====================================================================== ______ _ __ _ __ / ____/___ ___________(_)___ ____ _/ /_(_)___ ____ / / / /_ / __ `/ ___/ ___/ / __ \/ __ `/ __/ / __ \/ __ \/ / / __/ / /_/ (__ ) /__ / / / / /_/ / /_/ / /_/ / / / /_/ /_/ \__,_/____/\___/_/_/ /_/\__,_/\__/_/\____/_/ /_(_) 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 ------------------------------------------------------------ E X P A N D E D I S S U E ------------------------------------------------------------ ======================================================================= VOLUME 10, NUMBER 3 MARCH 2010 ISSUE #74e ======================================================================= =========== CONTENTS =========== 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 ======================================================================= 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. # # # It’s 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 Cirque’s 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 O’Keefe (“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 Laliberte’s passion for the Final Frontier, Cirque insiders call him “The Man in the Moon” — which, seeing as he’s French Canadian, we might amend to “L’Homme 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 they’re doing a “creation.” “That’s 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 doesn’t come across as a psychopath. Another composer, Simon Carpentier, was also dismissed. Last week, L’Homme de la Lune beamed himself down to New York to check up on the revised “Banana Shpeel.” He didn’t 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 week’s 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, it’s 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 don’t 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 I’m concerned it’s still not in the cards because we’re 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 show’s 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 troupe’s 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 Kà‘s production. To offer a sense of the show’s scale, Keith Wright, Kà‘s operations production manager, laid out the theater’s dimensions: “The stage is 120 feet across. From the high grid rigging at the ceiling to the pit (the lowest floor level), it’s 149 feet (about 15 stories). It’s 98 feet from the stage level to that high grid. And it’s 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 production’s 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. Kà‘s 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 artist’s 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 Kà‘s elite human performances with the ever-evolving technology put at Cirque du Soleil’s 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? It’s about 10 degrees Fahrenheit and windy in Montreal, and that’s 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 hasn’t been great either as it suffers in comparison to the unanimous praise for Beatles-scored Love up the street at the Mirage, Cirque’s 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 they’re 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 Lamarre’s arrival at the helm in 2001 and who then created Celine Dion’s spectacle at Caesars Palace. “If they fill seven houses in Las Vegas at 60 percent, they’re filling the house 60 percent, and we know what that means. There will be a limit.” Lamarre won’t reveal the occupancies of his seven Vegas shows except to note that the 12-year-old aquatic spectacle O—one of Dragone’s—still 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 Laliberte’s 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 Dubai’s highly publicized financial woes. For now, the focus is next year’s 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 elsewhere—and especially in Los Angeles—could 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 it’s here in Las Vegas and it’s permanent, so they can do things they can’t 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 doesn’t seem bothered by that proximity. Spokesman Alan Feldman believes that, just as the proliferation of casinos in the United States merely whetted the public’s 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 there’s such a thing as “too much Cirque” in Las Vegas, the company’s 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 they’ve done too much of his work. Not that MGM Mirage’s objections would stop Lamarre’s expansion plans anyhow. The CEO admitted that MGM “wasn’t 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 didn’t 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 he’s put a lid on an ambition of Laliberte’s to build Cirque-themed hotels, opting not to get into “businesses we don’t know.” The company’s two forays into the bar lounges that neighbor their showrooms at Mirage and Aria are done in partnership with the Light Group, the city’s 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 wouldn’t 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 don’t 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 Cirque’s 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 doesn’t 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 Chettiar’s 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 Soleil’s 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 didn’t faze cook Augustina Ballina, who was preparing chicken lasagna for today’s lunch service. “Working for Cirque makes perfect sense for me,” said the Argentine, who has been with the company one year. “It’s the only job I could have that lets me cook and travel. I’ve been to seven cities since I’ve been with the company. “How else would I have gotten to see San Diego?” she asked. “I’ve already made plans to go surfing while I’m here.” Even before the first plate of chicken mole is dished up during tonight’s Mexican fiesta, Chettiar will have devoted weeks to planning and prep. It’s 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 Diego’s bounty of sustainable seafood and organic produce has been a boon to Chettiar’s 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. “That’s 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, “Kooza’s” 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 we’re 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 weren’t as big as Viva ELVIS because no shows were this big at that time. What I’m 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, we’re diving back into the 1950s and 1970s with Stefano Canulli’s costumes. The makeup highlights eyeliner and false eyelashes in all their variations, from doe eyes to doll’s 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 character—in 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 we’ve done. Whether it’s 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: it’s 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 there’s genuine interaction between the two.” – Ivan Dudynsky “I would equate Viva ELVIS with Wagner’s Ring Cycle. The production is epic in scale and the show is an unpredictable hybrid. It’s opera, it’s theatre, it’s dance, it’s circus. Lighting serves to help tell the story and translate the energy of music and bodies moving in space. It’s 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 clear—and 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: we’re 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, you’re invited to my wedding.” ... a few weeks later, I found myself in South Africa, attending a traditional Indian wedding! Here, you don’t explore the world only by moving around—though 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 I’ve 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. It’s a very physical show with a lot of technology. It’s like a huge playground. In a theatre play, everything is set in its ways, but Cirque is always evolving and constantly improving. It’s a different experience. It’s more fluid, more available to new ideas, and there is a great openness. I feel like I’m 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 there—day 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 today’s 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 show’s team the best of luck. I know that they have worked hard for this, and continue to do so. A show is a living organism—it is constantly evolving. Best of luck!” Many stars were in attendance to witness this coming-together of Cirque and the King—two 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 the show, 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 Soleil’s Viva Elvis! was a star studded event. Celebrities packed the blue carpet. Elvis Presley’s 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? I’d 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 it’s not. It is different. I think it will only get better. I think it’s worth seeing and you will walk away happy. It’s fun and it’s emotional too. It’s 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 Elvis’s 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 Colonel’s influence on Elvis was wholly progressive and benign—a minority position, it’s fair to say—would be forced to admit that the Colonel was, well, complicated. Not here. It feels like you’re 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 night’s 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 wasn’t 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 singer’s 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 Cirque’s 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/Don’t” wedding-ring ballet feels tacky. But there’s 