximately 120 fireballs are
discharged. These fireballs measure 30 feet in height and reach
temperatures of 1,200°F.
Ground - There are five stage lifts used to create performance
space and move props and artists during the show. The stage
lifts move a maximum of 25 feet from bottom to top. The largest
lifts cover 1,400 square feet each.
Blizzard - During the Blizzard scene, the Tribesmen show off
their climbing prowess by manually ascending 50 feet to join
their fellow tribespeople on the mountaintop, as created by the
Sand Cliff Deck tilted past vertical to 100 degrees.
Fog - Many of the fog effects in KÀ are created using liquid
nitrogen, which has a temperature of approximately -300°F. By
mixing it with hot water, a low fog effect is created. KÀ has a
13,000 gallon storage tank for liquid nitrogen.
Energy - The great energy that spectators feel each time they
see the show comes from 75 incredible artists, 195 wonderful
technicians and 19 great operations people.
ELVIS is Back in Las Vegas! [EXPANDED]
{Feb.10}
Viva ELVIS Premieres at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. On
this historic day, where Elvis makes an exceptional comeback in
Las Vegas, we share with you a few comments from the creators of
our new show to hit the Vegas Strip:
SYNOPSIS
Everything about the show is enormous. The expectations, the
size of the stage at CityCenter, the legacy of Elvis, the
meaning of what were doing. Everything in viva elvis
costumes, scenic elements, acrobatic numbers is in the image
of the King, often larger than life yet still intimate, and
supports the narrative of the show. - Armand Thomas
My first step with Viva ELVIS was to understand Elvis the man
and his music. Michael Jackson once told me, listen to the
music. It will speak to you. It did. The power of Elvis was in
his voice. With his originality and the complexity of his
influences, he created a revolution. When Elvis was in Las
Vegas, his shows werent as big as Viva ELVIS because no shows
were this big at that time. What Im trying to paint, with all
humility, is the show he might do today. I would be ecstatic if
a new generation became Elvis fans. Vincent Paterson
COSTUMES
The costumes I created for this show are inspired by the image
of Elvis and revolve around a fantasy of the 1950s and 60s, but
the final result has nothing to do with a retro aesthetic.
Taking a classic yet graphical approach, I flirted with the look
of the Elvis era while applying a contemporary touch. The shapes
and lines are implicit and sublimated. Stefano Canulli
MAKE-UP
In Viva ELVIS, were diving back into the 1950s and 1970s with
Stefano Canullis costumes. The makeup highlights eyeliner and
false eyelashes in all their variations, from doe eyes to dolls
eyes. I added iridescent colors to conventional black eyeliner
to evoke the excitement of the period and make the eyes shimmer
in the lights. I pushed the art of removable makeup we
established in ZAIA and CRISS ANGEL® Believe even further. In
Viva ELVIS, this technique is the basis for different parts of
the face onto which we can add other materials such as
extravagant false eyelashes, lace, jewelry, crystal and even
latex prosthetics. This allows a rapid and total change of face
and characterin just a few seconds without having to use glue.
Nathalie Gagné
ACROBATIC PERFORMANCE
Larger than life: those are the watchwords that inspired our
acrobatic approach to Viva ELVIS. You could define some of the
pieces of acrobatic equipment as part of the set, given their
size. When we chose the acrobatic disciplines of the show, we
said Elvis could have done it all. Daniel Cola
The scale of the theatre and the sheer number of set changes
call for more and bigger acrobatic equipment than any other show
weve done. Whether its the giant guitar, a 14-meter aluminum
bridge that supports two acrobats, or the Jungle Gym, a parallel
bar structure used in the GI Blues number, everything is like
Elvis himself: its all larger than life. Guy St-Amour
LIGHTING AND IMAGE PROJECTION
For this project, I started by looking at 60,000 Elvis
photographs, 30 films, 15 documentaries, ten concerts and a lot
of home movies, as well as shooting new footage and creating a
lot of graphic design elements for the show. The biggest
challenge for me has been how to support the action on stage
without drawing too much attention to the screen while making
sure theres genuine interaction between the two. Ivan
Dudynsky
I would equate Viva ELVIS with Wagners Ring Cycle. The
production is epic in scale and the show is an unpredictable
hybrid. Its opera, its theatre, its dance, its circus.
Lighting serves to help tell the story and translate the energy
of music and bodies moving in space. Its a balance between
light and dark, truth and myth, and the magic of what we think
we can see. Marc Brickman
SCENOGRAPHY
Elvis has transcended reality and become a kind of mythic
figure. So his final reappearance in Las Vegas has to be done on
a scale and with an opulence that reflect that status. The line
between scenery elements and acrobatic equipment in Viva ELVIS
is not always clearand that was a deliberate choice.
Mark Fisher
PROPS
Each sequence in this show has its own aesthetic. And the same
can be said of the props: were using life-size black and white
photographs for the flashbacks, comic strip and pop art graphics
for the Western scene, sequins and glitter to evoke Las Vegas
glamour, and so on. With this show, we wanted to take a new look
at the aesthetics of Elvis and his era, which have given us a
springboard to take us into the future. Patricia Ruel
25 Visions of Cirque! | Part One of Ten [EXPANDED]
{Feb.05}
Hear from three of Cirque du Soleil's growing number of
personalities - Mike Newnum (who joined Cirque in 2003), Dawn
Doran (who joined Cirque in 2004), and Karen Gay (who joined
Cirque in 1998) - in this installment of "25 Visions of Cirque!"
# # #
EXPLORING
The sun rises on new horizons
Last year, while I was on Saltimbanco in Hamilton, Ontario, one
of my colleagues said to me: You know, Mike, youre invited to
my wedding. ... a few weeks later, I found myself in South
Africa, attending a traditional Indian wedding!
Here, you dont explore the world only by moving aroundthough
you do this a lot too. You can discover new horizons the moment
you start mingling with your coworkers. It is truly amazing and
it makes us all grow in so many ways.
Mike Newnum Joined Cirque in 2003
CELEBRATING
Playing with imagination
I first worked on Broadway as a physiotherapist before joining
Mystère about five years ago. Then I worked for KÀ and now for
Believe. I think Ive never been as happy as the soft opening
night of Believe. Everything came together at once. At Mystère,
I was there for the 6,000th show. All these people came from
Montreal, and we celebrated all together. It was a very special
moment. Working on KÀ was also very cool. Its a very physical
show with a lot of technology. Its like a huge playground.
In a theatre play, everything is set in its ways, but Cirque is
always evolving and constantly improving. Its a different
experience. Its more fluid, more available to new ideas, and
there is a great openness. I feel like Im part of a group of
young teenagers, hip and open to change.
Dawn Doran Joined Cirque in 2004
DARING
The boldness of being different
To me, Cirque du Soleil is about making history. When I was in
graduate school, I studied many great, ground-breaking theatre
companies, and I was inspired by the likes of the Living Theater
and the Magic Theater. I now realize that if I were in school
today, Cirque du Soleil would be in the books along with all the
other icons of live entertainment! And everyone here is proving
that we belong thereday in, day out.
Cirque dared to go where no one had gone before. It made bold
moves when it fused theater and traditional circus, it brought
world class entertainment to the Vegas Strip with Mystère, it
renewed aquatic extravaganzas with O, it dared to go sexy with
Zumanity, it took on the artistic universe of The Beatles, and
it even blended arts, business and social conscience in unique
and powerful ways
The list goes on, and we strive to better
ourselves and the world constantly.
Cirque is truly an amazing company, and I am always proud to
share our insights with todays graduate students. I hope they
get as thrilled over Cirque as I did myself 11 years ago, when I
joined the most innovative company in the entertainment world!
Karen Gay Joined Cirque in 1998
World Premiere: D-Day for ELVIS [EXPANDED]
{Feb.26}
It's not quite noon yet, but the Viva ELVIS theatre is already
buzzing. Journalists have been invited to meet the show's
creators and take a backstage tour. Meanwhile, the Aria Hotel is
also buzzing because of a visit by President Obama. But that's
another story for another day.
FINAL ADJUSTMENTS - Three hours before the show opens, the
artists started filling up the green room and the dressing
rooms. Many were sporting new hairdos and were decked out in
their best outfits for the premiere party. But before they start
celebrating, they needed to practice their final bow and, of
course, rehearse for two important performances.
ARRIVALS - The many journalists crammed along the blue carpet
were waiting for the stars and celebrities to come out from the
Gold Lounge, where they were enjoying a cocktail. Comedian
Carrot Top was the first to step onto the blue carpet, followed
closely by Criss Angel, who wanted to say a few words to the
Viva ELVIS employees. I would like to wish the shows team the
best of luck. I know that they have worked hard for this, and
continue to do so. A show is a living organismit is constantly
evolving. Best of luck! Many stars were in attendance to
witness this coming-together of Cirque and the Kingtwo creators
they very much admire, they all said. Here are a few pictures of
the blue carpet, which was packed with local and international
media.
WHAT A NIGHT! - Following the 7:00 p.m. performance, guests were
directed to Haze Bar inside the Aria Hotel. Cirque was aiming
for a evening with a hint of Elvis and a Cirquester touch, of
course!
Sky Changing on Mystère
{Feb.28}
After 16 years and 7,641 performances, the sky structure on
Mystère was replaced with aluminum trussing during the January
dark. The old sky was experiencing stress fractures that had to
be re-welded in several locations. The new sky was engineered by
Nolan Engineering Services (NES) and built by Total Structures.
The old sky weighed in at 7,150 lbs while the new sky weighs
5,000 lbs. The old sky structure was dismantled by our crew and
hauled away by Desert Recycling LLC. Mystère received a check in
the amount of $2,283.16 for recycling the structure. This money
was then donated to ONE DROP - Project Haiti.
---------------------------------------------------
NETWORKING: Cirque on Facebook, YouTube & Flickr
---------------------------------------------------
--- [ ALEGRIA ] ---
{Feb.05}
"Cirque's Alegria dazzling stagecraft comes to Joe Louis Arena"
Read The Windsor Star's review of the Detroit premiere of
Alegria!
LINK /// < http://www.windsorstar.com/entertainment/Cirque%
20Alegria%20dazzling%20stagecraft%20comes%20Louis%
20Arena/2524969/story.html >
{Feb.11}
Did you know...that it takes 9 hours and over 80 technicians to
put up the Alegria set?
FOTO [1] /// < http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=184360
&id=38543815745&ref=mf >
--- [ BANANA SHPEEL ] ---
{Feb.11}
Wow the Blizzard of 2010 couldn't stop the Banana Shpeel Open
House at the Beacon Theatre. Over 1,000 people attended
including banana toting fans who lined up four hours before the
event. Guests at the Banana Shpeel Open House were photographed
with performers from the show!
FOTO [127] /// < http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=186406
&id=153330866799&ref=mf >
{Feb.12}
Check out the video on Broadway.com from the Banana Shpeel Open
House in New York.
LINK /// < http://www.broadway.com/shows/banana-shpeel/buzz/new-
yorkers-go-bananas-cirque-du-soleils-banana-shpeel/ >
{Feb.15}
Dance Magazine features Banana Shpeel Choreographer Jared Grimes
in the February issue.
FOTO [1] /// < http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4746864
&id=153330866799 >
{Feb.22}
MEET THE CREATORS: Make-up Designer Eleni Uranis uses her skills
as a painter to create the unique looks for Banana Shpeel. She
starts by painting on photos of the performers' face to explore
ideas and color palettes. Eleni has been with Cirque du Soleil
since 1989 and designed the make-up for the shows Wintuk and
ZED.
FOTO [1] /// < http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4805827
&id=153330866799 >
--- [ KÀ ] ---
{Feb.06}
Last night the founder of Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberté, paid
us a visit to congratulate everyone on 5 wonderful years. We
also presented him with a gift - a star named after his ONE DROP
Foundation. Happy Birthday, KÀ!
FOTO [2] /// < http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=185184
&id=31527171928&ref=mf >
{Feb.09}
Hello KÀ fans! Our friends at G4 were kind enough to share some
clips from the "Inside KÀ" special which aired last month, so in
case you didn't catch it, here's a quick peek at what you
missed. We'll have some other clips coming in the next few days.
Enjoy! | G4 Presents "Inside KÀ by Cirque du Soleil" - Backstage
VIDEO [0:57] /// < http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?
v=1211355131239&ref=mf >
{Feb.12}
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue has taken over Las Vegas
this week, and model Julie Henderson spent some time at KÀ
yesterday getting a taste of what it takes to be in the show.
We'll let you know when the full segment will air on E!
Entertainment, so keep checking back!
FOTO [18] /// < http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=186948
&id=31527171928&ref=mf >
{Feb.13}
Hello KÀ fans! Ready for clip #2 from the "Inside KÀ" special?
All of our artists are airbag certified, so in order for Alison
Haislip from G4 to be able to participate in the trainings we
arranged, she needed to learn how to fall too. It's not as easy
as it looks! | G4 Presents "Inside KÀ by Cirque du Soleil" -
Airbag Training
VIDEO [0:59] /// < http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?
v=1214869019084&ref=mf >
{Feb.26}
Hello, KÀ fans! Sorry for the lack of posts this week, do you
still love us? We love you, and to prove it, here's another clip
from "G4 Presents: Inside KÀ." Starting May 1, Continental
Airlines (through June 30) and Cathay Pacific (through July 31)
will be showing "Inside KÀ" on their in-flight entertainment
package. ...Let us know if you see it, and send us a postcard! |
G4 Presents "Inside KÀ by Cirque du Soleil" - Battle Wall
VIDEO [1:44] /// < http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?
v=1225527085529&ref=mf >
--- [ KOOZA ] ---
{Feb.26}
Cirque du Soleil's Extreme Thrills Return Thursday with
Kooza on NBC in San Diego, interview with artistic director Adam
Miller!
VIDEO /// < http://www.nbcsandiego.com/around-town/events/
Cirque_du_Soleil_s_Extreme_Thrills_Return_Thursday_
with_Kooza_San_Diego.html >
--- [ LA NOUBA ] ---
{Feb.01}
La Nouba by Cirque du Soleil Brad Auerbach's review of La Nouba
(January 2010) in EntertainmentToday.net.
LINK /// < http://www.entertainmenttoday.net/content/
view/902/28/ >
{Feb.04}
Check out Anthony and Melanie performing their act as The
Juggler and the Green Bird on Ellen!! Their performance was
flawless!!
VIDEO /// < http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2YK9tR/
ellen.warnerbros.com/2010/02/anthony-gatto-worlds-
greatest-juggler-0204.php/r:t >
{Feb.24}
"Splurging on Cirque La Nouba at Downtown Disney for our last
night. That show is mind-blowing, breath-taking, amazing,
unbelievable, and beautiful, and I am so glad that we went." -
Stephanie, 2/23 post on her blog (Thanks for great review,
Stephanie!!)
--- [ LOVE ] ---
{Feb.01}
Congratuations to us! "All Together Now" the documentary on the
making of LOVE took home the Grammy for the Best Long Form Music
Video. This is the 3rd Grammy win for LOVE!
{Feb.04}
Pics from the 2010 Grammy Awards! | THE BEATLES AND CIRQUE DU
SOLEIL DOCUMENTARY 'ALL TOGETHER NOW' WINS GRAMMY AWARD Los
Angeles, California - January 31, 2010 - At today's 52nd Annual
GRAMMY Awards, 'All Together Now,' the feature-length
documentary about the making of The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du
Soleil(r) won the GRAMMY for Best Long Form Music Video.
