Paul Szydelko
When Cirque du Soleil opens its latest production, "R.U.N," at Luxor Las Vegas on Oct. 24, it will continue its illustrious spell on Las Vegas Strip entertainment that has lasted almost three decades.
Billed as a "live-action thriller," "R.U.N" will be Cirque du Soleil's seventh current Las Vegas production eighth if you count the Cirque-owned "Blue Man Group," also at the Luxor.
Since "Mystere" opened at Treasure Island in 1992, Cirque has built a connection with Las Vegas as pervasive as Liberace, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Wayne Newton and that other Canadian import, Celine Dion.
"I don't think there's been a company or a show or a series of shows that have been more successful on the Las Vegas Strip than Cirque in terms of popularity, the number of tickets sold, longevity and awareness," said Brock Radke, an entertainment writer for the Las Vegas Sun.
"Most people, if you say those words, Cirque du Soleil, immediately associate Cirque with Las Vegas, even though it's this global live-entertainment company and they're expanding outside of Las Vegas in a big way in other aspects of entertainment," Radke said.
Always vibrant and inspiring, at turns funny and poignant, a Cirque du Soleil production has an undeniable artistry and athleticism. But it's the company's consistency that strikes Radke.
"The kind of awe and wonder that you have when you see one of those shows for the first time, they're able to duplicate that, and they were able to scale it right and expand in a time when the Strip and Las Vegas were really booming in the 1990s and early 2000s."
There have been just a couple of hiccups for Cirque on the Strip. "Criss Angel Believe," which opened at Luxor in 2008, was the first Cirque show to be built around an individual performer. After initial criticism and disappointing sales, the production was often tweaked. The show closed in 2016, but Angel launched "Mindfreak Live" at the venue and it played through 2018. ("Criss Angel Mindfreak" is now at Planet Hollywood). Faring far more poorly, Cirque's "Viva Elvis" at the Aria in CityCenter closed in 2012 after two years.
Cirque has influenced what happens on other Strip stages. The artfully sexy "Zumanity" often doesn't get credit for what it has accomplished, Radke said. But it was a precursor to Spiegelworld's bawdy "Absinthe," a runaway success at Caesars Palace since 2011. Spiegelworld is building its own Strip empire with "Opium" at Cosmopolitan and the new "Atomic Saloon Show" at the Venetian.
"R.U.N" features no clowns and no traditional circus-style acts, promising a different creative sensibility than other Cirque shows, Radke said. "There are other Cirque shows that have fighting (for example). 'KA' has a lot of stunt-work fighting and that kind of action, but the stuff in 'R.U.N' looks a lot more like an action movie. It looks more gritty and realistic. It's supposed to look like they're actually fighting (while 'KA') is this more precisely choreographed 'dance' almost. It's really a more avant-garde fight scene."
With Allegiant Stadium, home of the NFL's Raiders beginning in 2020, being built across Interstate 15 from the Luxor, more attention will be on the Strip's south end.
"As big of a show as this is for Cirque trying to show it can do different things, it might even be a bigger deal for Luxor," Radke said. "There's a lot of pressure on Luxor and Excalibur and all of the resorts in that area of the Strip to have some new, cool stuff to draw people in. Because when the football stadium opens next year, there's going to be a lot of heat in that area of the resort corridor, and all of those places are looking to capitalize on that."
Properties such as the Luxor's pyramid and neighboring Excalibur's castle simply can't be rebranded like Monte Carlo becoming MGM Park, Radke said, so it's imperative for those resorts to attract new customers, and Luxor's esports arena is a good example of the efforts to appeal to younger audiences.
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Radke offered his take on the other Cirque du Soleil shows in Las Vegas:
• "Mystere" (opened in 1993 at Treasure Island). "It's the template that established it all. It's the starter Cirque experience. It's still amazing. There's just so much going on in that room, it's really impressive, even after all these years."
• "O" (1998, Bellagio). "This is the biggest and most successful, and it's the craziest one because there's very little story. It's really supposed to be just a series of images, some of which are pretty out there if you really pay attention to them."
• "Zumanity" (2003, New York-New York). "It's the adult show, the sexy version [of Cirque]. Especially now these days with the way that culture has changed, it's very warm and affectionate and inclusive. It's kind of a celebration of all that."
• "KA" (2004, MGM Grand). "'KA' is going to be perceived as like a stepping stone to "R.U.N." because it is very cinematic. There's a lot of action, but really the star is the stage that moves around and seems to float and does these impossible things. It's a marvel of theatrical production."
"The Beatles Love" has been one of the most popular shows in Las Vegas history. Photo Credit: MGM Resorts International/Cirque du Soleil
• "The Beatles Love" (2006, Mirage). "With its beloved soundtrack it's right there with 'O' in being one of the most popular shows in the history of Las Vegas. It's the biggest theater in which Cirque does a show on the Strip, but it doesn't feel like that because it's a theater in the round and feels very intimate."
• "Michael Jackson One" (Mandalay Bay, 2013). "Michael Jackson, despite controversies, is still very popular. Using that music and his iconography matches well with Cirque; it is also the most dance-oriented show."