First off – I know… it’s REALLY late. I was procrastinating. And then I pretty much forgot everything, so I came back to do my reviews, and knew nothing anymore. So, here is what I REMEMBER.
First thing I noticed: the MANY Cirque ads….. I was so excited every time I’d see one – I’ve only ever experienced Cirque Ads in Orlando with La Nouba, and that’s just one show! The amount of ads in this place is incredible. Left and right. You can tell the newer ads from the older ones by the Cirque logo at the bottom, and also by the graphics on the KA ads (seeing how they’ve recently been re-made)
It was an amazing experience. On the way there, Blades of Glory was playing on the plane, and there’s a particular line in the movie where Will Farrell mentions that John Heders routine was “Cirque du So-Lame”…. It just made me UBER excited, seeing how just hours after seeing that I would be in a Cirque performance. See my comments at the end of Mystere for a perfect Cirque – ending experience.
Vegas itself was very entertaining. Very hot, dry, and the so called ‘wind’ was in no way refreshing when it hits your face – it was like being behind a bus, with the exhaust and the hot engine air whishing in your face.
I also love how no matter where you walk on the strip, you’ll always find a lineup of Mexicans on the side of the street clicking the little nudie brochures and cards at you. It was a great thing to see – I’ll never forget it.
Also, the site for the City Centre project is HUGE. I forgot about that place – looks like it will be the future home of Elvis.
Unfortunately I didn’t get to see Zumanity, mainly due to my age, but I did have a great time seeing a show every night of my trip.
MYSTERE:
Seats: Front row, Left-Centre
The opening was OK….. Moha-Samedi was kind of hard to understand. But it was still good. The drums were awesome. The main drummer dude had so much enthusiasm, which was cool.
The Singer for the show was Dina, although they also used DAT, but to me it was unclear as to who was on the DAT. Further thought makes me think that it may in fact have been Dina on the DAT alongside her live singing. But I can’t be sure, seeing how it was my first time seeing the show.
The singing was very good, but Mystere’s music has never really done anything special to me…… I guess that’s not Dina’s fault though. Kunya Sobe was my favourite song, but to me the rest all sounded very similar.
Aerial Cube was cool, although it only started to pick up near the end.
Chinese Poles were meh… the safety wires seemed to magically ‘pull’ the artists onto the poles – you could tell because of the sort of ‘false gravity’ effect that happens when there is like NO slack on the line. But nobody else seemed to notice, so that was fine by me.
Hand to hand was amazing, I had seen the whole act on Oprah before, but it was still great live. It seems identical to Saltimbanco’s Hand to Hand, but with a different feel to it.
I really enjoyed Bungee – the music was great. It was not what I expected – I expected something allot like Saltimbanco here, but I was pleasantly surprised.
The clown acts were FANTASTIC. I’m not going to lie, I rarely find the clown acts in Cirque shows funny – except for Varekai. But I really enjoyed Brian Dewhurst – he was hilarious. And the Bebe was really funny. He pulled it off nicely. The funniest thing was that the ‘Papa’ was the biggest trailer-trash hick I’ve ever seen – he was a real life version of Cletus from The Simpsons. It just made the whole thing more enjoyable.
I remember seeing a picture of the stage in it’s ‘lowered’ position, but nothing could prepare me for how low it actually went! It was really cool. I also really liked the snail (I forgot her name), and how she came forward into the audience. I also found it amazing how she just appeared out of nowhere.
That’s all I can remember about Mystere, other than this really neat tidbit: I don’t know if anyone else has seen it, but in the Las Vegas airport, I was going through security, and on the video screen monitors is like this instructional video thing on how to properly go through security and what not. However, the people they use as examples are characters from Las Vegas shows, etc… For example, the Medieval Times knights, Blue Man Group, etc… and of course, MYSTERE characters! It was really cool. Perfect Cirque experience just as I was leaving Vegas.
“O”
Seats: Section 104, Row E, first seat.
I’m not going to go into much detail for “O”. I will tell you that it is the most amazing show I have ever seen, aside from perhaps Quidam. I was absolutely speechless when I came out from the show. At every Cirque show I’ve seen up until now, I’ve always noticed little things that I didn’t like, that irritated me, or that I would change had the creative control been given to me. When I reflect back on sitting in my red-covered seat in the “O” Theatre, there’s not one thing that I can say that I would change about the show. I had seen clips of the show, heard the music, seen pictures, taken the Virtual Tour of the stage, and heard all about the show, but nothing could prepare me for what truly lied behind the curtain. There was so many amazing moments in the show, and surprises that even though I had heard about them, still amazed me as though I didn’t know they existed.
To be specific, one thing that really struck me was that amazing rigging – both on, above, and below the stage. The first thing that came to my head when I saw the amazing black-coloured rigging equipment, was that it seemed amazing that all of this was created way back in 1998. Even though it was only 9 years ago, technology certainly wasn’t was it is today. The pictures that I had seen of the theatre before showed that large ‘vine-like’ backdrop on the stage, but I had no idea that it come down on an angle in two pieces, and locked together using the rigging equipment.
