It was announced today that the Criss Angel Cirque du Soleil show “Believe” which was supposed to open September 12 will now open October 9. The reason given for the delay was technical delays. Probably they are having some issues with the stage setup of the illisions and just needed a little more time.
At least that’s the official story. I really have no reason to believe otherwise. Sometimes there’s hard opening dates set for shows and even hotel openings and there’s a couple of snags along the way. Stuff happens. I’m looking forward to checking out the show actually I think Criss does some pretty cool illusions. If you’ve ever caught his Mindfreak show on cable he does some pretty outrageous stuff.
FYI the show’s name “Believe” comes from Harry Houdini. He uttered to his wife on his deathbed that he would try yo contact her from the dead and the word “believe” would be the codeword. Criss chose it as the title of his new show as a tribute to one of his magic heros. There’s your Vegas trivia for the day!
I was down on the strip and got some photos of the renovation of the Mirage volcano. It’s weird to see it just, well, naked! It’s hard to believe it’s been there almost 20 years now. That’s a lifetime in Vegas years!
For those who don’t know, Steve Wynn opened the Mirage in 1989. It was the first new casino resort built on the Las Vegas strip in many years and at the time was the most expensive hotel-casino in the world.
It kicked off a huge boom and ushered in the era of the “mega-casino.” At first Wynn was called crazy, that it’d never work etc. I think he proved them wrong! It looks just a bit dated today but still remains one if the jewels of the strip.
Before the Bellagio was build (also a Steve Wynn property at the time) the poker room at the Mirage was considered “ground zero” of the poker world and you could always see the biggest stars of the game playing for huge stakes.
Here’s what the volcano looks like as of April 2008:
I got to go see the The Beatles: Love show last week. Out of all the Cirque de Soliel shows here in town (with the exception of “O”) it’s the one I really wanted to see.
It’s located over at the Mirage, in the old Sigfried and Roy theater. The theater has been totally redone to be a theater in the round to fit the design of the Love show.
As a huge Beatles fan I had high hopes for the show. I was not dissapointed! It was 10 times better than I could have imagined! It was amazing to see the Beatles music come to life. The visuals really fit the music well.
The whole show is based on the music of the Beatles. Their producer George Martin and his son Giles were given carte blanche in making the soundtrack for the show. They took all the original Beatles master tapes and made some new remixes and used some different versions of some songs for the soundtrack. On some of the songs they took bits and pieces from one song and put them into other songs, giving them a new twist.
In some aspects it’s a typical Cirque show with the acrobatics and the movable stage. One cool part of the show is they drop opaque curtains as various points in the show and have projected images of the Beatles in silhouette either joking around or playing their instruments.
One thing that really made the show unique is the sound system. In addition to the regular speakers hanging above the stage they also have speakers in the seats! The audio is also mixed in a really cool surround sound setup where the speakers in the seats play sounds and parts of the songs that aren’t in the main speakers. It’s a great effect and really adds to the experience.
I just had an amazing time and honestly the show is worth every penny, especially if you’re a Beatles fan. It’s one of the best shows I’ve ever seen and I can’t recommend it highly enough.