FOTO [3] /// < http://www.facebook.com/notes/the-beatles-love-
by-cirque-du-soleil/pics-from-the-2010-grammy
awards/318966520179 >
{Feb.09}
We are still gleaming from our Grammy win!
LINK /// < http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/
Giles%20Martin%20high%20Grammys%20LOVE/2519959/
story.html >
{Feb.25}
Check out what our new friend Austin Powell thinks of Viva ELVIS
and The Beatles LOVE - our the two best ROCKING shows in
Vegas!!!
LINK /// < http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Blogs/
index.html/objID971187/blogID/ >
--- [ MYSTERE ] ---
{Feb.06}
Hello, Mystère fans! We received a wonderful e-mail from a guest
this week, with a photo of artist Ross Gibson (you might know
him as Red Bird). Enjoy! "Please, Please, Please send our
appreciation to Ross (Red Bird) in Mystere. He made our 12 year
old daughter, Monasita's dream come true on Thursday after the
show by ...taking a photo with her and signing her program.
Thank you for all of the awe and excitement your shows have
brought into our lives."
FOTO [1] /// < http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?
pid=4584341&id=18155469918 >
{Feb.09}
Here's a few pictures of Mystère cast and crew out and about!
FOTO [3] /// < http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=182386
&id=18155469918&ref=mf >
{Feb.12}
Hello Mystère fans! You've been very patiently waiting for the
new trailer, and as your reward, here is the official world
premiere - you guys get to see it first! Enjoy!
VIDEO [1:00] /// < http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?
v=1213896074761&ref=mf >
{Feb.18}
On Valentine's Day, Mystère had the honor of hosting a wedding
proposal. Las Vegas resident Tony Hurtado popped the question to
his girlfriend of 13 years, Elaine Stowers in front of cast,
crew and a full house. Thankfully she said yes! He said "I'm in
love with her, and I wanted to share it with everyone." Everyone
together - 1... 2... 3... AWWWWWWWWWWW!!!
LINK /// < http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=185244
&id=18155469918&ref=mf >
{Feb.27}
Mystère was honored to be invited to participate in a media
event representing Las Vegas in Mexico City. It was a very busy
three days, but here's a small idea of all of the fun things we
did. Enjoy!
FOTO [40] /// < http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=187678
&id=18155469918&ref=mf >
--- [ "O" ] ---
{Feb.02}
A fact that would put Jersey Shore to shame! To style the wigs
used in "O", more than 23,500 ounces of hairspray have been
used!
{Feb.04}
Cirque du Soleil is the subject of the "Pop Five" on USAToday.com
today! Guess what show is #1!
LINK /// < http://content.usatoday.com/communities/popcandy/
post/2010/02/todays-pop-five-mikevs-favorite-cirque-
du-soleil-shows/1 >
--- [ VAREKAI ] ---
{Feb.26}
Varekai by Cirque du Soleil Now playing in Manchester, UK !
LINK /// < http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/manchester/hi/people_
and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_8537000/
8537518.stm >
--- [ VIVA ELVIS ] ---
{Feb.02}
Fun fact for today: the Jailhouse Rock set weighs 90,000 lbs.
{Feb.18}
Check out this incredible behind the scenes look at Viva ELVIS!
LINK /// < http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/showbiz/2010/02/18/
lkl.behind.viva.elvis.cnn?iref=allsearch >
{Feb.22}
Win a trip to Vegas to see Viva ELVIS!
LINK /// < http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/promo/2010/viva-
elvis/elvis-contest.aspx >
{Feb.23}
Opening night gifts from our sister shows on The Strip were
presented to the cast and crew today.
FOTO [4] < http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=146984
&id=167136344108&ref=mf >
{Feb.24}
Check out the cool cab tops!
FOTO [2] /// < http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=146885&
id=167136344108&ref=mf >
{Feb.25}
Celebrities in attendance at our Blue Carpet event: Priscilla
Presley, Ryan Seacrest, Wynonna Judd, Neil Patrick Harris and
David Burtka, Justin Long, Peter Facinelli and Jennie Garth,
Chris Noth, Christina Hendricks, Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed,
Regis and Joy Philbin, Criss Angel, Taye Diggs, Holly Madison,
Perez H...ilton, Grant Show, Jonathon Togo, William Fichtner,
Aaron Paul, Malin Akerman, Jeff Probst and Sheetal Sheth, Rita
Rudner, Carrot Top, Kelly Killoren Bensimon, Keir O'Donnell, Lo
Bosworth, Scott Weiland, Giuliana and Bill Rancic, Sarah Roemer,
Laurence Fishburne and Gina Torres, Brian Baumgartner, Angelica
Bridges and Sammy Shore | Photos by Ethan Miller
FOTO [13] /// < http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=147340&
id=167136344108&ref=mf >
{Feb.25}
Check out the following video on FOX NEWS!
VIDEO /// < http://video.foxnews.com/v/4029948/elvis-
immortalized-in-vegas/?playlist_id=87249 >
-------------------------------------------
GATHERINGS: CirqueCon, Celebri & More!
-------------------------------------------
CirqueCon: < http://www.CirqueCon.com/ >
Update #11: Friday, February 26, 2010
--------------------------------------
Greetings, Cirque Passionates!
Wooow, look at that! In just 60 days from now we'll be gathering
again for yet another fun-filled Cirque celebration! There are
still a great number of things for us to accomplish behind the
scenes until that day arrives, so with that in mind let me get
right to the update - things are moving quickly!
In This Update...
o) DO YOU HAVE YOUR CIRQUECON 2010 MEMBERSHIP?
Planning to join us in either New York City, Montréal or
both? Don't forget about your CirqueCon 2010 Membership!
Without a paid membership we will be unable to produce one
of our CirqueCon badges for you and your family, cover the
costs of printing our programme book or guarantee you a
spot in any of our activites. Remember, in order to take
part in any activity Cirque du Soleil may have in store
for us, you must have a CirqueCon badge to identify you
with our group. Unfortunately, we will be unable to let
you participate without it!
Becoming a member of CirqueCon 2010 is easy! We only ask a
nominal membership fee of $20.00 per household to cover
planning, research and expenses for the event. And we have
two convenient ways for you to become a member!
See our MEMBERSHIP page for further details:
< http://www.cirquecon.com/2010/member.htm >
o) BANANA SHPEEL TICKETS - DONE DEAL
Our special group offer on selected category tickets for
BANANA SHPEEL in New York City has ended as of February
24th, and there will not be an extension. We wish to thank
everyone for their participation and quick response.
At this time we are unable to take any further orders for
BANANA SHPEEL tickets. Should you wish to join us at either
BANANA SHPEEL and OVO in NEW YORK CITY or TOUR 2010
(rumored to be named TOTEM) in MONTRÉAL, please purchase
your tickets directly with Cirque du Soleil, which you
can do using the following links:
BANANA SHPEEL:
< http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/
banana-shpeel/tickets/new-york.aspx >
OVO:
< http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/
ovo/tickets/new-york.aspx >
TOUR 2010 (TOTEM):
< http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/
cirque-2010/tickets/montreal.aspx >
There are still great seats left, so come join us! (Normal
pricing by Cirque du Soleil applies).
o) ONE DROP PARTY INVITE?
Interested in helping out the environment while at the
same time rubbing elboes with some of Cirque du Soleil's
elite? You can!
CirqueCon, through Rodolfo Elizondo, was extended an
invitation to attend LA SOIRÉE ONE DROP, a benefit show
and party benefiting Guy Laliberte's ONE DROP foundation,
which is being held the evening of Friday, April 30th.
He's looking at the "Friends of One Drop" package, which
has a number of privileges, they are:
- A reserved seat in the Prestigue section
to attend TOUR 2010 (TOTEM), directed
by Robert Lepage. (This is a Category 1
ticket).
- An exclusive invitation to the HAPPENING
that will crown this night's breathtaking
performance, with access to the VIP area
reserved for Guy Laliberté and his main
associates from Cirque du Soleil and ONE
DROP. Here, you may snack on a variety of
hors d'oeuvre and sip the drinks of your
choice.
- And, surprise gifts!
The event will be sure to awaken your senses and
captivate your imagination. For this event, we
recommend "Cirque Chic" reflecting the casual style,
creative spirit and festive atmosphere of Cirque
du Soleil.
The pacakge costs $7,500 and is awarded 10 tickets.
That's just $750 per Passionate! If he is unable to
secure 10 spots, individual tickets may be purchased
at $900.00 each.
Please contact Rodolfo Elizondo [rodoel@gmail.com]
directly for further information regarding the benefit
party.
o) WELCOME TO MONTRÉAL CIRQUECON PARTY
Can't afford to attend the One-Drop benefit party?
Don't fret - although it is an interesting prospect,
neither can we! Therefore, CirqueCon will hold a
"Welcome to Montréal" Cocktail Party to be held out
of our joining hotel suites at the Marriott Spring
Hill to welcome all Passionates to our second
home - among the quays of the Old Port.
An exact time for our welcoming party has not yet
been determined. we'll let you know shortly!
o) ACTIVTY & EVENT REMINDERS!
Due to the nature of our event this year - three shows in
two cities - we have a number of official CirqueCon events
taking place, which we'd like to take a moment to remind
everyone about:
We'd love to see everyone at our official Group Meals in
both New York City and Montréal - the Amsterdam Ale House
in New Your City and Restaurant du Vieux Port in Montréal.
We'd also love to see you at Dallas BBQ in New York City
before we take in OVO! For information pertaining to costs
involved, restaurant locations, or even a peek at the menus,
use the links below, which will take you to our website:
NEW YORK CITY | Dallas BBQ:
< http://www.cirquecon.com/2010/social-NYC.htm#magicbus >
NEW YORK CITY | Amsterdam Ale House:
< http://www.cirquecon.com/2010/social-NYC.htm#meal >
MONTREAL | Restaurant du Vieux Port:
< http://www.cirquecon.com/2010/social-YUL.htm#meal >
And, of course, don't forget to RSVP with us at our
headquarters hotels - both are now ready to take your
reservation! We have two wonderful hotels near our primary
event locations this year. For New York City, we're going
to be staying at "On the Ave", a boutique hotel across
from Central Park in Upper West Side (just two blocks from
the Beacon Theater). In Montréal, we're proud to once again
stay at the Marriott Spring Hill Suites Vieux Port, which
served us so well for CirqueCon 2005. Please see the HOTELS
section of our website for further details.
CIRQUECON HEADQUARTERS HOTELS:
< http://www.cirquecon.com/2010/hotel.htm >
And although we've come to New York City for spectacles by
Cirque du Soleil, who says we can't take in a musical on
Broadway too? Therefore, we've dedicated TUESDAY, APRIL
27th as our night to be on the Great White Way, so please
enjoy its various theatrical and musical offerings. Do
whatever interests you; the night is yours! Most of the
CirqueCon staff will be seeing Disney's THE LION KING at
Minskoff Theatre near Times's Square, which you're very
welcome to join us for - who knows who we might see there
tonight! Contact the theater box office directly to
purchase tickets.
Doors open at 6:30pm; show begins at 7:00pm.
For information on DISNEY'S THE LION KING, please visit
their official website: < disney.go.com/theatre/thelionking/
broadway/ >. Tickets avaialble through the website should
you be interested in joining us there!
o) MEMBER STORIES - WE'D LOVE TO HERE'EM!
Have a story to tell about last year's CirqueCon event in
Monterrey, or perhaps 2008's in Tokyo, or a recent
experience attending a Cirque du Soleil show? We'd love
to hear them!
We're looking to publish a few of our Passionate's
adventures with us (or with Cirque du Soleil) in our
2010 Programme Book. So if you have a great story, please
email your stories to us at newyork@cirquecon.com today!
# # #
That's it for this update. Come join us as we take on Manhattan
(and Quebec!) at CirqueCon 2010!
=======================================================================
COMPARTMENTS -- A PEEK BEHIND THE CURTAIN
=======================================================================
o) DIDYAKNOW - Facts at a Glance about Cirque
o) HISTORIA - Cirque du Soleil History
---------------------------------
DIDYAKNOW? - Facts About Cirque
---------------------------------
o) The Tatami Deck is another major performance space used in KÀ. It
measures 30x30 feet and weighs between 75,000 to 100,000 pounds.
o) The stage of Delirium is 104 feet long by 20 feet deep with musical
and acrobatic action occupying the entire scene at all times.
o) A unique system of pre-recorded, animated and manipulated live
images keeps up with the musical tempo and insures the audience of
Delirium is alert.
o) The state-of-the-art lighting system for Mystère includes 924
circuits with individual 2.4 kW dimmers.
o) There are 800 lighting cues in Mystère.
o) The Mystère lighting and electrical grid is 80 feet above the
stage.
o) The Mystère stage measure is 120 feet wide by 70 feet deep.
o) The Dralion trapeze is set up by the artists themselves. Once
they've carried it from the wing to the stage, it is ready for use
in two minutes' time
o) The bamboo poles used in Dralion are 16 feet long (the height of a
two-story building) and weigh 16 pounds each.
o) In Dralion, the band of blue cloth used in the pas de deux act is
60 feet long.
o) At the back of the stage of ZAIA, the "Star drop" measures 12,221
sq. ft., or 121' X 101'.
o) The music of ZAIA was not inspired by any specific country, but is
rather a blend of musical genres melding into a brand-new culture
for the show.
o) Some 300 props were created for ZAIA, including 30 lanterns, 20
telescopes, 18 megaphones and 22 bicycles.
o) Most songs of ZAIA are sung in an imaginary language inspired by
Hindi phonemes.
------------------------------------
HISTORIA: Cirque du Soleil History
------------------------------------
* Mar.01.1988 -- Le Cirque Reinvene opened Santa Monica (third time)
* Mar.01.2008 - -Corteo opened San Diego, California
* Mar.04.1999 -- Quidam European Tour Began in Amsterdam
* Mar.04.1999 -- New Tour Name Released -- Dralion
* Mar.04.2005 -- Quidam opened Melbourne
* Mar.04.2008 -- Saltimbanco Arena opened Little Rock, AK
* Mar.04.2009 -- Quidam opened Belfast, UK (Temporarily Arena)
* Mar.04.2009 -- Saltimbanco Arena opened Youngstown, OH
* Mar.05.2004 -- Saltimbanco opened Lyon
* Mar.05.2009 -- Alegría opened Dubai, UAE
* Mar.06.1997 -- Alegría opened Amsterdam
* Mar.06.2001 -- Alegría opened Melbourne, Australia
* Mar.06.2002 -- Dralion opened Los Angeles
* Mar.06.2003 -- Alegría opened Houston
* Mar.06.2003 -- Varekai opened Atlanta
* Mar.07.2007 -- Madison Square Garden Show "Winter Tale" Announced!
* Mar.07.2007 -- Saltimbanco "Arena Tour" Announced!
