CIRQUE DU JACKO: New Cirque do Soleil show captures dazzle of King of Pop
A giant glove will dance, a chimp will skip, acrobats will fly and you might be wondering if got your $200 worth.
That’s a lot of money for a ticket, whether you’re in Colorado Springs, Denver or Las Vegas.
But the folks at Cirque du Soleil figure that by merging the appeal of Michael Jackson with the high-production appeal of Cirque, they can justify the enormous ticket price.
To be fair, tickets did start at $50, plus service charges. But the cheap seats are fairly well picked over at this point.
Is it worth the money? It depends on how big a Michael Jackson fan you are.
If you’re a casual fan who sings along with Weird Al parodies, save your money for Cirque’s “Dralion,” which is coming to the World Arena in February. If you know every word of every Jackson song and you dress up as a zombie every Halloween to dance to “Thriller,” reach deep into your pocket and get yourself to the Pepsi Center.
“Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour,” though far from the best Cirque show, proves a dazzling, sensory-bombardment spectacle, a curious hybrid of a pop concert and a circus show that’s undeniably entertaining, if scattered.
I recently caught the show in Las Vegas and talked with the folks behind the scenes.
“This show is meant to go out as Michael would make a Cirque show,” said the show’s creator, Jamie King, who has directed major rock extravaganzas for Prince and Jackson. “It had to be big. It had to be dynamic.”
It certainly is that.
To his credit, King avoids some of the obvious pitfalls in adapting Jackson iconography to a Cirque stage show. It rarely feels like just an overblown music video. It also doesn’t try to re-create an MJ concert by getting a one-gloved impersonator to play star or narrator.
Rather, it uses the language of Cirque — acrobatics, contortionists, wild costumes, elaborate sets, pyrotechnics — to tell the story of Jackson’s career in a rather abstract and bizarre way.
More than 30 songs explode into giant production numbers, with kids in fake Afros dancing through an urban jungle to a Jackson Five medley and a poll dancer mixing the erotic with the acrobatic to “Dangerous.”
Of course, there also are giant loafers the size of VW Bugs that shuffle around the stage as well as teams of dancers doing classic MJ moves. Oh, and I can’t forget the one-legged breakdancer, who often steals the show.
But if there’s a central figure in the show, it’s a mime in a glitter suit, who, in his most impressive move, keeps his head seemingly in one spot while the rest of him springs all over the place.
“Michael loved mimes,” King explained.
The choreographer pointed out that MJ’s signature move, the moonwalk, was adapted from the work of famous mimes. (Curiously, though, the move is not often used in the show, even though there’s a moving sidewalk jutting from the stage.)
Another offbeat highlight of the show came when an overalls-clad chimp (a salute to Jackson’s famous pet, Bubbles) bounded through the auditorium and then revealed himself to be a tiny actor when he jumped on the stage and started to dance. His simian movements were uncanny.
The energy of the performers and the over-the-top theatrics can be intoxicating. And I’m enough of a Jackson fan to love the deep immersion into his music.
Two of Jackson’s brothers, Tito and Jackie, attended the Vegas premiere and said they loved it, that it brought tears to their eyes.
I liked it but found myself unmoved.
As I walked out, I kept thinking about “Love,” Cirque du Soleil’s salute to The Beatles. That endearing show used animated Fab Four silhouettes projected onto big screens, paired with session-work audios, throughout. It made me feel like The Beatles were there.
“Immortal” shows us Michael dancing and singing and pointing and going “wooo!” on multiple giant screens, and even creates a little animatronic Michael that floats through the arena in search of his childhood. And yet I never felt Michael’s presence in the way The Beatles seem to live in “Love.”
I know that’s quite a difficult, intangible thing to expect from a Cirque du Soleil show. But for these ticket prices, is a miracle or two too much to ask for?
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