While at Blogworld in Las Vegas back in 2009, I attended a Cirque Du Soleil show titled, The Beatles – Love. The show was pretty magnificient. Here’s the review. This year, I attended the newest Cirque show on the strip titled, “Viva Elvis” and it was pretty remarkable. I wasn’t disappointed but I may have been spoiled by the Beatles show last year.
I was warned by the woman at the ticket counter as I asked her to compare it to Beatles’ show and she said, “if you’re an elvis fan and like musicals, it’ll be great. The Beatles show has more acrobatics.” Bummer because I love acrobatics.
I wasn’t let down at all. Cirque Du Soleil’s newest show at the hottest hotel on the strip was still incredible. I was most blown away by the incredible stage work that was done between songs. A mock jailhouse for “jailhouse rock” and a floating guitar hanging from the air or this large trampoline setup that had guys soaring 50+ feet into the air. The costume and decoration was top notch as you were taken through the life of Elvis from his initial rise to stardom, his draft into the armed forces and closing with a blow out number of Viva Las Vegas.
What I found most exciting is nearly every performance was accompanied by a live band or at least it seemed like it and the stage design felt like a live concert with the bass and guitar numbers moving the hair on my head with each note.
The design of The Beatles’ show was all of us around a stage set in the center where this was an opera style setting which helped Elvis’ voice and acoustics fill the room in a special way. The only thing that did throw me off was when other people sang songs by Elvis or sang along with him. No one can match his voice and delivery so it was disappointed to hear “love me tender” sang by a woman. Her voice was terrific but it wasn’t Elvis and that disappointed me. After the show, I heard similar sentiment from other viewers.
If I had never seen The Beatle’s show and had only seen other Cirque shows or none at all, Viva Elvis would have knocked my socks off. The thing is, I had seen other shows and it just didn’t take me to that special place that other shows have. I LOVE Elvis’ music and I loved the costumes, decoration and work but the singing and lack of acrobatics and audience involvement made it less of a stellar performance.
I look forward to seeing O and Zumanity next time I’m in Las Vegas. For the price, Viva Elvis just didn’t excite me the way I was at other Cirque shows.
I wanted to add that there aren’t any photos of the Beatles or Elvis shows because you can’t photograph during the performance. Sorry guys.