* Mar.08.2008 -- Saltimbanco Arena opened Shreveport, LA
* Mar.09.1995 -- Saltimbanco opened Amsterdam (European Tour Began)
* Mar.10.2006 -- Dralion opened Geneva
* Mar.11.1994 -- Saltimbanco Japan Tour Began (ends 9/11)
* Mar.11.2007 -- "O" celebrated its 4000th performance [Sunday, 10:30pm]
* Mar.11.2009 -- Saltimbanco Arena opened Louisville, KY
* Mar.12.2008 -- Saltimbanco Arena opened San Antonio, TX
* Mar.12.2009 -- Cirque Dubai 2010 is once again delayed until 2010
* Mar.12.2009 -- Quidam opened Newcastle, UK (Temporarily Arena)
* Mar.13.2003 -- Dralion opened Raleigh
* Mar.14.1999 -- Alegría: Le Film showcased in Santa Barbara
* Mar.14.2003 -- La Nouba celebrated 2000th Performance [Friday, 6:00pm]
* Mar.14.2006 -- Varekai opened Portland
* Mar.15.1998 -- Mystère celebrated 2000th Performance [Sunday, 7:30pm]
* Mar.15.2006 -- Saltimbanco opened Santiago, Chile
* Mar.15.2007 -- Varekai opened Canberra, Australia
* Mar.17.2003 -- IBM and Cirque come together in 3-Year Partnership
* Mar.17.2005 -- Dralion opened Barcelona, Spain
* Mar.18.1999 -- Saltimbanco opened Sydney, Australia
* Mar.18.2004 -- Varekai opened San Diego
* Mar.18.2009 -- Quidam opened Birmingham, UK (Temporarily Arena)
* Mar.18.2008 -- Saltimbanco Arena opened Laredo, TX
* Mar.19.2002 -- Saltimbanco Extended CD Released (BMG/CDS Musique)
* Mar.19.2006 -- Quidam opened Long Beach
* Mar.19.2009 -- Cirque Unveils new Casting MySpace Page
* Mar.20.2007 -- Quidam opened Seoul, South Korea
* Mar.21.2008 -- Saltimbanco Arena opened Corpus Christi, TX
* Mar.22.1996 -- Alegría Japanese Tour (until Sep. 8, 1996)
* Mar.22.2005 -- Zumanity CD Released (CDS Musique)
* Mar.22.2007 -- Corteo opened Houston
* Mar.22.2007 -- Cirque Luxor (Criss Angel) Announced!
* Mar.23.1993 -- Nouvelle Expérience CD Released in Canada (RCA/Victor)
* Mar.23.1999 -- Alegria: Le Film CD Released in Canada (RCA)
* Mar.23.2000 -- Alegría celebrated 2000th performance [8:00pm/Biloxi]
* Mar.24.1998 -- Cirque Collection CD Released in US (RCA/Victor)
* Mar.24.2002 -- Cirque performed at the 74th Academy Awards
* Mar.24.2004 -- "The Bar at the Edge of the Earth" opened
* Mar.25.2004 -- Alegría opened Atlanta
* Mar.25.2009 -- Quidam opened Manchester, UK (Temporarily Arena)
* Mar.26.2008 -- Saltimbanco Arena opened Wichita, KS
* Mar.28.1995 -- Alegría opened New York City
* Mar.28.2009 -- "O" Honored Earth Hour 2009
* Mar.29.1994 -- Mystère CD Released in Canada (RCA/Victor)
* Mar.29.2002 -- Quidam opened Charlotte
* Mar.30.1993 -- Saltimbanco opened New York City
* Mar.30.2000 -- Quidam opened Valencia, Spain
* Mar.31.2009 -- Quidam opened Dublin, Ireland (Temporarily Arena)
=======================================================================
FASCINATION! FEATURES
=======================================================================
Within...
o) "Cirque in Your Ear (Part 2 of 2)"
By: Keith Johnson - Seattle, Washington (USA)
{Issue Exclusive}
o) "Cirque du Soleil Unveils VIVA ELVIS"
By: Cirque du Soleil, Press Room Materials
o) "The Press on VIVA ELVIS" [EXPANDED]
A Special Collection of Reviews in the Press
o) "Robin Leach on VIVA ELVIS - In Four Parts" [EXPANDED]
A Special Collection from the Las Vegas Sun
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Cirque in Your Ear (Part 2 of 2)"
By: Keith Johnson - Seattle, Washington (USA)
{Issue Exclusive}
--------------------------------------------------------------
Last month we talked about audio podcasts that occasionally feature
Cirque du Soleil, focusing on KNPR's State of Nevada public-affairs
show. This month we feature a podcast-only show that occasionally
features Cirque elements.
Las Vegas, Nevada-based Steve Friess is a freelance writer who writes
for a number of major publications. He blogs about Las Vegas on a
regular basis at < http://thestrippodcast.blogspot.com/ > He also
produces two podcasts, The Petcast (focusing on pets), and The Strip
Podcast with husband Miles Smith which focuses on Las Vegas
happenings. Archives of the podcast can be found at <
http://www.thestrippodcast.com/ > (You can also subscribe to the
podcast on iTunes.)
The podcasts follow a standard format; "Vegas hot topics" between
Steve and Miles at the beginning with the interview in the middle.
The beginning banter can take awhile to get through but it's worth it.
Friess' interview style is that of an interested conversationalist,
who always does his homework and asks interesting questions of his
subjects. The candid answers he gets to some tougher-than-usual
questions can be fun to hear. Many of his interviews form the basis
of articles Fress later writes (and are referenced in show notes below
each show.) Note that some of the podcasts contain explicit language,
mostly from the hosts; the iTunes archive has them marked.
The shows are archived (though not very well organized) in reverse
chronological order. Shows from Jan 1, 2008 to current are on the
first page, with shows from November 24, 2005 to December 31, 2007 on
a second page available from a link at the top and bottom of the first
page. (There are even older shows on a third page linked from the
bottom of the second, but there are no Cirque-specific shows there).
Here's a list of their Cirque-related shows, in chronological order by
original airdate.
THE STRIP PODCAST - Steve Friess and Miles Smith
01/19/2006 - The fun Joey Arias, original Mistress of Seduction at
Zumanity talks about his early days in NYC. He also dishes on the
original Man2Man couple of Silverhut & King, about surprising the
Hilton sisters at the Premiere, and what kinds of rewards a job like
this can provide.
05/11/2006 - Franco Dragone - The always interesting Dragone talks
about going back to Cirque shows and shaking them up to bring emotion
back to the performers. Steve also gets him to discuss Cirque's first
meeting with Caesars Palace. Dragone also talks openly about Le Rêve
(which at that point had been opened a year) touching on the negative
reviews and what the pregnant women in the first performances of the
show actually meant. Finally he talks about the "A New Day" show with
Celine Dion and its development.
05/25/2006 - Cirque VP of Creation Gilles Ste-Croix has a funny story
about the LOVE premiere and Guy Laliberte getting stopped by security.
They also discuss his upbringing, the impact the Beatles had on a
young Ste-Croix, and the "symbolism of 4" in the show. He also breaks
the news (quite some time before it was officially announced) about
the Elvis show at Aria.
06/08/2006 - George and Gilles Martin, discussing the Beatles and LOVE
- Recorded about the same time as the KNPR interview we mentioned last
month. Done for an article that Friess wrote focusing on their
working relationship, the conversation naturally steers towards the
two of them and their process and dynamic. Goes into a bit of detail
about how the musical soundscape was first developed.
12/14/2006 - George Harrison's widow Olivia Harrison discusses LOVE.
The reclusive Harrison doesn't give many interviews so this is a coup.
There is a tantalizing tidbit about Guy's Grand Prix parties early on.
She also discusses an early potential location for the show (London
Battersea Park?). She discusses guarding George's legacy, and hearing
and seeing the show while keeping George in mind.
10/18/2007 - Two discussions about performing in Cirque shows in
separate interviews with "O" original cast and creation artist,
Russian swing diver Anastassia Dobrynina and "Mystere" bungee and
Korean plank performer Margalee Drolet. The "O" interview discusses
creation and Franco Dragone's irritation with the extensive
automation, and also features some soundboard audio from the show.
The Drolet interview talks about working in the Cirque environment and
coming back to the show after maternity leave.
06/26/2008 - Kyle Stokely, a 12-year old performer in LOVE. Also re-
listing of the George and Gilles Martin interview. Stokely talks
about how he got the part, what he does in the show, and what life is
like as a young performer. He also talks about the famous people he's
met as a cast member, including the surviving Beatles.
11/18/2008 - Guy Laliberte! - A short interview recorded outside (so
Laliberte could smoke). Friess asks some good questions about Criss
Angel, Cirque's dominance on the strip, and the investment in Cirque
by Dubai. Though short Laliberte speaks frankly.
03/10/2009 - A special video episode covering a day of Cirque Dance
Auditions in Las Vegas. First focusing on teaching the candidates a
section of dance from "Come Together" they perform it as a group and
in groups of 4 in the audition studio. Then comes improve, where they
are given a word and presented with previously-unknown music and must
react to it (an improve here based on the word "Chaplinesque" is fun).
The 9:20 video notes just 60 of the 400 dancers auditioning were
accepted.
02/08/2010 - Cirque President Daniel Lamarre - This long interview,
recorded when Freiss was in Montreal to do a profile of Cirque
discusses a wide range of topics, and Freiss isn't shy about asking
tough probing questions. In a fascinating discussion, Lamarre talks
matter-of-factly about Cirque's business plans, the problems (and
possible solutions) with Banana Shpeel, Believe, and Zaia. He talks
about expanding into the "proscenium theater" market and the Kodak LA
show. He also breaks news about a show going into Radio City Music
Hall, and how the Dubai show is now on more or less permanent hold.
Highly recommended!
02/15/2010 - Franco Dragone (again!) - Another fascinating
conversation with the compelling Belgian director. Here Franco talks
about the history of why he left Cirque and what he thinks of their
expansion plans (not his style). He mentions he thinks Believes
problems are in the writing, and talks about the challenges of working
with Celine Dion and not overpowering her with the Dragone "brand."
He also talks about an upcoming arena show he's working on based on
"Kung Fu Panda" and his incredibly expensive Macao show "House of
Dancing Waters." Another highly recommended episode.
In the last month, we also caught a new Cirque-specific podcast on
KNPR < http://www.knpr.org/son/archive/index.cfm >:
02/22/2010 - Viva Elvis debut - A discussion with members of the
cast. Though the interviewer could have been stronger, there is a
good discussion of the costuming, visiting Graceland, and the story of
Elvis' older brother. The wardrobe guy is dominant and comes off very
polished.
Reuben Pavel - Head of Wardrobe
Marla Lowery - Dancer
Dea Norberg - Singer
Kit Chatham - Percussionist
And if you know of any other audio interviews of Cirque, let me know
by sending me an email to tourdemondo@yahoo.com and I'll list them in
a future installment!
-------------------------------------------------------
"Cirque du Soleil Unveils VIVA ELVIS"
By: Cirque du Soleil, Press Room Materials
{Feb.19.2010}
-------------------------------------------------------
VIVA ELVIS BY CIRQUE DU SOLEIL
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY
VINCENT PATTERSON
Cirque du Soleil, in partnership with Elvis Presley Enterprises, a
CKX, Inc company, is thrilled to unveil today its latest resident show
Viva ELVIS(tm), at ARIA Resort & Casino(tm) at CityCenter in Las Vegas.
Viva ELVIS, a harmonious fusion of dance, acrobatics and live music,
is a tribute to the life and music of Elvis Presley. Nostalgia,
modernity and raw emotion provide the backdrop for his immortal voice
and the exhilaration and beauty of his music.
Created in the image of The King of Rock 'n' Roll - powerful, sexy,
whimsical, truly unique and larger than life - the show highlights an
American icon who transformed popular music and whose image embodies
the freedom, excitement and turbulence of his era.
Significant moments in his life - intimate, playful and grandiose -
blend with timeless songs that remain as relevant today as when they
first hit the top of the charts. Viva ELVIS focuses on the essential
humanity of the one superstar whose name will forever be linked with
the history of Las Vegas: Elvis Presley.
"On a creative level, it was extremely stimulating to draw our
inspiration from this musical icon," said Guy Laliberté, Founder of
Cirque du Soleil. "Viva ELVIS showcases the raw energy and pure talent
of Elvis and highlights the exhilaration and beauty of his music on a
grand scale."
"It makes perfect sense that Elvis should live on in Las Vegas, where
his iconic status was cemented," said Robert F.X. Sillerman, Chairman
and Chief Executive Officer of CKX, Inc. "When we teamed with Cirque
du Soleil, we knew that any show they created would match Elvis'
larger-than-life presence. So we were pleased to open the vaults at
Graceland and make available to Cirque du Soleil historic archival
materials, recordings and concert footage that would help them create
a show that will carry Elvis' legacy into the future."
"An evolutionary destination designed to transform Las Vegas at its
core, CityCenter is larger than life, just like Elvis himself," said
Bill McBeath, President and COO of ARIA Resort & Casino. "We want to
bring the element of fun to ARIA, the centerpiece of CityCenter. Viva
ELVIS will bring the King of Rock 'n' Roll back to Las Vegas for
millions of his fans and create a buzz that will enable his persona to
attract untold numbers of new followers."
"Elvis has always been in the forefront of new, contemporary
entertainment and technology," said Priscilla Presley. "I believe Viva
ELVIS continues this and reaches out and expands his legacy in a new,
creative and exciting way."
"The show's acrobatic elements, set designs and other artistic
components are part of an overall creative vision designed to showcase
the timeless music of Elvis, his unique voice and unequaled talent as
a performer," said Gilles Ste-Croix, Senior Vice-president of Creative
Content and New Project Development at Cirque du Soleil.
"The unique strength and power of Elvis was in his voice," said
Vincent Paterson, the show's Writer and Director. "I was greatly
inspired by the originality and complexity of this musical legend.
What I tried to paint, in all humility, is the show he might have
created today."
THE CREATIVE TEAM
-----------------
Artistic Guide Guy Laliberté
Artistic Guide Gilles Ste-Croix
Writer and Director Vincent Paterson
Director of Creation Armand Thomas
Musical Director and Arranger Erich van Tourneau
Set Designer Mark Fisher
Costume Designer Stefano Canulli
Acrobatic performance Designer Daniel Cola
Acrobatic Equipment
and Rigging Designer Guy St-Amour
Lighting Designer Marc Brickman
Image Content Designer Ivan Dudynsky
Sound Designer Jonathan Deans
Choreographers Bonnie Story
Napoleon and Tabitha Dumo
Mark Swanhart
Catherine Archambault
Props Designer Patricia Ruel
Makeup Designer Nathalie Gagné
SET DESIGN, ACROBATIC EQUIPMENT AND PROPS
-----------------------------------------
The lines between scenery elements, acrobatic equipment and props in
Viva ELVIS are not always clear - and that, according to designer Mark
Fisher, was a deliberate choice.
The design of the Elvis Theater has a conventional proscenium layout
reminiscent of an opera house. The stage is wide and the backstage
area and wings are vast. They have to accommodate the large-scale set
elements and the need for speed in changing scenes imposed by the
rapid pace of the show.
The sides and the rear of the stage are fixed areas while the center
is composed of 16 platforms, separated into 12 sections which can rise
to a height of ten feet. Depending on the scene, the platforms may at
various times in the show support performers, singers, dancers or set
elements. The widest platform measures 18 feet by 80 feet and is
raised by four powerful motors 26 feet below the stage.
In the image of the King of Rock 'n' Roll
"Elvis has transcended reality and become a kind of mythic figure,"
says Mark Fisher. "So his reappearance in Las Vegas has to be done on
a scale that reflects that status."
Mark Fisher's designs illustrate many of the most significant events
in the life and career of Elvis, notably for the following scenes:
Show Opening Scene
The opening number features a giant jukebox. The chrome and gloss
black structure is 70 feet wide and 22 feet high with dance platforms
on two levels. It incorporates a 50-foot tall video screen.