THE OPENING WITH THE CURTAIN - INCREDIBLE. I knew what happened... sort of.... but it was breathtaking.
I really am not going to say much, because I honestly forget a lot, but I LOVED the Cadre scene (the music and special effects worked perfectly with this high-intensity act) The opening of course with the curtain, the CLOWNS seemed very very professional. They were pretty funny, certainly more funny than some other Cirque shows, but what really got me was the epic-ness, if you will, of their acts. I love the way they kind of just freeze frame at the end of one of their acts, and just sort of wander back into the rear of the pool. There ‘s just this sort of epic, professional aura that these clowns have about them the others don’t, IMO.
The man on fire was absolutely amazing. I swear to God that fire was in his face at some point. Whenever I see people on fire in special effects shows, etc…. they can only be on fire for a few seconds, at risk of the fire penetrating the costume. This guy must have been on fire 5 minutes! I couldn’t keep my eyes off of him.
One of my favourite acts was Hoops – the music, and the visually serenity of that act made it a sight to see. Also, the caliber and sheer beauty made it amazing. It was the end of the show I believe, which made it something special too.
I have to use the word epic again, in regards to the part of the show where all of the characters are in a tableau at the rear of the stage. See this pic for an example.
This to me, was just epic. The lighting, the costumes, it was perfect.
The music was amazing – Zara….. my BFF was incredible. (Jokes… she’s not my BFF, but I wish she were!) Her Jazz interlude for the clowns was really good. Seeing how she comes from a Jazz-type backgroud, it seemed a perfect fit for her. Zipporah was also surprisingly good. I was worried that her inexperience at the show might be a cause for concern, but I thought she was quite good in the role.
Oh, on an ending note, I LOVED the pre-show with the leaking water. That was clever, and very well done.
KA:
Seats: Row B, Centre
Again, I’m not going to elaborate on this show, nor LOVE.
The KA theatre and exterior are really nice. The Gatekeepers were… interesting. Some were amusing, others seemed out of character. One that caught my eye was this really young guy with curly brown hair. He reminded me of some sort of character that I had seen in a movie or a TV show. Something from The Lord of the Rings, or maybe it’s the resemblance of the elf Bernard from The Santa Clause. Anyways, there was this really annoying gatekeeper at the front of the Theatre, right in front of the void. She was making crappy jokes, and she was repeating them over and over again. She looked cool, but she would put people in awkward situations, and probably not intentionally. But nonetheless… the Gatekeepers were still pretty cool.
The Show:
Overall, I was pretty unimpressed with the show. The acting and choreography was generally tacky, and there was way too many dull moments, and not enough high-intensity acrobatics or captivating moments. I will admit that the technology, special effects, and rigging was amazing, but as mentioned before about the show, that doesn’t make it a good show. It lacks a lot that the other shows have. Unfortunately I’ve forgotten a lot of my mental notes since I saw the show, but I had noted a couple of specific examples a few days ago. I’ve forgotten much of that too unfortunately, so I’ll just leave that up for you to interpret. Much of what I felt about the show has already been expressed in the past few years of the show’s running.
I was hoping for the crab in the beach scene, but obviously it had been rotated with the Sow Bug, as a recent post in the forum suggested.
My favourite scenes were the Forrest scene (the music, imagery, and even the acrobatics weren’t bad) and the Slave Cage scene. Originally, upon seeing the press video of that scene I didn’t like it, but when compared to the other ‘acrobatics’ in the show, I found it quite enjoyable. The pageant scene was always one of my favourite, however the guy in the Centre of the stage, doing most of the sword work wasn’t that great. At least not as good as the woman who used to do it. He dropped them a few times. (Sorry, I’m not good with names on the Vegas shows)
Unfortunately I was not able to change my seats for the show, which I was told were a little close to the stage. To be honest.. I didn’t mind the proximity. It made some parts really interesting, such as the Forrest Scene, where the creatures were literally right above my head, and the scene with the cool aircraft hovering over me. I didn’t really have a sore neck after the show, so overall I would say that I wasn’t really that annoyed that I didn’t change seats.
The music – A lot of the music impressed me, some didn’t. I wouldn’t say that’s the musicians’ fault, I just thought that it didn’t suit the show. But I didn’t like the opening music, Forrest, and the closing. Also, Rochelle was amazing! Absolutely amazing! She has the funniest costume, which kind of makes me think of the dead girl from the grudge a little bit for some STRANGE reason, but she does the FUNNIEST dances on stage especially during the opening! It was SO cute. Hilarious. And BOY does she have a voice. She opens up her mouth a little bit, and out comes this powerful raging voice. I noticed it at the end, during the finale, and during Forrest. She will fit in well here.
