Le Reve, Cirque du Soliel's show at Wynn, got a lot of bad press. We saw it
tonight. I think the problem is jaded reviewers who (like us) have seen too
many Cirque shows. I think the market in Cirque is oversaturated.
That said, if you haven't seen any Cirque shows in Vegas - you'll find this
a WOW. If you've seen 1 or 2 (or even all of them, but only once each), you'll
still find this a wow. If you've seen "O" 4 times, Mystere at least 3, Ka
2, and Zumanity 1 time -- like I have -- then the show is good, very good, to
see once, but does have a lot of similarities to the rest.
Still, if I were to rate the Cirque shows here in Vegas, as if I were to see
them each just once, I'd say
#1 "O" - so good you could see it every night
#2 "Ka" - several jaw-dropping moments
(but I might add after seeing in twice, the 2nd time seemed more boring
- since I knew what to expect, and I don't plan to see it again for several
years at least)
#3 - "Le Reve"
#4 - "Mystere" - almost a tie with Reve
#5 - "Zumanity" - a very disappointing show for me - since I felt it didn't
go far enough if it were trying to be "sexy" and "daring.
"Reve" is generally similar to "O" in that it revolves around water and
aerobatic acts being lowered into water and stage coming up and down out of
water. It is "theater in the round" however, which works just fine. All seats
are close enough to the stage to be considered excellent. Only quibble - seats
are small - kind of uncomfortable for an overweight person like myself.
Much of the show is truly excellent, including water ballet type numbers
where the people only show legs, acrobatics that come down from the high ceiling
and back up at breakneck speed, a really fantastic act with 3 women in a
spinning cage (better than something slightly similar in other Cirques), high
diving, all sorts of diving into and coming out of the water, whirling dervish
male dancers, etc.
A surprise - a topless woman shows up among the whirling dervish men for a
few minutes - that seemed strange - no other nudity. But she was a good
dancer.
The show seemed to have uneven pacing. I think a major problem was that the
4 comic clowns showed up too often, especially during the last half of the
show. The show only lasts 1 1/2 hrs, but I would have cut at least 2 of their
appearances. It's not that they weren't funny or interesting, they were, but
it just slowed the pace down and made the show less consistent.
The songs are in English - but this wasn't really any improvement musically
speaking. If you don't like Cirque music, this is no better, being unknown
songs, just sung in English.
There didn't seem to be any sort of real theme to the show, so "acts" are
more or less strung together somewhat randomly, or at least seemed more so than
"O". The stage was fantastic, just like "O" but perhaps not as startling to
see. I did like the fact that the stage also became a fountain at time.
The high-domed ceiling was used to good effect. Theater in the round was
well-done.
If it had been me, I would have kept on doing what was best in the show -
diving, jumping, acrobatics coming down and interacting with the water. I
would have tossed out the 2 guys doing hand-stands on one another -- these seems
to happen in every Cirque show. Also cut back on the 4 clowns. And
integrated the whirling dervishes act better into the whole. In fact, somehow
integrating the whole show with some sort of theme and music too would help.
But if I had done that - you'd end up with a much better show than "O" .
Still, what you've got, despite a few flaws, is a top-notch Cirque show. If
you've never seen one, you'll be wowed, and even if you have, as mentioned,
you'll enjoy this one greatly.
It looked like on a Monday there were a lot of unsold seats. My guess is
that having all these Cirque shows with prices over $100 per seat has pretty
well saturated the Cirque market. This could mean more availability of tickets
at all shows.
Definitely this is better than Blue Man Group, Danny Gans, and many other
shows at the $100+ level.
I do think combining a Cirque show with an actual "book" (i.e. play with
characters and talking) and music would be fantastic.
Just imagine a Cirque version of "Rocky Horror Picture Show." or Cirque
combined with "South Pacific." A Cirque "Kiss Me Kate". The list is endless.
Upcoming soon will be some sort of "Yellow Submarine" Cirque (at Mirage??).
Will they just use the music or try to put the "plot" (such as it is) into
the show? One hopes for the latter. How about a Cirque combined with Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band (with the plot from the movie)?
Or how about just a non-Cirque Rocky Horror or South Pacific or Kiss Me Kate
or Sgt Pepper in Vegas? After seeing so many Cirques, I find myself longing
for some plot and good music!
In fact, I find myself thinking about "Ave. Q" which I saw recently and
muchly enjoyed.
Still, if you have only seen 0-3 Cirques, you'd probably be better off to
choose Le Reve over Ave. Q.
But unless Cirque tries to come up with something completely different next
time, like catchy tunes and a plot (Ka doesn't hold up in that area), I think
they will find they've oversaturated the market for "wow" stages, fantastic
acrobats, clowns, bewigged performers, and neat costumes.
- Linda
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