The gigantic Blue Suede Shoe that appears on the stage is 29 feet
long, weighs 7,000 lbs and is made of steel and fiberglass.
Got A Lot of Livin' To Do
The set for the Got A Lot of Livin' To Do features seven trampolines
and the whole structure was inspired by Elvis' love of fairgrounds,
which he would visit with his friends after hours. The structure
weighs some 30 tons and takes up the full 78-foot width of the stage,
is 23 feet deep and 32 feet tall.
Jailhouse Rock
The challenge for Mark Fisher was to come up with a set for Jailhouse
Rock that would reference the iconic set used in the film, but at the
same time be original and fresh. He based his new design on the
technical requirements for a circus art called "marche inversée." The
structure incorporates ten tracks for acrobats to walk upside down,
attached by their feet, while dancers perform right side up on other
levels. The 82,000-pound set is 60 feet wide, 45 feet deep and almost
40 feet tall. Up to 36 artists appear on it at the same time.
Viva Las Vegas
Used in the last few songs in theshow, this set captures the glamor
of Las Vegas with a huge ceremonial staircase as its central feature.
Pavilions on the sides house the musicians, and decks above the
pavilions serve as stages for the dancers, jugglers and other circus
artists.
To complete the glamor and provide the show with a climax, there are
two beautiful gold-leaf sculptures of Elvis in iconic poses from the
peak of his popularity in Vegas.
The predominant color of the whole set and theatre is gold in a
reference to the baroque era as well as to Elvis' own identification
with gold as the universal symbol for the wealth of kings, and as a
stylized reference to all of his gold records.
Acrobatic equipment - larger than life
Given its larger than life scale - as befits a show about Elvis - some
of the acrobatic equipment could be considered part of the set design,
too:
* A tubular aluminum structure measuring 45 feet by 18 feet that
supports two acrobats who represent Elvis and his twin brother
who died at birth, is instantly recognizable as a guitar.
* A huge 15,000-pound structure that consists of five fixed bars
and two sets of parallel bars on three levels, does not so
much dominate the stage as blend with Mark Fisher's overall
design for the Return to Sender sequence, which represents
Elvis's army training.
* Two large hoops - symbolizing Elvis and Priscilla's engagement
rings - are seven feet in diameter. Two acrobats perform on
each hoop.
"'Larger than life' are the watchwords that inspired our acrobatic
approach to Viva ELVIS," says Daniel Cola, the show's Acrobatic
Performance Designer.
A few more details
* The superhero characters and the set for Got A Lot of Livin'
To Do were inspired by the Marvel comics that Elvis had read
since he was a boy.
* The giant lasso used in the Western sequence is 40 feet long,
and three giant "cowboys" representing Elvis complete the
decor. They are made of fiberglass and measure 35, 31 and 17
feet high.
* The American flag used in the Return to Sender scene is made
of genuine long underwear and boxer shorts, and has only 48
stars because Elvis entered the service in 1958, the year
before Alaska and Hawaii were admitted to the Union.
* The wedding cake is a scale replica of Elvis and Priscilla's
wedding cake.
* The curtain and the stage floor are decorated with golden
disks that recall the 151 Elvis Presley albums, singles and
EPs that went gold, platinum or multi-platinum in the USA.
THE COSTUMES
------------
The Rock'n'Roll Rebel
Elvis Presley defined the image of the Rock'n'Roll rebel in the '50s
and '60s, first with pink and black suits, then with leather jackets,
black pants, a pompadour hairstyle and a casual manner. This iconic
image, which embodies all the excitement, turbulence and the ideal of
freedom of the era, is still on the cutting edge 50 years later.
Flirting with the look of the Elvis years
The Viva ELVIS costumes are inspired by Presley's life, his entourage,
his concerts and his films. The fabulous imagination of '50s and '60s
America, which was expressed through the cinema, advertising and
magazines of the time, was a source of inspiration for costume
designer Stefano Canulli. But his work is neither a reproduction of
stereotypes and details of the period, nor is it a retro aesthetic.
"I flirted with the look of the Elvis years through an approach that
is both classic and graphic," says Stefano. "I brought to it a
contemporary touch that reflects the vitality of the era. I've
borrowed from 1950s design and sublimated it to create a world of
eclectic Technicolor lines to come up with a dynamic fantasy that
highlights the body."
Costume Closeups
* Offset printing was used to create the anatomical patterns on
the comic book superhero-inspired costumes in the Got a Lot of
Living To Do number.
* The Western scene, features printed solid colors on a sponge
mesh fabric that is rarely used for clothing, but extremely
useful for its properties of rigidity and flexibility. The
cuts are emphasized with contrasting colors, while the
cowgirls' costumes feature fake fur tutus in a cowhide
pattern.
* Synthetic paper material was used to create the romantic
'letter dresses' of the late '50s.
* The striped prison uniforms in the Jailhouse Rock scene were
given a futuristic look with silver piping.
Production Details
* For the first time at Cirque du Soleil, some of the costume
accessories use flocking - coating a surface with fibers to
give it the appearance of velvet.
* For the final scene of the show, almost all the artists are
wearing a variation of the famous Elvis jumpsuit. There are
approximately 50 of them, using a total of 250 yards of fabric
in a fiery kaleidoscope of colors. Each is decorated with
embroidered images that evoke the world of Elvis - objects,
food, animals, personal effects and so on.
* Urethane foam wigs recreate the Elvis hairstyle in a Japanese
manga comic strip interpretation.
* The showgirls' costumes are decorated with colorful feathers
printed on transparent acetate to create the illusion of a
plume of crystal feathers.
* The costumes are ornamented with some 100,000 crystals.
* The show calls for more than 450 pairs of shoes and 150 custom
wigs.
* There is a total of nearly 400 Viva ELVIS costumes, employing
some 1,500 components such as shoes, wigs and dresses.
THE MUSIC
---------
Viva ELVIS highlights the music of an American icon who changed rock
and roll forever. Elvis Presley created an art form for the masses
with his voice, his movements and his provocative image as the herald
of adolescent rebellion in the 1950s and 1960s. His music was an
explosive mixture of rhythm and blues, gospel, country and the music
of the South that brought rock and roll to the forefront of popular
music.
Evoking the spirit of Elvis in a contemporary perspective
By creating a reinterpretation of the music of Elvis, Cirque du Soleil
set out to present the songs of the King of Rock 'n' Roll in a
contemporary form that evokes the spirit of Elvis in every way.
"What would the songs of Elvis be like if he were doing them for the
first time today?" asks Musical Director and Arranger Erich van
Tourneau. "With all humility, I set out to evoke the soul and the
spirit of Elvis Presley, while building a bridge between his music and
future generations of fans."
A fusion of Southern music and the culture of rock
The styles of Viva ELVIS move from Delta blues to rockabilly, soul to
gospel, through Dixie and Southern folk music. Some of the songs even
evoke garage rock and punk, steeped in waves of hip-hop and urban
music. But one thing is certain and remains consistent: the sound of
Viva ELVIS is pure rock.
Tapping into the rich catalog of Elvis
One of the biggest challenges was to establish a balance in the
selection of songs. The score had to include enough of Elvis's hits
but not be a simple "best-of" playlist. Some of the songs were chosen
to fit the narrative of the show, but above all it was Presley's
boundless energy and his disarming charisma that dictated van
Tourneau's choices. "I wanted to highlight his rebel side, recall his
sexy and provocative facets and seize the powerful and charismatic
Elvis you see in the documentary Elvis '56 and Elvis, the television
broadcast of his 1968 comeback concert," he says. One thing's for
sure: choosing thirty songs from such a rich catalog of work by the
greatest songwriters of the era was as delicate a task as it was
challenging.
Sampling and textures
Armed with tens of thousands of samples of Elvis's voice, Erich van
Tourneau, assisted by Ugo Bombardier, often wove several sequences and
colors into the same songs, sometimes changing the key. In creating
his remix, Erich was looking to accentuate and boost the emotional
charge of the songs. For example, he incorporated ragga rhythms into
King Creole, and urban and hip-hop sounds into Blue Suede Shoes. But
in all such cases, the watchword was to be respectful of the spirit of
the original recordings.
The voice of Elvis
The live singers in Viva ELVIS are all female; the only male voice is
that of Elvis himself - on the grounds that only Elvis could possibly
do justice to Elvis when it came to portraying his vitality and
seductive charm. Isolating his voice on the original recordings was a
major technical challenge, because his voice and the instruments were
almost always recorded on the same tracks.
A few more details
* Before starting work, Erich van Tourneau and Ugo Bombardier
reviewed and recorded 914 authorized and unauthorized albums
and countless films, concert recordings, interviews and home
recordings - a job that took more than 3,000 hours!
* 17,765 samples of Elvis songs - the raw material of the show -
were made during the process of creating the musical score.
* In addition to the four female singers, the team of nine
musicians consists of a drummer, a bassist, two guitarists, a
pianist, a trombonist, a saxophonist, a trumpeter and a
percussionist.
SCENE DESCRIPTION
-----------------
BLUE SUEDE SHOES
One of the seminal songs that propelled Elvis to fame, Blue Suede
Shoes opens the show with raucous abandon, featuring a dynamic
ensemble of 30 dancers and 24 acrobats boogying, bouncing and flying
through the air. A giant jukebox adorns the stage until a giant blue
suede shoe rolls on. The eight-piece band and four female singers
energize a showcase filled with Elvis imagery, colorful graphics and
vintage footage of euphoric fans.
DON'T BE CRUEL
This number pays tribute to Elvis' fantastic recording career and the
sheer volume of his work. Twenty-four dancers take the stage for the
classic song, featuring glittering images of flying gold records on
eight LED panels, and six enormous RCA and Sun gold records lowered
from the rafters.
ONE NIGHT WITH YOU
An epic-sized guitar, a symbol of Elvis' love of music and his larger-
than-life persona, serves as an imaginary playground for Elvis and his
twin brother Jesse Garon, who died at birth. The song is a duet
between a female singer at a piano and Elvis himself.
ALL SHOOK UP
Gospel music was at the very core of Elvis' artistry. This powerful
rendition of an Elvis classic, performed by one of the singers in a
rich setting of colorful stained glass imagery, lends the dance number
a Southern revival feel.
SAVED
Elvis loved singing gospel more than any other musical genre. In fact,
each of his three Grammys was for a gospel recording. This euphoric
number combines dance with acrobatics.
GOT A LOT OF LIVIN' TO DO
Full of thrills and daring feats, Got A Lot Of Livin' To Do is a
trampoline number inspired by street acrobatics and Elvis' fascination
with comic books, amusement parks and superheroes. Seven acrobats in
stylized superhero costumes defy gravity in a stunning cavalcade of
synchronized jumps, leaps and bounces.
HEARTBREAK HOTEL
A ballad of love, sorrow and separation, Heartbreak Hotel features
four dance couples - the men dressed as army officers and the women
wearing airmail envelope dresses. They are torn between loyalty to
country and their emotional ties to their loved ones.
LOVE ME TENDER
A duet sung by Elvis and a female singer is underscored by a montage
of still photographs and newsreel footage of Elvis' two years in the
army.
RETURN TO SENDER
Boot camp as performance art - a large ensemble cast of dancers,
acrobats and marching band musicians puts on a dizzying array of hip
hop moves, and high-bar calisthenics. Backed by a gigantic American
flag made of whimsical stars and stripes, the sharp, compelling
movements are emblematic of precision, pride and patriotism - all
highly distinctive characteristics of Elvis himself.
ARE YOU LONESOME TONIGHT
This aerial pas-de-deux features a soldier and his girlfriend in a
dreamy ode to their love and devotion - and their efforts to stay
together during his tour of duty by writing to each other.
WESTERN SCENE
Musicians gather around a campfire in a reference to the style and
camaraderie of the '68 Comeback Special, and perform a medley of songs
on acoustic instruments while two cowboys spin their guns and twirl
their lassos in a playful routine.
BURNING LOVE
A cascade of movie clips pays homage to Elvis' Hollywood career. The
live band rocks the house and punctuates classic dialogue delivered by
the King.
BOSSA NOVA
A young guy triumphantly shows off at a party by building a tower of
eight chairs and topping it off with a one-arm handstand.
KING CREOLE
New Orleans sets the tone for this lusty rendition of the title song
from one of Elvis' best-loved films. It's Reggae, it's Calypso, it's
Cajun, and above all it's fun as a female singer is accompanied by
Elvis in a visual feast of stop-action film clips and dance.
JAILHOUSE ROCK
Jailhouse Rock marked the pinnacle of Elvis' movie career. It's also
the centerpiece of Viva ELVIS. A dramatic, mysterious entrance gives
way to a high-octane dance and acrobatic fusion performed to the
pulsating beat of the familiar anthem. In a tribute to the original
film sequence, the iconic prison set is dramatically updated in a
number that flips the world upside down.
IT'S NOW OR NEVER
The sensuality of the tango and the sophistication of a lounge song
connect with the audacity of an innovative pole performance featuring
eight female performers and the four men they seduce.
CAN'T HELP FALLING IN LOVE
Home movies of Elvis and Priscilla's courtship lead into footage of
their marriage ceremony. A singer performs a duet with Elvis atop a
replica of their wedding cake to accompany graceful ballet dancers and
roller-skaters.
LOVE ME/DON'T
Two seven-foot hoops - scale replicas of Elvis and Priscilla's
engagement rings - descend from the grid for two couples to perform a
sensual cerceaux act to a rocking arrangement of Love Me. A female
singer and guitarist join the party for Don't.
VIVA LAS VEGAS
Showgirls wearing colorful plumes parade down the central staircase of
a spectacular stage set framed by two gold Elvis statues. All the
other cast members are wearing shimmering reinterpretations of classic
Elvis jumpsuits as a medley of songs pays tribute to the glitz and
sparkle of Elvis' Vegas years.
SUSPICIOUS MINDS
Suspicious Minds opens with a soulful riff and builds to a thunderous
finish. A couple caught in a trap of passion and anger express their
feelings for each other in an energetic acrobatic dance. Once the duo
is reconciled, the set fills with performers emerging at the top of
the staircase in fringed jumpsuits, recreating Elvis' signature stage
moves.
HOUND DOG
The entire cast brings the show to an unforgettable finale with a
dynamic, modern celebration of the song that marked Elvis' rise to
fame.
--------------------------------------------------------------
"The Press on VIVA ELVIS" [EXPANDED]
A Special Collection of Reviews in the Press
--------------------------------------------------------------
The press had a lot to say about VIVA ELVIS's premiere - check it out!
"Viva Elvis! World Premiere at Aria"
From: KLAS-TV Blog
------------------------------------------
The world premiere of Cirque Du Soleils Viva Elvis! was a star
studded event. Celebrities packed the blue carpet. Elvis Presleys
ex-wife, Priscilla, was on hand for the opening.
You can watch interviews with Criss Angel, Carrot Top, Gene Simmons,
Peter Facinelli, and Neil Patrick Harris in my 8 News Now
Entertainment segment.
I saw the show after working the blue carpet and wanted to give you an
idea of what it was like. Overall, I enjoyed it. I was entertained.
The colors, the costumes, the dancers, the signers
were all great.
Could it use a little extra something? Id have to say, yes.
Maybe the something is more Cirque. More acrobats. More performances
that make you say, WOW.
