When the circus
came to town Cirque du Soleil hits Vegas – isn’t it time you saw the greatest show on Earth?
Ah, the circus… sawdust-strewn floors, sabre-tooth tigers and strongmen with handlebar moustaches. Not anymore. One visit to a show staged by Cirque du Soleil and you’ll never reminisce about the Big Top again. Welcome to the Greatest Show on Earth
LIKE A TRADITIONAL circus, Cirque du Soleil’s surreal shows feature incredible stunts and acts of contortion – but that’s where the comparison ends. Cirque adds hypnotic musical scores, dramatic lighting, eye-catching costumes and the sort of cutting-edge technology that makes you feel like you barely know how to operate a toaster.
 Surrealism goes orange in Mystère |
 Alegría’s clowns are almost scary |
Getting its two-and-a-half-hour touring show to opening night requires transporting up to 80 performers, 20 technicians, 800 tons of equipment, a school, warehouses and four generators. Each tour requires over 1,000 costumes tended to by a travelling staff of five, and Cirque even has its own pastry chef on the road. All in all, it takes eight days to set up its self-sufficient village and three days to dismantle it. Re-staging costs alone are £2.4 million, but all of its six tours and six permanent shows in Las Vegas and Florida turn a profit.
This global empire was set up 23 years ago by Canadian Guy Laliberté. He gained an appreciation for street theatre after travelling around Europe as a performer when he was 18, and even today, doesn’t like to describe himself as the boss: “We’re treasure hunters and I’m the guide.” And Laliberté certainly knows how to put on a show – seeing the rotating stage in the martial arts-themed KA, Cirque’s flagship permanent show in Las Vegas, is worth the £56 ticket price alone. At one stomach-churning moment it becomes vertical, changing from a beach to a cliff and sending sand cascading into the abyss. Acrobats ascend the cliff untethered, scaling to the top with the aid of pegs hidden in the deck. It rotates 360 degrees, the pegs are retracted, the acrobats fall 70 feet into the safety net out of sight below and everyone tries not to scream.
 The brolly takes centre-stage |
 Synchronised swimming in O |
 Spectacular swinging in O |
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In line with the left-field performances, the shows have suitably odd names like Dralion, La Nouba, Quidam, Varekai and O, but surrealism isn’t simply a highbrow hook to lure in punters.
There is a high degree of interpretation since none of the shows use spoken language. This means there are no cultural barriers to cross, something that has enabled Cirque to perform in over 100 cities since it began in 1984. Each show is distinctly different, designed from scratch and woven around an offbeat theme. Alegría, currently touring Spain and France, was inspired by the passing down of traditions, whereas Mystère, Cirque’s first Vegas show, looks at the origins of the universe. Its climax sees a giant snail inflated to symbolise the pace of life in the grand scheme of things. Characters have outrageous outfits such as a man dressed as a baby, a silent ringmaster with no head sporting an umbrella and an acrobat with a tail dressed in blue pyjamas.
But true to its roots, the most extraordinary thing is the acrobatics. Every stunt looks likes it is about to end in calamity, taking the audience to the edge of their seats.
And as each act betters the previous one, there’s an epic sense of build-up. Cirque’s HQ in Montreal is where the secrets behind all these stunts are spawned. Rows of eerie plaster heads line the shelves, and in its shoemaking studio foot-shaped forms are on file for each artist. The shoemaking team has created and modified over 4,000 pairs since 1998, ranging from slippers to clown boots. Many are created from cut-up shoes bought from shops before Cirque applies its magic touch. It’s crucial since among the various costume elements, shoes take the greatest beating, lasting three months on average but sometimes for as little as five performances.
O does boat trips like no
one else
In 2007, Cirque will produce more than 20,000 costume pieces, and its artisans will use more than 20 kilometres of fabric from around the world. Lycra is the material of choice since Cirque likes a neutral medium on which to print its own designs, with each pattern and colour painstakingly compiled in binders for ready duplication. Plaster busts are moulded from the head of each performer to provide them with precisely fitting masks.
Having budgets as big as blockbuster movies enables Cirque’s permanent shows to host the most stunning stunts (see below) but, despite a growing number of competitors, the company has tricks up its sleeve to ensure it can’t be copied. Laliberté’s genius has been in creating his own acts, rather than simply employing guest artists who would bring their routines with them. Cirque’s kudos is that its acrobatic displays and stunts can’t be found elsewhere, and Laliberté has protected this by copyrighting his creations. And they never have more than six shows running at once. “We made a business and artistic decision not to multiply our shows,” he says. “They’re more like jewellery where we take a diamond and polish it.”
Playing for over 23 years, Las Vegas’ Luxor Hotel will host a new Cirque attraction next year with Tokyo, Macau and Miami also set to get permanent shows. Not bad for a man who, back when he was hitchhiking around Europe, spent his first night in London on a public bench on Hyde Park Corner, with his backpack, two accordions, and a mouth organ in his pocket. Things are a little different now – Cirque has made Laliberté a billionaire.
bmi flies direct to Las Vegas from Manchester. For more information and to book, visit flybmi.com
STUNT DRIVERS
TRANSFORMING THE HUMBLE STAGE INTO A HI-TECH FLIGHT OF FANCY
■ Cirque du Soleil has convincingly conquered Vegas. The shows range from the ethereal Mystère and Love, a show based on the Beatles, to the erotica-themed Zumanity with its costumes designed by fashion tsar Thierry Mugler. O and KA are both technological tours de force.
■ In O, synchronised swimmers seem to walk on water. Set on a pool with
1.5 million gallons of water that’s 25 feet deep, seven hydraulic lifts move into place to make it seem as if the amphibian acrobats are performing on a solid surface. Hundreds of tiny cue lights under the water and 12 special underwater speakers are used to prompt, and are key to the performers’ precision. A special silicone product is even applied to costumes to make them fast-drying and, for the final touch, the make-up is waterproof.
■ Like O, KA has a stage which is far from stable. Peering over the orchestra pit, you can see a basement several floors below. Two huge surfaces rise from beneath, with the biggest being a 160-ton slab known as the sand-cliff deck. The six-foot-thick platform can lift up and rise from below the stage at a rate of two feet per second, tilting more and more as it goes.
It was designed by British stage designer Mark Fisher, who has created elaborate concert sets for Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones and U2.