Overall, there were parts of the show in which I found some interest in, but others just flat out made me want to go – “What?? Uh…okeeee”
LOVE:
Seats: Bottom of 201
I didn’t actually purchase these tickets, so when I first saw them I was a little bit nervous about how much of the stage would be obstructed. I was pleasantly surprised when the curtains came down that I actually had a really good view of pretty much everything on stage.
Ok, the show was really really good. I’m not a huge huge fan of the Beatles, mainly due to my age, but I do really like their music. Unfortunately I don’t know or understand some of the meanings in their songs as much as say, my parents do, but I can appreciate that other people do. And when I see other people enjoying the show, I enjoy the show. Every so often I would ask my parents about the song that was playing, specifically any sort of metaphorical meanings in the song, or what was happening at the time, and the explanations that they gave pretty much fit what was happening on stage for a majority of the time. That was something that I’m sure many people found intriguing, was that it was just as much of a story as perhaps any other Cirque show – at least as much of a story as say, Rain, or other Beatles tribute shows. However I really appreciate the subtle aspects of the show. The lighting, the ‘car headlights’ the projections, the lifts and elevators, etc… The rollerblading act, as I recall, was one of the best acts I had ever seen in a Cirque show. Really high-calibre. I was sure that they were going to collide at some point. And it worked really well with the music.
On the note of the music, my dad is in the Music Business, and he used to be a sound engineer. He LOVES sound systems, etc…. He said that the sound was unlike anything he’s heard before. He later apparently called up some of the big-names in his company and recommended seeing the show, saying that “even if they closed their eyes the whole time, the show would be worth every penny of the ticket price”.
The clowns didn’t do anything for me, although I did appreciate the subtleties of their acts.
Some idiots tried to hold onto the white sheet draped over the audience, but other than that, I really enjoyed that scene too.
There was a lot of dancing in the show, and not as much acrobatics, but because of the nature of the show (being choreographed to Beatles music) I think that the dancing works quite nicely. I asked my mom for a second opinion after the show, seeing how she was brought up right in the middle of the Beatlemania generation, and she said that she actually really enjoyed allot of the more ‘low-key’ acts. I was happy that she was happy. (She HATES Cirque by the way)
All in all, LOVE exceeded my expectations. I wish I could comment more about it, and more about the other shows, but to be honest.. I forget a lot, and I’m really lazy right now. LOL
One thing that I HAVE to mention: It’s SOOOOO amusing to hear people talk about Cirque, or about the shows. People who know NOTHING, and people who are COMPLETE hicks. I’m not going to say too much…. But its extremely amusing. Pronunciations, ignorance, lack of knowledge on the subject etc… are just a couple of things that I note. I mean, not everyone knows everything about a Cirque production, but I would at least HOPE that people realize that they’re not sitting down to watch a Three-ring circus, like some people did at KA and such. “Oh ya, Ive seen the Barnum and Bailey circus, so I’m used to these sorts of shows…. But this one’s might expensive” (Imagine that sentence in a really thick southern accent)
It’s also funny hearing people trying to decipher certain secrets or facts about the shows and the company, like where they are from, what language the singers are speaking, why they characters are acting so weird on stage, what this metaphorically means, why are the tickets so expensive, when does this show go on tour, how many shows are in Vegas, “I think I saw that one when it came to my hometown” – No…. you didn’t… because it never came to your home town….. it’s a resident show.
Anyways… I had to throw that in there.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST
My highlights of the trip:
“O” for SURE, CPK (my favourite restaurant in the world)….. and ……. THE iPHONE
You don’t understand. If you are as much of a Mac junkie as I am, you would feel sympathy. Ever since the product was announced in January, I have been following it…. Every day, multiple times per day. I read all of the forums, blogs, and contribute, etc…. The iPhone is literally my dream device, and the fact that I’ve been following it for hundreds of days, every day, but not be able to SEE or TOUCH one has made me go temporarily insane. (seeing how I can’t even see one in person where I live)
The moment I walked into the Apple Store, I literally thought that I was going to have a heart attack. I had been DREAMING and conquering images and things in my mind since January 8th or 8th or whatever it was….. and FINALLY, I am able to physically touch and see the device that I have been having near-orgasms over. I felt a heart murmur when I touched the thing...and it burned my skin as I came in contact with it. (no.. im only joking, but inside that's what it felt like)
It EXCEEDED my expectations by the way, and I was about to buy one. Honestly.. I told myself that I wasn't walking out of that store without one in my hands. I can't even put in words how much I want one. It’s a good thing I didn’t buy one. I was expecting to just roam in Canada on it, but it turns out you can’t even do that unless you have an American billing address and Social Security Number.
Anyways, enough of me. That’s probably the longest post I’ve ever written, maybe the longest on this site.
Chiao or..... Ciao