This being said, I enjoyed the old clips of Elvis Presley. Especially
the ones of him going off to the military. I also never realized HOW
MANY women he kissed in movies! My favorite numbers were the military,
Jail House Rock, and the superheroes scene (some amazing Cirque moves
in this part of the show.)
The show ended with Viva Las Vegas. This was a Jubilee style
number. Colorful costumes and a large number of performers on stage.
Viva Elvis! is more of a mix of Cirque and Broadway. Many people have
asked me, is it just like the show LOVE? No its not. It is
different. I think it will only get better. I think its worth seeing
and you will walk away happy. Its fun and its emotional too. Its
the King of Rock & Roll!!
"'The King' Makes a Triumphant Return"
From: CNN News
-------------------------------------------
CKX, Inc. celebrated the world premiere of Viva ELVIS, the newest
resident show by Cirque du Soleil, at ARIA Resort & Casino at
CityCenter in Las Vegas, on Friday night.
The show, a harmonious fusion of dance, acrobatics and live music, is
a tribute to the life and music of Elvis Presley. It is a partnership
between Cirque du Soleil and Elvis Presley Enterprises LLC, a CKX,
Inc. company.
Robert F.X. Sillerman, Chairman and CEO of CKX, Inc., said he was
thrilled with the premiere. When we first considered the idea of a
production to capture the true essence of Elvis, we knew it had to be
a show conceived and performed by the creative geniuses of Cirque du
Soleil, Mr. Sillerman said. Given that we were working with Cirque
du Soleil, which has such an extraordinary track record, and an icon
of the magnitude of Elvis, I was concerned that I had set my
expectations too high. But from what I saw Friday and from the
reactions of those who attended the premiere, including the critics, I
am amazed to say that my hopes for the show have been exceeded.
Mr. Sillerman continued, As the reviews have said, Viva ELVIS is a
show the devoted Elvis fan will love, but it reaches beyond that. It
will be thoroughly enjoyed by the casual Elvis fan, by the fans of
music from Elviss era and by anyone who ever listened to rock and
roll. It is also a show that will be loved by fans of Cirque du
Soleil, as it takes their talents to an entire new level.
Priscilla Presley headed the long list of celebrities who turned out
to experience Viva ELVIS. Among the A-list stars was Ryan Seacrest,
host of American Idol, another iconic entertainment offering owned and
operated by CKX.
"'Viva Elvis', the Authorized King
From: Chicago Tribune
----------------------------------------------
The narrator of Viva Elvis, the latest eye-popping Las Vegas
extravaganza from the Cirque du Soleil, is none other than Colonel Tom
Parker, whose arm chair floats across the stage of the massive
proscenium theater inside the brand new ARIA Resort and Casino. With a
buttermilk accent and a warm smile, he welcomes folks to this
colossal, high-tech hagiography to The King and dispenses one Elvis
bromide after another.
Now even those who think the Colonels influence on Elvis was wholly
progressive and benigna minority position, its fair to saywould be
forced to admit that the Colonel was, well, complicated. Not here. It
feels like youre listening to the flying voice of the Tupelo tourist
board.
And while Elvis is one of the few musical names known the world over,
the official-like tone of Viva Elvis is indicative of the dangers
for the ever-expanding Cirque du Soleil of getting into bed with the
estates of celebrities. Those who protect the legacies of stars like
Elvis have an agenda to protect the brand. Cirque du Soleil is as its
best when it is theatricalizing truth.
Priscilla Presley, who was in the audience at Friday nights opening
along with a bevy of other celebrities from Neil Patrick Harris to
Christina Hendricks, must have enjoyed the building-sized wedding cake
with Priscilla and Elvis labeled across the bottom and a female singer
standing on the top, not to mention the ballet performed inside huge
wedding rings that is intended to illustrate their burning love. Fine.
But that was complicated, too.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with creating a show for Elvis
fans. And given Elvis role in the growth of Vegas, you can understand
why the city wasnt so anxious to find a place for fat, late-Vegas
Elvis on the multitudinous video screens. But surely Elvis, an iconic
American artist who understood the ebb and flow of stardom and
sadness, would actually have preferred a more honest show.
Viva Elvis, really more of a variety show than a traditional Cirque
show in the tradition of O and Ka, is not as bad as some of the
rumors circulating Sin City suggested. The 76 cast members create some
genuine pleasures here for Elvis devotees, including several
spectacular montages of archival footage and a delightfully funny
film-fusion of Elvis kissing-heavy movies.
In essence, the show is a series of visual takes on some 30 famous
Elvis numbers, drawing from the singers life. Most of the songs
feature Elvis voice, as on the original sessions, souped up with a
live, percussion-heavy band playing in concert with the recordings. On
a few occasions, female vocalists sing the songs (there are no male
voices other than Elvis himself, which is how the show gets around the
problem of falling into the trap of those ubiquitous Elvis
impressionists).
The result certainly freshens the Elvis sound and provides the
theatrical energy that Cirques acrobats and dancers need in a show
that is unusually driven by choreography. But it also tends to flatten
the musical complexity of the Elvis cannon, turning every song into a
full-throated production number. Heartbreak Hotel has a military
theme. King Creole is reggae-infused and set in New Orleans. All
Shook Up has a Gospel arrangement, illustrating Elvis early
influences. Bossa Nova evokes Acapulco. Viva Las Vegas comes with
showgirls and feathers.
This being a Cirque Vegas show, all of these pastiches are on a
massive scale. Some of them are too obvious: the chain-gang Jailhouse
Rock falls flat and the Love Me/Dont wedding-ring ballet feels
tacky. But theres also a very exciting acrobatic act performed on a
huge guitar (which must be hundreds of feet in diameter and comes
complete with bungee-like strings) and intended to represent the
sadness that Elvis felt at the loss of his twin-brother. Thats one of
two moments in the show that convey real emotional oomphthe other is
a sexy and emotionally ripe pas de deux set to Cant Help Falling in
Love. But other than that, theres not much meditation on celebrity
and American culture and theres little of the sexual danger that
Elvis surely ushered to a changing nation.
You wish that the show, directed by Vincent Patterson, had hired a
writer, who could then have approached the Elvis myth with a little
more ambivalence, more of a glancing blow.
Elvis is, of course, one of very few true global brands, and Viva
Elvis will be easily understood by the international visitors wholl
be flocking to the high-end and gorgeous Aria. Those who dont speak
English will at least be spared the Colonels narration. Those of us
who do will continue to be in awe of Cirques spectacular
theatricality and hoping it will return to controlling its own truths.
"Cirque's 'Viva Elvis' Outfabs Beatles
From: ABC News / Hollywood Reporter
---------------------------------------------
It's no stretch to say that Elvis Presley doesn't have quite the
cultural hold on recent generations that the Beatles do. Then again,
the moptops never owned Vegas like he did. And could again.
"Viva Elvis," Cirque du Soleil's seventh (!) current show in Sin City,
should be an unfettered hit. With the production's successfully bold
musical choices and its sheer size and spectacle, the new Aria Resort
& Casino can rest easy that folks from all over will seek an audience
with the King.
Comparisons to Cirque's Beatles show "Love," playing down the Strip at
the Mirage, are inevitable. Despite the inherent similarities, they
are very different productions. And "Viva Elvis" is superior.
One reason: There's a somber side to "Love" that "Elvis" never allows.
It is pure, celebratory joy from sock-hop start to nostalgic, non-
chronological finish. It's less "serious" and more playful -- yet
equally reverent to its subject.
Also, "Love" is focused so clearly on the music, with its remixed and
mashed-up Beatles songs. And with speakers embedded in its seat, sound
is its dominant sensory experience; the action onstage is somehow
secondary.
Not so with "Elvis." Yes, the King's songs are spun over, under,
sideways and down, but this is more a complete show. There is far more
dancing than in other Cirque fare -- not that the troupe's acrobatics
are given short shrift -- and the grand stage allows for grand use of
Mark Fisher's striking, sneaky-complex sets. The comfy, couch-like
seats arranged in spacious aisles down front are another plus.
Musically, the show's a triumph. Musical director Erich von Tourneau
makes smart use of live and recorded tracks, which often are spliced
together to let singers "duet" with Elvis. Other times his vocals are
stacked atop clever new arrangements. And the choice to include
lesser-known nuggets among the many standards is inspired. Such hits
as "Good Luck Charm" and "Teddy Bear" are bypassed in favor of the
lower-profile "Tiger Man," "Got a Lot o' Livin' to Do" and "One Night
of Sin."
Still, the bulk of Elvis' classics are among the three dozen full or
truncated songs, most re-jiggered for the 21st century. "All Shook Up"
becomes a gospel celebration, "King Creole" gets the dancehall
treatment, flamenco guitar spices up "It's Now or Never," and
"Jailhouse Rock" is rocked up. A Bo Diddley beat fuels "Blue Suede
Shoes" as a giant prop shoe's laces become uneven parallel bars and
its tongue turns into a slide.
Dozens of dancers and gymnast-acrobats are backed by a rock band with
a brass section, and nearly every number is memorable. (A superhero /
trampoline piece is entertaining but extraneous and off theme.) A
segment about the King's movie career features some fancy six-gun
spinning and showy rope tricks. A second drummer beefed up "Burning
Love," which played over film clips -- mainly of kissing' and
flirting'.
The inevitable "Viva Las Vegas" was indeed a showstopper, complete
with pyrotechnics, bullwhips and showgirls with the requisite plumage
in their headgear. It and the career-spanning finale montage of film
and photos -- from shy kid to mutton-chopped elder statesman --
brought the crowd to its feet. With the room awash in a shared
exuberance, it was a smart decision to leave Elvis' death out of the
program. No need to interrupt glee with maudlin sentiment.
Reminiscent of Cirque''s "Love" premiere in 2006, there was a
technical glitch that halted Friday's premiere during the opening
number. But it was fixed, and the 90-minute show went on without
further interruption. That's about all one could gripe about, though.
"Viva Elvis" is a winner that should play successfully for years.
"Viva Viva Elvis!"
From: Time Magazine
----------------------------------
There he is, in vivid black and white, onstage at Las Vegas' new Aria
hotel-casino, squalling "Blue Suede Shoes" on a gigantic screen behind
a jukebox-shaped set. Below him, eight musicians serve as his amped-up
house band while a dozen dancers practically leap out of their tight
pants and pedal pushers. At center stage is a huge shoe, which another
half-dozen revelers use as a trampoline, performing double somersaults
in time to the music. The King looks down, smiling as if in approval
of this spectacular union of two crucial elements--one past, one
present--of Vegas show biz. Elvis Presley, meet Cirque du Soleil's
Viva Elvis.
From his first concert series at the International Hotel in 1969 until
his death in 1977, Elvis was Las Vegas. Glammed up in sequined duds
that would make a showgirl or Liberace envious, he pleased his aging
audience, singing his early hits that once had the musk of sexual
revolt but by then were golden oldies. And while he redefined Sin
City's notion of a headliner show, the town changed Presley as well.
At the end, the kid from Tupelo, Miss., may have been more Vegas than
Elvis.
The Strip has another king now. Since 1993, with the opening of
Mystère, the Montreal-based Cirque has come to dominate Vegas
entertainment with such theatrical extravaganzas as the water show O
and the martial-arts epic Ka--pieces that in scope and technical éclat
are to the typical Broadway show what Avatar is to the 1933 King Kong.
In 2006, Cirque pulled off a Beatles homage, Love, but that was sedate
stuff next to this audiovisual-balletic-acrobatic explosion from
director Vincent Paterson and "director of creation" Armand Thomas.
They've concocted an experience that's both symphonic and in every way
fantastic.
Beginning and ending with Elvis '56 ("Blue Suede Shoes" to start,
"Hound Dog" for the finale), the 90-min. show, now in previews before
its official opening Feb. 19, sprints through Presley's youth, his
first phenomenal success, his Army service, his marriage to Priscilla
Beaulieu, his movies and the Vegas years. This is hagiography, not
biography; it's no warts, all wonder.
The wonder comes not just in the death-taunting circus feats--trapeze
agility, high-bar gymnastics--that are the company's hallmark but also
in the superb editing of Elvis clips (by Ivan Dudynsky) and the savvy
sampling of the musical material (by Erich van Tourneau) that revises
and refreshes the Presley oeuvre. No tribute show can touch this one
in its level of sophistication and its power of evocation.
Got a Lot o' Livin' to Do
In Vintage Cirque style, Viva Elvis often soars into the symbolic, the
oneiric. To suggest the star's closeness to his twin brother Jesse,
who died at birth, the show offers, to a tender rendition of the
ballad "One Night," a vision of two young men in James Dean--ish white
T-shirts and jeans, executing soulful acrobatics, alone and together,
on a guitar-shaped apparatus suspended in front of a starry night sky.
At the end, one of the men--Jesse--falls off into the abyss.
There's plenty of vigorous terpsichore (this is as much a dance show
as a circus show), but Viva Elvis can't stay earthbound for long. In
the Army section, to the tune of "Are You Lonesome Tonight?," two
figures on wires--a soldier abroad and his girl back home, holding a
letter she's written him--execute a poignant pas de deux; they never
touch until at last he grasps the letter and presses it to his chest.
The Elvis-Priscilla courtship is staged with a man and a woman
reclining on separate beds, then (to "Love Me") rising in sleep to
meet their dream lovers on large airborne engagement rings in two
complementarily sensual couplings. Cover the kids' eyes!
The very smart choice of songs covers both the canonical ("Heartbreak
Hotel," "Jailhouse Rock," "Burning Love") and the merely fabulous
("Got a Lot o' Livin' to Do," which accompanies an ecstatic amusement-
park bit with high-bouncing superheroes). Of course the climax is
"Viva Las Vegas," with 40 Elvis impersonators and a dozen chorines
filling Mark Fisher's staircased set and the Big E back onscreen,
overseeing the riot of color and movement.
The real Vegas has had its profits pinched by the Great Recession
lately. But luxe, energy, sexual threat and primal rock 'n' roll are
back in fashion on the Aria stage, where Cirque is throwing its most
joyous party ever--and where Elvis lives.
"Cirque's Elvis: That's all right"
From: The Toronto Star
--------------------------------------------
Some people believe in the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus. Not me. I'm
content to pin all of my trust on Cirque du Soleil, especially after
Friday night's immensely enjoyable opening performance of Viva Elvis!
at the Aria Hotel here in Sin City.
It's no secret that this was one of the most troubled shows in the
organization's history and, after a distressingly bad press preview in
December had tongues wagging, Cirque's senior vice-president, Gilles
St. Croix, admitted that "The show is not complete. It is not what we
want," and postponed the opening six weeks.
During that time, Cirque showed the stuff it's made out of and went to
work. With director Vincent Patterson steering the ship while Cirque
executives cracked the whip, a total overhaul took place and the final
result while not up there with Cirque's greatest shows is
certainly one that should fill its Vegas theatre with happy patrons
for years to come.
The original concept of telling the story of Elvis's life through four
narrators is mercifully gone. Nobody comes to a Cirque show to hear
words. There are still a few random appearances from Col. Tom Parker,
Elvis's manager, but they causing little damage, although the show
would be better if they were totally eliminated.
There were also a lot of damaging attempts in the early version to
represent the King onstage through various means, including a well-
known Elvis impersonator and a 25-foot high dancer (with the trademark
pompadour) on stilts.
