Elvis Presley is about the leave the building, again. But it isn’t his fault that the Cirque du Soleil Show tribute show Viva ELVIS has just been more or less evicted from the Aria Resort in Las Vegas where it has been playing for almost two years (about 900 performances).
For the details of what’s going on, check out the Las Vegas Sun. Or the Las Vegas Review-Journal. They report that MGM Resorts, which owns the Aria, has asked the Cirque du Soleil to replace its Viva ELVIS show by the end of 2012. Ticket sales were not living up to expectations. The show had been scheduled for a revamp early in the new year. But now plans are underway to move its acrobats to other Cirque shows around the globe.
The question is why weren’t people buying tickets to Viva ELVIS? Was the show that bad? Nope. I’ve seen it twice. And I’d gladly see it again. (I can’t say the same for Criss Angel’s BELIEVE or Zumanity, two other Cirque shows in Vegas.)
I wasn’t crazy about the dance-heavy Viva ELVIS concept. As an Elvis fan, I wanted more of his presence, more of his hit songs. As a Cirque fan I wanted more stunning acrobatics. But, from the beginning, the biggest problem I saw with Viva ELVIS (besides the director, who was just the wrong person for the job) was the resort itself.
What the hell was Viva ELVIS doing at the soulless entity that is City Centre, a sanitized mini-city for rich urbanites that came into existence just in time for the crash of 2008? If an Elvis tribute show had been mounted in the Vegas Hilton where Elvis famously performed, it might have been a hit. Or in any Vegas resort that has a bit of the Old Las Vegas feel. Judging from the cut-rate deals the nouveau riche Aria at City Centre been offering recently, I’m guessing it’s feeling a little desperate for customers. But let’s not blame it on Elvis. Or his show.
When I was in Las Vegas to cover the opening of Viva ELVIS I can remember standing in the Elvis-themed gift shop at the Aria listening to his piped in voice singing the lyrics “We’re caught in a trap, I can’t get out”, from his song Suspicious Minds and finding it terribly poignant. The place just felt so wrong for him, and his show. It felt like a silver cage.
The Viva ELVIS debacle to be a serious setback for the Cirque du Soleil, which is also closing ZED in Japan at the end of this year. The Cirque has opened seven shows in Las Vegas since its Mystere debuted in 1993. Up until now, none of them have closed. I find it shocking that Viva ELVIS will be the first one to go. What a missed opportunity for all concerned.
Prediction: If the premature closing of Viva ELVIS does come to pass at the end of 2012 as indicated this week, someone else will inevitably get on the case and come up with another Elvis tribute show in Las Vegas.
Meanwhile, another Cirque tribute, the arena show, Michael Jackson THE IMMORTAL Show, is on its way to Vegas for a four-week run at Mandalay Bay Resort. That will mean eight Cirques in Vegas, all at once.
Flirting with saturation point, I’d say.
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