Cirque du soleil drawn to life review7/24/2023 ![]() ![]() Like a pie that’s been sitting in the bakery thrift shop window for a week, this show won’t taste any better because it’s on sale. Even if you get the tickets half-off, be wary. From aerobatics to trampolines (like early Cirque shows) from recognizable tunes to a beefed-up soundtrack (like The Beatles LOVE) from a cast of nearly 80 to overblown sets (like later Cirque shows), everything old is old again. ![]() Incongruously, in the quest to come up with something new, the creative team at Cirque decided to go with the tried-and-true: They took pieces of pies from previous productions, threw them together in vignettes inspired by moments in the life of Elvis Presley and came up with a questionable dessert that becomes stale before the first piece is even ingested. It is one big head-scratching, shoulder-shrugging Vegastravaganza. ![]() It was so frantic, incoherent, and imprecise that insouciance was all I could conjure up – an indifference that rarely wavered throughout Viva ELVIS. The opening number, “Blue Suede Shoes” confirmed my suspicion: In front of a giant jukebox, 30 dancers, 24 acrobats, 4 singers and an 8-piece band buoyantly boogied and bounced in abundance some played on a slide in the shape of – can you guess? – an enormous blue suede shoe (which, by the way, looked like someone had donated $50,000 to a high-school to construct this prop). I wondered if this pre-show was indicative of things to come. While awaiting Viva ELVIS, Cirque du Soleil’s new Vegas extravaganza in the exquisite and luxurious new theatre at the ARIA Hotel, my excited expectation turned to finger-crossing trepidation when actresses portraying Bobby Soxers began milling through the audience and climbing over seats in their attempt to hype us into a state of frenzy with, “Elvis is coming.” Unmagical, unscripted, unfocused, and unfunny. ![]()
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