All of that is gone as well. So what remains? Well, you get 90 minutes
of high-powered entertainment, full of splendid dancing, inventive
staging, a wonderful use of multi-media and over 30 Presley songs. In
many ways, this is the least Cirque-like of all their shows. There's
almost no aerial legerdemain, no nebulous New Age music, no melancholy
musings and not a single damned clown anywhere in sight. For that
alone, let us give thanks.
Yet despite stripping away all those things that seemed to define
Cirque, the show is unmistakably one of their projects. That comes
through in the melding of sight, sound and movement that the Quebecois
company does so well.
Whether it's a kinetic jitterbug set to "Blue Suede Shoes," a montage
of Elvis kissing scenes from the movies set to "Love Me Tender," or a
pull-out-all-the-stops staging of "Suspicious Minds," there's enough
eye candy to leave you wonderfully sated.
The last number, in particular, features a wonderful coup de theatre.
Having avoided letting anyone portray Presley all evening, virtually
the entire company become him as a never-ending line of Elvises fills
the stage.
Everyone is wearing the trademark heavily fringed suit he often
sported in performance, but instead of his pristine white, they're in
every colour of the rainbow, each person's outfit dyed a distinctively
different hue. And you suddenly realize the fringe the hangs down from
their sleeves is over twice its usual length.
As the company moves its arms in huge, swinging arcs, while performing
some perfect pelvis-thrusting choreography, the effect is like
watching an explosion of colour and movement that pours off the stage.
And at that point, you can't wipe the smile off your face. You're
happy that you're seeing something so entertaining, that the proper
tribute is being paid to Elvis as a performer and that Cirque has
pulled yet one more rabbit out of their capacious theatrical hat.
Along with the joy, you feel relief and gratitude. Or as Elvis himself
might have said, "Thank you, thank you very much."
"Just 'Too Much' Elvis in Vegas circus show"
From: Minneapolis Star Tribune
-----------------------------------------------
Three decades after Elvis Presley took his last bow in Las Vegas, the
magicians of Cirque du Soleil have tried to summon back his power in
"Viva Elvis."
They have mixed a dizzying array of dance, acrobatics, live musicians,
over-the-top stage sets, and glitzy costumes with gigantic videos of
Elvis in his most legendary performances. In the words of an Elvis
song, the result is "Too Much."
It's as if we're watching two different shows -- the circus
performances that are the Cirque franchise and a tribute to Elvis that
would have stood on its own.
The 45 candy-colored, whimsically designed jumpsuits worn by a dance
troupe are fun to watch. And the show has 120 costume changes.
But for all the energy, skill and effort, the most riveting segments
are the videos in which the Presley charisma is as mesmerizing as
ever. When Elvis is on the huge screen in simple black and white, you
can't take your eyes off of him. And the nearby live performers trying
gamely to get attention with their colorful dances and acrobatics are
upstaged.
The silliest production number of all involved a mammoth wedding cake
for Elvis and Priscilla. A woman on top sang "Can't Help Falling in
Love," while couples performed ballet at the base and dancers on
roller skates whirled around them. It gave new meaning to the term
over the top.
"Cirque repackages rock'n'roll icon in 'Viva Elvis'"
From: The Las Vegas Weekly
------------------------------------------------------
"Viva Elvis," which officially opened at CityCenters Aria Friday
night after weeks of paid previews and adjustments, joins six other
Strip-resident shows, and its likely to be lucky number seven for
Cirque du Soleil.
The show is a pretty mess. Gimmicky, bright and loud, in Technicolor
and Cinemascope, its a theme-park Grease reunion, a sequence of live-
in-person Gap commercials with the budget of an Olympics opening
ceremony.
And it delivers exactly what many most, probably want from a Vegas
show. Which would be vivid image after eye-sizzling sensation. Cirque
is at its peak technically here nobody (except maybe China) can top
the Canadian spectacle factorys powers when it comes to creating
visceral images. But the flaw of this show, the missed opportunity, is
that something so stylish is so insubstantial.
Viva Elvis cherry-picks key scenes from the American rock n roll
icons life and career his Southern Baptist boyhood, his explosion
on the scene, Army enlistment, movie career, marriage to Priscilla,
his Las Vegas reincarnation and feeds them into the kinetic Cirque
kaleidoscope, along with a big scoop of kitsch Americana, the
requisite jukeboxes, chrome diners and pink Cadillacs.
What emerges is a remixed, repackaged, renovated and retrofitted Elvis
for a generation that missed out on the days of the King. The trouble
is theyre trying to mythologize the already mythic what they used
to call "gilding the lily." The directors and designers have taken the
all-too-familiar iconography of Elvis, dipped it in cheese, deep-fried
it, sprayed a hard candy coating over it and dished it up on a stick.
Eighteen-hundred served, twice nightly. Next!
Director/choreographer Vincent Paterson has dispensed with the Cirque-
standard pre-show clowning, opting for two dozen or so bobbysoxers,
hype-women who gab and flirt with audience members, then rush the
stage at the feverish, throbbing overture, grab the stage curtain,
festooned with gold platters, sending it melting into the wings. Its
a startlingly beautiful effect: a Cirque curtain flourish is always an
event.
The usual Cirque specialty acts jugglers, aerialists, gymnasts
take a back seat to the theme, and their feats feel merely pretty.
Were distanced from that nail-biting, thrilling marvel of human
accomplishment we still feel in the first Strip Cirque, Mystere. No
one performer really stands out.
We get the expected with quasi-erotic pas de deux, one of them
airborne, sexy sky-dancing to "Are You Lonesome Tonight"; another
earthbound, as a couple contorts in athletically push-and-pull modern
dance to "Suspicious Minds."
Theres no game-changing a la Ka or O with the Viva Elvis stage:
things inventively rise from the floor and less surprisingly drop from
the ceiling; theres flying, floating and bouncing. But Cirque does
show off a few nifty new tricks, chief among them a spot of upside-
down ceiling-walking. Effects seen elsewhere the trampoline bit from
The Beatles: Love, say get some extra bounce here. As Elvis romps
through "Got a Lot of Livin To Do," acrobats in sprayed-on superhero
suits and luchador masks (dont ask), are gravity-spurning wall-
walkers it looks like movie stunts run forward and back. The fellows
who juggle pistols and twirl flaming lariats are pretty dang
impressive.
And I may be wrong but I dont think Ive seen pole-dancing in a
Cirque production before this. Undulating to a sexed-up, Latin-ized
version of "Its Now or Never," four dancers work on earthbound poles,
while two pairs of female aerialists ride their props in the sky.
Our tour guide is Col. Tom Parker, Presleys manager and mentor, who
appears now and then to narrate in his first appearance, Parker
floats across the stage atop a black-and-white television set,
complete with rabbit ears. Parker is played by Garrett Eugene Case
Jr., whose down-home affect resembles one of those animatronic Country
Bears at Disneyland; his spiels have all the substance of a roadside
plaque at an historic rest area. "Elvis believed that music could
change the world!" "Elvis loved being an actor!" "Elvis put Las Vegas
on the map!" Like the show itself, Col. Tom doesnt say anything new
about Elvis, or offer any sense of the man as a force and phenomenon.
Paterson leaves no space unfilled. His stage is in constant motion,
and its not possible to take in everything thats going on at once.
Paterson creates some vivid scenes Ill remember the snappy, swingy,
martial drumline version of "Return to Sender," with guys in fatigues,
and girls in air-mail envelope dresses. But some of it is just dumb
and obvious: Not 10 minutes have passed before, duh!, a giant blue
shoe is wheeled out they dont even do much with it, just some hand-
walking and sliding. The dancing is near-constant, but its a
predictable pastiche of 50s and 60s styles, with squads of kids
jitterbugging and frugging en masse.
There are some visual stunners: A black Priscilla atop a 25-foot
three-tiered wedding cake is surrounded by tuxedoed Ken dolls on
roller skates, who tug the wedding gowns train to create a screen for
wedding footage. A chain-gang hauls out a colossal multilevel prison
set, and the jailbirds romp around the jungle gym to "Jailhouse Rock,"
(this gymboree reminded me of the jailhouse scene in "Chicago").
Watching "Viva Elvis" is an oddly inert and passive experience, like
watching a movie. Maybe thats the intent some of the seating in the
handsome, Googie-inspired theater on the second floor of Aria, is
designed to resemble loveseats or bucket seats at a drive-in movie.
But aside from the preset feelings evoked by the songs themselves, it
doesnt grip or engage the emotions. And it feels long. I checked my
watch about an hour into the 90-minute show, and we were only up to
1957! Elvis didnt even hit Vegas until 1970.
Elvis, rightly, steals the show--but not in the way Cirque may have
intended. Viva Elvis distracts from itself: Filled with images Elvis
kissing, Elvis pouting, Elvis rocking, in movie clips and photo
montages, animated, candy-colored, in Warhol multiples are so
captivating and charismatic, that they distract, and even worse,
render much of the Cirquetry going on around them mundane.
If you remember anything, for good or ill, it will be the music. A mix
of original vocal and instrumental tracks beefed up, tricked out,
mashed-up with an onstage band and four featured female singers who
each duet with Elvis. Cirque took the sonic lessons learned from The
Beatles: Love and go even farther, giving an "Abbey Road" sheen to the
earthy early Elvis tracks. With two drummers and a horn section,
"Burning Love" gets a jacked-up wallop, while "Bossa Nova" gets the
"Mambo No. 5" treatment with overdriven, room-filling, internal-organ-
rearranging surround-sound.
All of a sudden, its finale time. And when dozens of Elvii, male and
female, began descending the staircase in their plastic pompadours and
Fruit Loop-hued fringed jumpsuits, I thought not of Elvis, but of the
Brady Bunch. And not even the real Brady Bunch, but the 1995 movie
version, in which the kids enter a school talent contest to save their
family home...
The cast members valiantly try to force the crowd to stand and sing, a
la Mamma Mia! But Hound Dog is no Dancing Queen."
'Viva Elvis' has the glitz, but not Presley's Soul
From: The LA Times
----------------------------------------------------
Midway into Cirque du Soleils latest eye-popping Vegas production,
Viva Elvis, theres a segment saluting Elvis Presleys love affair
with Hollywood. Its an upbeat, thigh-slapping ersatz western number
in which one of the troupes dancers, outfitted as a movie cowboy,
spins a lasso that keeps expanding until it seems to take in half the
stage at the Aria Resort & Casino, where the show had its glitzy
premiere Friday.
Impressive as that was to behold, it underscored how the Canadian
company cant get a rope around the mythic figure that is the King of
Rock n Roll. All the signature Cirque elements are here:
breathtaking acrobatics, dazzlingly inventive sets, joyfully inspired
costumes and imaginatively reimagined music -- the bulk of it derived
from Presleys recordings.
But Cirques creative team appears to have set a standard for itself,
and others, with the Beatles-driven Love show just down the street,
which is not easily equaled, much less surpassed. That venture not
only taps the musical spirit, but also reaches to the magical soul of
the Fab Four, something that Viva Elvis aspires to only fleetingly
in paying homage to pop musics other titanic figure.
Love brought the Beatles to Las Vegas without a hint of schlock, a
mission apparently impossible with Elvis given that his association
with Sin City virtually defined the contemporary notion of pop-culture
kitsch.
Cirque might have attempted to ignore that aspect of his career, but
instead embraces it, and often in witty, mostly affectionate ways in a
production for which tickets run $99 to $175. Ultimately, however,
Viva Elvis is skewed more toward fans who are captivated by the
cultural excess of Graceland than those most drawn to the startling
power of his best music.
The show unfolds roughly chronologically, and incorporates lessons
learned from Love in the lively de- and reconstructions of nearly
three dozen of his studio recordings. Presleys vocals are often
detached from the original instrumental backing and paired with a live
band that belts behind his voice with considerable gusto.
Cirques smart move from the outset was bypassing the use of any male
singers for live renditions of his songs: Several numbers that are
rendered anew are sung by female cast members, occasionally in duet
with the Kings own disembodied voice.
But Viva Elvis doesnt spend a lot of time trying explore the
mystery of Elvis. It prefers to celebrate the public figure, and does
so with great affection if not always with meticulous attention to
historical accuracy or cultural credibility.
The shows use of the character of Col. Tom Parker as narrator paints
him as a sympathetic father figure -- With Elvis, he announces
fondly, every day was an adventure! -- overlooking the self-
enriching career and life direction the onetime carny gave his most
famous client. Elvis put Las Vegas on the map! the Parker character
intones without a hint of irony or even self-serving bluster, a
statement that fans of Frank Sinatra might take issue with.
It also gives equal weight, and value, to his fallow Hollywood years
as to his creatively explosive 50s period when he truly left the
world all shook up.
One of the few times the show taps the pathos and tragedy of Presleys
life story, part of what makes that story so emotionally rich, is in
the delivery of One Night. Instead of the ribald R&B number that
Elvis transformed from One Night of Sin into One Night With You,
its rendered here as a disarmingly graceful ballad, sung by a woman
in contemporary tank top and jeans as she watches two men athletically
working their way around a gigantic guitar-shaped metal framework
suspended from above.
The men are dressed identically in the standard-issue teenage boy
uniform of the 50s: white T-shirts, cuffed blue jeans and black
Oxford shoes, representing Elvis Aaron and his twin, Jesse Garon, who
died at birth. At the end of the number, while Elvis scales the neck
of the guitar climbing toward the heaven-bound headstock, Jesse drops
from one of the bottom rungs into a pit below, one hint at the
personal loss that haunted him throughout his life.
Theres also a gorgeous and moving aerial pas de deux in which two
troupe members float effortlessly through the air to accompany the
weightless sound of Elvis' vocal on Are You Lonesome Tonight?
Among the other individual set pieces, Got a Lot O Livin to Do
takes an audio clip in which Presley expresses his youthful passion
for comic books as the foundation for a fanciful trampoline workout
for acrobats fitted in various superhero-inspired costumes. Bossa
Nova Baby incorporates a nerve-testing chair-balancing act full of
characters in garish 60s hipster duds.
The two most striking numbers are the military-based treatment of
Return to Sender that follows film footage of Presleys 1958
swearing-in as a U.S. Army private, and an electrifying reinvention of
the iconic Jailhouse Rock movie production number.
The show goes on to reference his fairytale wedding to Priscilla
Beaulieu, as well as their tempestuous life together -- minus any
allusions to the birth of Lisa Marie. It offers remarkably little
acknowledgment of the career-rejuvenating 1968 NBC-TV comeback
special, but not surprisingly concludes with an extended tribute to
the years at the end of his life spent entertaining habitués of Vegas,
a segment replete with showgirls in fancy headdresses and close to
four dozen cast members, male and female, wearing multihued jumpsuits,
plastic Elvis hairdos and sideburns for a valedictory Vegas-ized romp
through Hound Dog. Happily, Viva Elvis stops short of any Fat
Elvis gags.
Elvis Presley became the single most influential pop musician of the
rock era by unleashing an innate genre- and color-blind talent that
let him transcend his dirt-poor origins and achieve a previously
unimaginable level of worldwide success, a story that still resonates
powerfully because of the way that success fueled the excess that
ultimately led to his downfall.
Cirque du Soleil clearly loves Elvis tender, but in the end "Viva
Elvis" never lets him step off the mystery train.
As a history piece, Viva Elvis bears some explanation
FROM: The Las Vegas Sun
--------------------------------------------------------
There is a scene in "Viva Elvis" in which a couple dozen Cirque du
Soleil dancers, hearkening to Elvis' Army years, gyrate under a
backdrop of an American flag made of long underwear for stripes and
boxers for stars.
