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On October 30th, 2014 m’lady and I woke up already checked in at The Flamingo with a full day to kill before Phish started their three-night Hallowe’en run at the MGM Grand. And man, we killed it all right. And if you think there’s nothing to do in Vegas besides gambling you don’t know Vegas or you don’t know me. We meandered throughout downtown Vegas, taking a stroll through the former glitz and glimmer of old Vegas in the Neon Boneyard Museum and popping into the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop where we accidentally appeared in an episode of Pawn Stars. We stopped for lunch at the grotesquely appropriate Heart Attack Grill and bought discount tickets to a Cirque show.
And now you’re all caught up.
It’s a little-known fact that the mantra “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” was coined in reference to Cirque du Soleil’s half-dozen or so permanent Vegas shows. How could you present a show like Kà with it’s 180° hydraulic stage without designing a purpose-built theatre around the show? You can’t, so just like all the other Cirque shows that happen in Vegas it has to stay in Vegas.
Which brings us to today’s ticket tale of triumph: Cirque du Soleil’s O. Where else but in the Entertainment Capital of the World are you going to erect a structure specifically to house a stage that hovers (or doesn’t) above a 1.5-million-gallon pool of water? No where else, that’s where.
And the show was spectacular. I mean it was a spectacular. Adjective or noun*, take your pick, or better yet put them together. It was a spectacular spectacular! Of course “O” is a reference to water (“eau” au Français, bien sûr) and that huge tank of water really stole the show. I mean, one minute a dozen high-divers would be synchronizing themselves into the deep pool from impossible heights and the next minute a bunch of clowns would scamper across the same pool, which had instantly transformed into a mere inch-deep puddle! How on Earth did they manage to keep the main character fully ON FIRE whilst sitting calmly on a chair in the middle of the lake (puddle? Who knows?) for what seemed like three or four minutes while aquabats jumped, twisted, and frayed over, under, and about the soggy pliable stage?
My gosh it was so…spectacular. There’s no other word that leaps to mind. Even after a full day of Las Vegas’ fake miracles and plastic wonders Cirque found senses still waiting to be tickled, and oh how they tickled. I am an unabashed lover, admirer, and promotor of all things Cirque and a show as good as O ain’t gonna change things one bit.
And with a 7:30 start time m’lady and I were back on the strip by 10pm, and in Vegas that’s when the day is just getting started.
*spek-tak-yuh-ler: 1. adj very exciting to look at. 2. n an event or performance that is very exciting to watch and involves a lot of people**
**Interesting that a spectacular requires “a lot of people”. I suppose that has something to do with the commonly rooted word “spectator”. Plus there is “spectacle” which relates as a noun (a public show or display, especially on a large scale), but not adjectively (any of various styles of eyeglasses).
Todd Man Out 