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. That’s one of two moments in the show that convey real emotional oomph—the other is a sexy and emotionally ripe pas de deux set to “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” But other than that, there’s not much meditation on celebrity and American culture and there’s 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 who’ll be flocking to the high-end and gorgeous Aria. Those who don’t speak English will at least be spared the Colonel’s narration. Those of us who do will continue to be in awe of Cirque’s 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 CityCenter’s Aria Friday night after weeks of paid previews and adjustments, joins six other Strip-resident shows, and it’s likely to be lucky number seven for Cirque du Soleil. The show is a pretty mess. Gimmicky, bright and loud, in Technicolor and Cinemascope, it’s 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 factory’s 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 icon’s 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 they’re 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. It’s 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. We’re 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." There’s 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; there’s 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 (don’t 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 don’t think I’ve seen pole-dancing in a Cirque production before this. Undulating to a sexed-up, Latin-ized version of "It’s 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, Presley’s 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 doesn’t 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 it’s not possible to take in everything that’s going on at once. Paterson creates some vivid scenes — I’ll 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 don’t even do much with it, just some hand- walking and sliding. The dancing is near-constant, but it’s 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 gown’s 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 that’s 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 doesn’t 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 didn’t 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, it’s 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 Soleil’s latest eye-popping Vegas production, “Viva Elvis,” there’s a segment saluting Elvis Presley’s love affair with Hollywood. It’s an upbeat, thigh-slapping ersatz western number in which one of the troupe’s 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 can’t 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 Presley’s recordings. But Cirque’s 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 music’s 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. Presley’s vocals are often detached from the original instrumental backing and paired with a live band that belts behind his voice with considerable gusto. Cirque’s 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 King’s own disembodied voice. But “Viva Elvis” doesn’t 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 show’s 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 Presley’s 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,” it’s 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. There’s 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 Presley’s 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 17,765 samplings made of Elvis’ songs. I’m 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 Presley’s engagement rings. It’s just one of the many contributions that Priscilla made to the show’s details. When the 18-minute sneak preview performance was unveiled last Tuesday, the day before Aria’s 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 can’t imagine someone else partnering with him, both being in the forefront of entertainment. In Cirque’s unique abstract way of translating or having a vision in a very abstract way, just like Elvis, I can’t imagine anyone else doing this.” Priscilla said that she went to Cirque’s 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. It’s 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. It’s 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 Billboard’s 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 Soleil’s 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 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.” 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. It’s large enough for 30 artists, but I’ll 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 it’s completely different from what we expect a Cirque show to be. It’s a jumping, jiving, dancing, sing-along, supersized Vegas spectacular from his time? GS: It’s 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 we’ve 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. That’s a very important part of our creative process. We aren’t 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 didn’t 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, that’s 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. It’s not over yet, so I do not know. It’s 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 doesn’t 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 it’s 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 don’t 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 don’t 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 didn’t 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 don’t think this is the end story. I think this town allows us to do these things. RL: So when new opportunities arise, you won’t 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 it’s 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 shouldn’t have been so Cirque with him. That didn’t 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 won’t 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 it’s 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. It’s 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 Soleil’s 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 he’s 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. It’s 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 audience’s experience. Here’s my conversation with Vincent: Robin Leach: So let me make an observation to provoke you. This is not the Cirque we’ve 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. It’s hard to create a show of someone that you don’t have living and breathing with you, so we are using him as a way to bring the humanity. It’s 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 would’ve 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 don’t 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 there’s 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. It’s 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 don’t 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 that’s 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 don’t have the capacity for all that onstage at once, so we use a musical sampling. We didn’t change choreographers. We brought in others to do other pieces. I did a sprinkling, but I didn’t 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, it’s 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: You’re 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 it’s not about just working behind the curtain and to get people’s responses and be rewarded that way. For us on the creative side, it’s 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, I’ve 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.” “There’s 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 he’d 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 we’re 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 he’s working with me on more Vegas for Elvis.” Here’s 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 Mel’s 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: There’s 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, “Don’t you want it to define Elvis?” I have always thought that Elvis meant something different to everybody. So we don’t need to, and in fact it’s 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: It’s already been called a double-super-sized song-and-dance show, and that’s 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 don’t 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. We’re not going to do a biographical story. Its appeal will be that it’s 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 don’t 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. 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We are anxious to hear any and all comments! ======================================================================= COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER ======================================================================= 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 translated without the consent of the "Fascination! Newsletter." By sending us correspondence, you give us permission (unless otherwise noted) to use the submission as we see fit, without remuneration. All submissions become the property of the "Fascination! Newsletter." "Fascination! Newsletter" is not affiliated in any way with Cirque du Soleil. Cirque du Soleil and all its creations are Copyright (c) and are registered trademarks (TM) of Cirque du Soleil, Inc., and Créations Méandres, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No copyright infringement intended. { Mar.07.2010 } =======================================================================