You take note of the stars or, in this case, the rows of stark-white
boxers and you count 48. That's because when Elvis joined the Army
in 1958, Alaska and Hawaii were not yet states. So there was a
production meeting at some point about this scene: "Make sure we have
48 pairs of white boxers, not 50, for the 'Gi Blues' scene." Cirque's
attention to detail, even after rolling out seven productions on the
Strip, has not waned.
There were other moments from Friday night's gala premier at Aria,
particularly early, that merited explanation. And we're not only
referring to the stoppage in the opening number, "Blue Suede Shoes,"
because a fire alarm had gone off in the theater. What was the
connection between Elvis Presley and the costumed trampoline artists
made to approximate superheroes? As a kid, Elvis loved comic books
fortunately the Colonel Tom Parker character tells us this before
these boys get to bouncing. But even after you've been educated,
you're wondering what is the point of all these costumed characters
bounding around the stage other than to take a segment of Elvis'
personality and expand upon it simply because costumed characters
jumping on trampolines is a Cirque hallmark.
Flaming rope tricks, too, are used in the show at one point. This is
during a number paying tribute to Elvis' profitable, joyful and
(mostly) artistically languid film career. The ropes are set aflame
and spun with great enthusiasm by Cirque characters in cowboy outfits.
One draws a pistol and fires a shot into a campfire, which bursts into
flames. It's terrific fun, but when we think of Elvis, is a cowpoke
spinning a flaming lasso something that springs to mind? I mean, if
someone is going to fire a gun, he might as well aim it at a
television.
There is room in the show for these scenes, yet nothing to indicate
the legendary bond between Elvis and the members of his Memphis Mafia
inner circle, the sphere of friends who acted as his confidants,
support staff, and security detail. I didn't detect any footage, even,
of any of these guys, those who wore the gold Taking Care of Business
"TCB" necklaces. There is representation of an Elvis impressionist,
though, an oft-discussed topic during the run-up to the production.
Would there be an Elvis impressionist? There is, kind of, portrayed by
a guy in a massively oversized Elvis wig and shades, wearing a gold
suit and whirling around the stage on skates during "Blue Suede
Shoes." He replaces the Elvis on stilts that Priscilla Presley 86'd
from the show during preview performances, and he doesn't last long in
the show.
The production does present several moments when you're unconvinced
about the strength of the link between what you're watching to the
life and career of the King. Every live voice is that of a female; the
only male voice heard is recorded Elvis. The Colonel Tom Parker
character has been stripped of a folksy Southern accent after
Priscilla sought to tone down the folksy dialect of early preview
performances, including the scenes that played out for media members.
It's a sensible move, but the character, portrayed by Garrett Eugene
Case Jr., appears so infrequently you almost forget he's been charged
with carrying the production's narrative.
"Hound Dog," at the end, is set amid a "Jubilee"-style, staircased set
as video images of Elvis gyrating at the Hilton play out in the
background. It helps you remember, or be introduced to, the real joy
in Elvis' best music. Red scarves float from the ceiling as the show
closes, even.
As fans filed out of Friday's performance, they were beaming. One told
me, "I'd heard nothing except bad things about the show, so I'm
pleasantly surprised." He wasn't alone. Advance word about the show
was that it needed a lot of work, and based on that expectation, the
show as a whole is plenty entertaining.
But we're left wondering what Presley himself would have thought of
the Elvis Experience, 2010. Priscilla Presley repeatedly has said he
would have been honored at the tribute, stressing that the show is
intended to be a very Vegas-ized tribute to the King's legacy. I'm
also remembering what one of Presley's oldest friends, Jerry
Schilling, said back in December about what Elvis would have thought
of being the subject of the Cirque treatment.
"This show has the potential of bringing Elvis to a whole new
audience, a younger audience," said Schilling, who met Elvis when he
was age 12 and Elvis 19 during a pickup football game in North Memphis
and was a member of the Memphis Mafia until Presley died. "I think he
would have no problem with the esoteric part of Cirque. As a friend,
to be able to go to Vegas and see Elvis's name in lights again, is
great."
Many I talked to at that time said Elvis would have been humbled at
being so lauded by a creatively acclaimed company like Cirque.
Schilling was impressed by a visit from 75 members of the Viva Elvis
cast and crew to Graceland last year, topnotch professional
entertainers who stayed for hours asking questions and poring over
Elvis material in an effort to get this show right.
Even so, Elvis' longtime opening act at the International and Las
Vegas Hilton, legendary comic Sammy Shore, was not particularly
impressed with what he saw. "I liked the first trumpet player," he
said afterward at the post-show party at Haze nightclub. As for the
rest, he found it "impersonal." Yet for many in the Presley camp, the
objective was to return Elvis to Las Vegas, give him his first Strip
residency and dust off those old 45s. It's Elvis, it's Vegas, and it
had to happen.
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Robin Leach on VIVA ELVIS - In Four Parts" [EXPANDED]
A Special Collection from the Las Vegas Sun
--------------------------------------------------------------
Check out this special four-part Viva Elvis series from the Las Vegas
Sun, which included interviews with Priscilla Presley and Cirque
founder Guy Laliberte, creative director Gilles Ste-Croix, director
and writer Vincent Paterson and Robert F.X. Sillerman.
VIVA ELVIS PART 1: PRISCILLA & GUY LALIBERTE DISCUSS CIRQUE SHOW
Elvis Presley has returned home. The King of Rock n Roll is back in
the house, thank you very much! After more than three years in the
making, the $100 million-plus spectacular Viva Elvis has opened in
previews at its new theater in Aria at CityCenter.
During the 36-plus months of pre-production, musical director and
arranger Erich Van Tourneau listened to 914 official and bootleg
albums and watched countless films, concerts, home movies and
interviews preparing for the 34 Elvis songs used in the show. All the
singers in Viva Elvis are female except for Elvis himself in the
ultimate salute to the superstar.
The band consists of four female singers, a drummer, a bassist, two
guitarists, a trombonist, a saxophone player, a keyboardist, a trumpet
player and a percussionist. To create the final soundtrack of the
Cirque masterpiece, there were 17,765samplings made of Elvis songs.
Im going to let you in on one super-secret of the show even now: The
large circles in which the acrobatic duos perform are replicas of
Elvis and Priscilla Presleys engagement rings. Its just one of the
many contributions that Priscilla made to the shows details.
When the 18-minute sneak preview performance was unveiled last
Tuesday, the day before Arias official opening, Priscilla said:
Vegas is his rightful place. It has been quite a journey from three
years ago where we both first sat down with Cirque. We never did think
it would lead to this. It has been quite a journey, and here we are
talking about it all finished and ready to show to the world. It
reminds me of the journey when Elvis first appeared in Vegas and the
anticipation, the fears, the anxiety that he had coming to Vegas.
He was the first rock n roll entertainer really to break those
boundaries, and the rest is history. Everyone followed. Elvis and
everything he did created interest and created such a phenomenal
impact that I agree that the fusion of Elvis and Cirque -- I just
cant imagine someone else partnering with him, both being in the
forefront of entertainment. In Cirques unique abstract way of
translating or having a vision in a very abstract way, just like
Elvis, I cant imagine anyone else doing this.
Priscilla said that she went to Cirques Montreal headquarters to see
the facilities there and toured the costume, wig and shoe departments
and learned all the Cirque philosophies. She said: This show is very
different. Its a very different Cirque. It is larger than life, and I
think what they have done at the Aria theater can only hold the
bigness of Elvis Presley. In this preview, this is a work in progress,
I am excited to watch this again. I think Elvis would be very pleased
to know he is back in Las Vegas in the way that he should be
presented.
Back in 1969, Elvis performed in 57 sell-out shows at the
International Hotel here -- now the Las Vegas Hilton. Each performance
shattered all previous sales records. In 1970, he returned in a sense
as the first resident performer breaking his own records again,
chalking up 837 sold-out shows into 1976.
Its difficult to believe that his extraordinary career began with his
first public performance in 1945 at a Mississippi singing contest,
where he placed fifth and won $5 and a free ticket for the fair rides.
His 1955 recording of I Forgot to Remember to Forget hit No. 1 on
Billboards country charts in February 1956 and turned him into an
overnight sensation. Later that year, he appeared for the second time
on The Milton Berle Show, where he performed the sensual Hound Dog,
driving fans wild and angering adults. And the rest, as they say, is
history.
Now more than 50 years later, his legacy is reborn here in his second
home by the creators at Cirque du Soleil. Priscilla summed up: Elvis
was always in the forefront of new, contemporary entertainment and
technology. I believe Viva Elvis continues this and reaches out and
expands his legacy in a new, creative and exciting way.
Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte added: On a creative level, it
was extremely stimulating to draw our inspiration from this musical
icon. Viva Elvis showcases the raw energy and pure talent of Elvis and
highlights the exhilaration and beauty of his music on a grand scale.
Vegas DeLuxe will return tomorrow with Part 2 of our series. Cirque
Creative VP Gilles Ste.-Croix talks in a surprisingly candid one-on-
one interview about the show and some of its secrets. On Wednesday,
Part 3 will be our interview with show director Vincent Paterson, and
then on Thursday in time for reading over the holidays, the incredible
plans Elvis Presley Enterprises head honcho Robert F.X. Sillerman has
for even more Elvis here in Las Vegas. Viva Elvis!
VIVA ELVIS PART 2: CREATIVE DIRECTOR REVEALS A FEW SECRETS
Even when the new show Viva Elvis was just a germ of an idea nearly
four years ago, Gilles Ste-Croix, Cirque du Soleils creative
director, had a single goal. Right from the start, he wanted the
production to be what Elvis would want if he was alive today in 2010.
I said if Elvis lived, how would he want his arrangements, how would
he want his music done, how would he want his theater to be for his
fans, and how would he want it all staged and presented, Gilles told
me in a sit-down interview.
So this is a concert. Not a traditional Cirque show. We have other
shows in Vegas if you want the circus. This shows acrobatic elements,
set designs and other artistic components are part of an overall
creative vision designed to showcase the timeless music of Elvis, his
unique voice and unequaled talent as a performer.
It was more than 50 years ago that Elvis turned the world on its
musical ear and became a phenomenon and ultimately a legend. Cirque
wanted to capture that, so it had to present a show different from its
previous productions.
Unlike Zumanity and Love, this is no theater in the round. Unlike O,
there is no deep-water diving pool. Unlike Ka, there are no high wire,
death-defying stunt acrobatics. However, Viva Elvis does use other
Cirque strengths to tell the amazing story of the King of Rock and
Roll.
Gilles said the stage at Aria in CityCenter is the largest theater
Cirque has built here. The wide stage, backstage and side wings are
huge, and the conventional proscenium reminds of the Phantom -- the
Las Vegas Spectacular theater at The Venetian, although much larger.
The center of the Elvis stage is made up of 187 platforms that split
into eight sections to rise up 10 feet tall. Some 35 feet below the
stage, there are four powerful motors that propel the 18-foot-by-80-
foot widest platform upward. The set alone for Gotta Lot of Living to
Do weighs 30 tons and uses the full 80-foot width of the stage. The
16-feet-deep and 25-feet-tall structure uses seven trampolines, and
the Cirque design team installed it because of Elvis love for
fairgrounds, which he visited many times after hours with friends when
he would buy them out privately to avoid mobs of fans.
The Jailhouse Rock set is another modern technical marvel. Its
large enough for 30 artists, but Ill never reveal the secret of how
the dancers perform right side up and the acrobats walk upside down
simultaneously! There is even a gigantic blue suede shoe that weighs
1,500 pounds and measures nearly 30 feet. Many of the props, including
the barber chair, film projector and rotary phones, are authentic
antiques from Graceland that have been lovingly restored.
Here are highlights of my interview with Gilles:
Gilles Ste-Croix: Everyone will know Elvis is back, so there is no way
that we could have presented this other than in a very humble way
because Elvis was so big, and he was so big in Vegas, as well. As
entertainers, we can only pay tribute to Elvis. To approach Elvis as a
theme of the show, you really realize he was a very generous man. He
was a man that gave -- as a man, as a father, as a friend, and as an
entertainer, he gave to his fans.
So for all the fans that will come see this, it was very important for
us to be just in what we present about Elvis. So we tried to see it
through his eyes, what would Elvis ask today of his musicians. What
would he ask the architect about this theater, how do you like it, and
so we went to Graceland, we went and saw all the movies, we went and
listened to the music, we spoke to Priscilla (Presley), we spoke to
friends to pick up what was the most precise image we could get of
Elvis. We really wanted to convey Elvis as just as possible. So Elvis
at the end of the show that you feel Elvis as we have felt it in our
development of this show. It was a hard journey because we took a road
sometimes that broke and that we had to change completely.
Robin Leach: So its completely different from what we expect a Cirque
show to be. Its a jumping, jiving, dancing, sing-along, supersized
Vegas spectacular from his time?
GS: Its a concert. It is music. So we went fresh. We found a new
arranger, and the composition of the band is pretty much what he
wanted. If you look into the horn and guitar section, it is very rock
and roll, and that brought freshness to his music and to Cirque. This
really is like a concert in a theater that could present opera because
the stage is so huge. This is definitely the biggest weve done, and
we have some incredible surprises and spectacles planned when we
premiere on Feb. 19. Between now and then, we are in previews, making
changes, adding some things and taking others away based on the
audience reactions. Thats a very important part of our creative
process.
We arent doing a Cirque show! We are doing an Elvis show, so
everything is connected to him. We talk about the man, the artist, the
father, the husband and the patriot, and this is what the show is
about. This fantastic, larger-than-life man.
RL: Priscilla said she wept the first time and she said today she
cried. The important thing I thought she said today is that Elvis
would be proud of the show.
GS: When you create something over a three-year span, you have to keep
that in mind all the time you are doing it. We got the music, the
score, and then we had to deal with the way the story was told. So we
played around with the idea that we could even have Elvis in the
representation there and even an actor speaking to the crowd. We tried
that, but it didnt work. It was too much of a play in a Broadway
direction. We had his music and we had his dance, and then we had some
characters speaking, and we said, no, thats not why people come to
Vegas. They come to Vegas to see a spectacular about Elvis, and so we
let them go.
But we decided to keep the actor playing Col. Tom Parker because no
one really knows him and yet he was the most important part of Elvis
success. I checked with Priscilla and asked her, Do you feel
comfortable with this? And we played it with her, and she said Parker
was more humble than this. He was not bragging so much, and he really
supported Elvis and everything he wanted to do. He was not an artist;
he was a businessman. So he wanted Elvis to succeed.
RL: In the creative process for Elvis, was this the easiest of all the
six other Vegas shows -- or the toughest?
GS: There are none that are easy, and I think this is the toughest.
Its not over yet, so I do not know. Its funny because I had the same
time that I had during Love with Yoko (Ono) and Olivia (Harrison).
They are protecting their husband or the legacy of their man, and
Olivia had questions about a scene we were doing and she said I am not
sure if George (Harrison) would have liked this. And I said why and
she said this character doesnt fit with the story, and I said well
this character helps us to go into the story of the song. And she
would say yes, well, I will look at it again, and its because she was
protecting George, and so Priscilla is doing the same.
RL: It is good that they have meaningful impact. I must ask you a
couple of corporate Cirque questions. Seven shows now on the strip. Do
you stop here or do you keep going?
GS: You know when they came to see us, they said we love what you did
with The Beatles. They asked us for our take on Elvis in Vegas. We had
to evaluate if we were doing it because we already had six shows, but
Guy Laliberte said if we dont do it, they will have someone else. So
we have a good partner in MGM, and if Bobby Baldwin says he wants the
show, then we will do it. So when does it become too much? Well, I
dont know! The opportunity was there, and I am very happy that we did
Love, and I am very happy we are doing Viva Elvis.
When we did Love, you know, when I was 12, I wanted to have a bass and
I wanted to be (Paul) McCartney. My father didnt want me to do that.
Now that I am 50, I ended up sitting and talking with McCartney about
his music and doing his show. I said after opening Love, what do you
do after this? I said this is the achievement as my life as an artist,
and then ding, ding, ding, do you want to do a show about Elvis? When
do you stop? I love doing shows, and the challenge and creativity
comes with people where new ideas emerge, so I dont think this is the
end story. I think this town allows us to do these things.
RL: So when new opportunities arise, you wont say no?
GS: Well, we always evaluate. But at one point, I'm not going to live
forever.
RL: Criss (Angel) tells me he is adding seven new illusions to Believe
between now and March.
GS: Well, he has already started, and we are going to do a press event
around that. This is part of the evolution of his show, definitely.
Some people say its a work in progress, but when you play with
something new like magic, you realize at one point, maybe you went the
wrong way, and you have to adapt to the fact that Criss was a persona
and star himself. We shouldnt have been so Cirque with him. That
didnt work very well because he is Criss. So we said we have Criss,
so we should be adding more Criss rather than acrobatics, thus more
magic. We have developed a beautiful relationship with Criss, and we
are working intensively adding magic. When I went a month ago to see
the new illusions, I even said wow.
RL: So you wont call it a relaunch -- you just call this a natural
progression?
GS: You know so many things have changed in one year that you keep
adding to it and keep growing. You remember Zumanity when we first
opened? It was pretentious. It is now so much more fun, like sex is
fun. So we listened to the crowd and listened to the people who said
this is boring, what we are doing here, so we changed it. Now its a
party place.
To get an idea of how diligent Cirque has been with Viva Elvis, Ivan
Dudynsky, who is the designer of the image content, looked through
60,000 Elvis photographs, 30 movies, 15 documentaries, 10 concerts and
all of Elvis home movies to create the graphic design elements for
the show.
Before Gilles and I stopped chatting, I told him I thought audiences
would love the large, comfortable seating in the theater, with
sufficient room to dance right at their seats to the Elvis songs and
music.
He summed up, laughing: It will help people to get up and have room
to dance, so we really designed the seating specifically for this
place. Its going to be great for people who have large hips.
VIVA ELVIS PART 3: DIRECTOR AND WRITER VINCENT PATERSON
The reaction to previews of Cirque du Soleils Viva Elvis at the just-
opened Aria in CityCenter has been fairly positive, but Cirque
officials will resume changes and rehearsals on Jan. 3 to have it
ready for the Feb. 19 premiere. Construction delays are being cited
for a four-week holdup in getting onstage at the new theater, forcing
the production to push back the premiere originally scheduled to
coincide with Elvis birthday on Jan. 8.
The gigantic task is in the hands of American writer and director
Vincent Paterson, who previously staged elaborate touring shows for
Madonna and Michael Jackson. In a one-on-one interview at the theater,
Vincent revealed that he began the project nearly four years ago. Back
then, he was brought on to launch a touring Elvis show and the Las
Vegas residency show.
Time and challenges changed the best-laid plans, and the touring show
was placed on hold, while the green light was given to the Las Vegas
production. Vincent told me that hes tried to create a show that
Elvis himself may have produced today: The unique strength and power
of Elvis was in his voice. I was greatly inspired by the originality
and complexity of this musical legend. What I tried to paint, in all
humility, is the show he might have created today.
One of the highlights of the show will be the reflections of Elvis
when he served in the U.S. Army. He was inducted on March 24, 1958, 51
years ago as service #53,310,761. Despite his fame, he insisted on
being treated as an able and ordinary soldier. While in the Army, he
donated his pay to charity, purchased all the TV sets for personnel on
his base and bought extra fatigues, as supplies were meager, for every
member of his outfit.
Elvis created a teen rebellion in the 1950s and 60s with his
explosive mix of gospel, country, Southern music and R&B that
catapulted rock and roll to the forefront of popular music. Vincent
had to ensure that those sonic impacts were meticulously presented in
the show through the careful and clever combinations of the visuals
from thousands of photographs, films and concerts, along with Elvis
recordings.
Based on the 18-minute preview I saw, Vincent has pulled that off
brilliantly. Mark Brickman, the image projection director, said: The
production is epic in scale, and the show is an unpredictable hybrid
of theater, dance, opera and circus. Its all come together as a
balance between light and dark, truth and myth and the energy of music
and bodies moving in space.
I even learned that the sound engineers buried subwoofers in the floor
of the theater to use low frequency resonance through the concrete
structure, adding subsonic sound vibrations that will enhance the
audiences experience.
Heres my conversation with Vincent:
Robin Leach: So let me make an observation to provoke you. This is not
the Cirque weve come to know and love. This is different than what
Cirque has done before.
Vincent Paterson: This is definitely Cirque. Cirque is a cutting-edge
company. This is my first adventure with Cirque, and I love this
company. Unlike others when they become successful, they just stay in
that genre and never grow. Here what I think is fascinating and what I
applaud is that Cirque is always willing to try something new to grow.
So Viva Elvis is a music- and dance-driven show -- I would say 65
percent dance and 35 percent acrobatics show, but those also have a
lot of new elements.
The show is music driven first. We came up with the arrangements
first, and then we decided what we wanted to have happen. How they
pertained to the show, how they would be put in different elements.
First we divided things biographically, but then we felt that was a
bit staged, and we wanted to break that up and make it more abstract.
RL: So now you use the biography in a story thread?
VP: And imparting some of the personal aspects and characteristics of
Elvis Presley. Its hard to create a show of someone that you dont
have living and breathing with you, so we are using him as a way to
bring the humanity. Its really nice when people say that they felt he
was in the room during the show. There are some really touching
stories in there, especially toward the end.
RL: Was the biggest moment for you in working the three years when
Priscilla cried at the run-through and when she said Elvis wouldve
been proud?
VP: That was one of the validations for me. I had several
conversations with Priscilla before that. I took her through the book
and storyboard and all of that and loved her input. It inspired her to
relate info to me of which I was unaware, and that influenced some of
the things we put in the show. Since you dont have Elvis, Priscilla
is one degree of separation. We had people in a smaller sense, but she
was with him as a kid, and even after the divorce, they still stayed
very close, and she spent a huge portion of her life with him, and no
one had the intimacy she had with him. So that was one of the highest
highs for us so far.
RL: Six weeks of previews, so theres time to keep tweaking before the
February premiere?
VP: You know we were a month late coming in the theater, which was a
setback since half of the week is technical rehearsals. We only get
half of the time, 40 hours, to work with artists and be creative, and
the other half is to be creative technical. Its not a lot of creative
time with the artists on the stage. And we have made a lot of changes,
and that is what I like about Cirque. You dont have to put up a show
and leave it that way. We try all manner of ideas. We throw out things
and change others, so we are still in that experimental stage.
RL: Please clear up two rumors about the band and the choreographers.
Do we see the band or not? Have you changed the choreographers?
VP: We see the band on most of the numbers, but sometimes thats not
possible when there is no room for them. There is one section in the
military act of the Elvis story with drum and bugle sounds, and we
dont have the capacity for all that onstage at once, so we use a
musical sampling. We didnt change choreographers. We brought in
others to do other pieces. I did a sprinkling, but I didnt want to
choreograph it all.
Because this is a music- and dance-driven show,
I thought a variety of voices would give us a variety onstage.
I just wanted to direct, and that has been a huge task. For me, its
been over three years! My first six months were dedicated to putting a
tour together. Then we scratched that as we got into the Vegas
timeline. There were two shows: a touring show and this one. We just
let the touring show go away, so with the Vegas deadlines in sight, we
just said do the Vegas show. The touring show was about Elvis in
Vegas, and it would have gone on tour before we launched the full show
here.
RL: Youre sitting here now with the first real audiences watching the
previews. How do you feel?
VP: I am excited as hell. I feel great. I am very happy. We have been
so involved in the process 14 hours a day six days a week for the last
months and years. We need some time to let the show breathe. We need
time for the performers who have been working their butts off to have
an opportunity to be appreciated, to know its not about just working
behind the curtain and to get peoples responses and be rewarded that
way. For us on the creative side, its time to take a step back and
let it do its thing, let it do its own pacing and see how it works
with the audience, then come back and make a change of what we want to
change and work with that as of Jan. 3.
RL: If you have people dancing in these seats and singing out loud,
would that also be validation?
VP: That would be the ultimate validation.
Tomorrow, we will conclude our four-part look at Viva Elvis with an
extraordinarily candid interview with Robert F.X. Sillerman, the head
of Elvis Presley Enterprises who masterminded the partnership with
Cirque. He confided his belief that Las Vegas has been under-Elvised
and reveals for the first time his amazing plans for even more Elvis
projects here.
VIVA ELVIS PART 4: ROBERT SILLERMAN SAYS LAS VEGAS IS UNDER ELVISED
Media tycoon Robert F.X. Sillerman is the mastermind behind the
decision to bring the King of Rock and Roll back to Las Vegas. The
normally reclusive billionaire, who is ranked 375th on the Forbes 400
Richest Americans List, is rarely photographed and almost never gives
interviews. But as head of Elvis Presley Enterprises, which his
entertainment conglomerate CKX owns (it also owns the worldwide
American Idol franchise), Robert engineered the partnership with
Cirque du Soleil nearly four years ago.
Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte and his executive production
team recently joined with Priscilla Presley to unveil an 18-minute
sneak preview of Viva Elvis in its new theater in Aria at CityCenter,
and Robert suddenly found himself in the spotlight but nixed all
interview requests.
However, Ive met the mogul on previous occasions, and he agreed to
talk freely with me:
It makes perfect sense that Elvis should live on in Las Vegas, where
his iconic status was cemented. When we teamed with Cirque du Soleil,
we knew that any show they created would match Elvis larger-than-life
presence. So we were pleased to open the vaults at Graceland and make
available all the historic archival materials, recordings and concert
footage that would help them create a show that will carry Elvis
legacy into the future. Some of it had remained totally private all
those years.
Robert told me he believes that Las Vegas is under Elvised. Theres
a lot we are doing to bring more Elvis to Vegas. This is only the
beginning. He confirmed that he still owns Strip land opposite
CityCenter entrances that hed originally earmarked for an Elvis-
themed hotel.
Obviously, with the economy, that plan has been changed, but although
the hotel is on ice, we are seriously looking at it for other Elvis
Presley businesses -- maybe a museum of his memorabilia, maybe
something else. But it will be used at some point for him, Robert
told me. I think first were proceeding with new Elvis movies. My
partner is Simon Fuller. We bought his company 19. He has produced
great creative ideas for many superstars, and hes working with me on
more Vegas for Elvis.
Heres my exclusive chat with Robert, who I last met on opening night
of the Mel Brooks musical The Producers that he bankrolled here at the
Paris.
Robert Sillerman: I saw the very first presentation of The Producers -
- just with a piano. I sat next to Mels wonderful wife Anne
(Bancroft). We saw its first incarnation, and it was chilling 18
months before it even reached Broadway. What we saw then probably was
70 or 80 percent what ultimately went on to Broadway to win the most
Tonys ever. When I saw the run-through of Viva Elvis two months before
the scheduled opening, I had the same feeling. It may have been an
even bigger feeling.
Robin Leach: Theres something very unique about this Viva Elvis show.
I thought it was great that you see him in photos and video but not
portrayed by an impersonator.
RS: That is true. We have been asked many times to do a biopic of
Elvis, and our people have said, Dont you want it to define Elvis?
I have always thought that Elvis meant something different to
everybody. So we dont need to, and in fact its probably a disservice
because your and my particular moment in time were made different in
relating to Elvis. This show lets people transcend their inner Elvis
to what he means to them. It is very interesting because I sat with
some kids who obviously had never seen Elvis, and of course heard his
music, and they had of course the same reaction. They had a personal
definition.
RL: Its already been called a double-super-sized song-and-dance show,
and thats what we need in Vegas now!
RS: Yes, with acrobatics that cannot be done anywhere else. That is
the majesty of Cirque, and this is a little bit of an extension for
them because it is not relying just on performers that can do things
nobody else can do. It lets the music of Elvis and lets the archival
material of Elvis wow the audience. That is a good director.
RL: You said you would produce new Elvis movies in the future?
RS: In time, there will be different Elvis movies in the future. Well,
for instance, one movie that tells about his life will be segmented
when he rose to fame in an explosive time and a pivotal time in
American history in the 50s. That in itself is a movie.
RL: So Elvis would be portrayed in the movies by different actors for
the different ages and eras? One Elvis for the 50s and a different
Elvis in the 70s?
RS: It will be because Elvis in Las Vegas is a very interesting story
in it of itself. Elvis had a comeback special in 1968, and everything
that went into that is a movie in itself because 1968 was a tumultuous
time in this country. These movies are in the works. They are not
scripted, yet but we are far along on the first one. That would be the
Elvis story of the 50s.
RL: Is the movie studio deal already in place?
RS: I dont know about the inner workings of Hollywood, but when
someone says yes, we are doing this, in my world that means we are
doing it. Perhaps that is not the same in Hollywood, but I know I will
live to see the day when we have these new Elvis movies in the
theaters.
RL: How far away do you think?
RS: We are very serious about it, and one of the wonderful things
about CKX is that my partner Simon Fuller is a visionary -- he talks
the same way you do! He is a visionary who can imagine the past as
well as the future, so he is hard at work on it to the point of
casting, the directors and writers.
RL: Was this important for Elvis to come home to Vegas first live with
the Cirque show in order for the movies to follow?
RS: I think this is the natural sequence to it. I think that showing
Elvis broad appeal, to those who grew up with him and to the kids now
being exposed to him for the first time, in fact to everybody is an
important affirmation of Elvis. Were not going to do a biographical
story. Its appeal will be that its a story about someone who changed
culture in the world and you will feel that in the movies.
RL: I am intrigued as to what Priscilla felt and said after she saw it
for the first time.
RS: She said to me that it was all so real, moving and emotional that
she simply cried. That was the first thing she said, and that may be
all the validation that was needed. She knew him better than anybody
else. So it means the essence of Elvis was captured correctly. The
larger-than-life phenomenon that he was was captured on the Cirque
stage.
RL: So at this stage with previews underway, you feel good about this?
RS: Yes, I do. One of the great things about Cirque is that they are
always working and tweaking, and I would venture to say -- I dont
know percentages -- that the show is 75 percent or 90 percent. We both
have two months, and there is no doubt things will evolve and improve
from even the great shape it is already. This show is the first of
many new Elvis projects for the next decade. Absolutely!
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COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER
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Fascination! Newsletter
Volume 10, Number 3 (Issue #74) - March 2010
"Fascination! Newsletter" is a concept by Ricky Russo. Copyright (c)
2001-2010 Ricky Russo, published by Vortex/RGR Productions, a
subsidiary of Communicore Enterprises. No portion of this newsletter
can be reproduced, published in any form or forum, quoted or
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{ Mar.07.2010 }
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