Spamalot
Wynn Las Vegas
Opened March, 2007
Running time 1:40
$53 to $103

Some Broadway musicals benefit mightily from the trimming necessary to make a ninety minute, one act show which is what Las Vegas casino hotels feel they can sell to the people who come to town to do more than just go to shows. Monty Python's Spamalot, which somehow won the 2005 Tony Award for best musical, is one of them. It also won the Tony for best direction of a musical which was completely justified, for Mike Nichols did a superb job of disguising the weaknesses in an overlong comic romp. At an hour and a half it is fresher, clearer and funnier - and it offers practically all the bright music and the tomfoolery that was the trademark of the Monty Python movie. Among the cuts are the the big "All For One" number, the routine for the Knights of Ni involving shrubbery, the lengthy scene of the guards incapable of understanding their instructions to keep Prince Herbert from leaving his room, and the intermission. None of the cuts are missed.

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Phantom - The Las Vegas Spectacular
The Venetian
Opened June, 2006
Running time 1:50
$62 - $157

Here's another show that benefits from trimming under the supervision of its original Broadway director. In this case it is the legendary Harold Prince who tightened up an overly lackadaisical script. The result is to place even more emphasis on the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber with less exposure given to the problematic lyrics by Charles Hart (with additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe). In the process of mounting this one-act version in a theater reported to cost some $45 million, Prince and his team spent $35 million on the production. They revisited some of the special effects, including, most notably, the famous chandelier crash. On Broadway, in London and on tour, that "crash" always looked more like a fairly gentle lowering of the chandelier on cables. As re-designed, it is looks like a frightening free fall. Other effects, such as the pyrotechnics in the cemetery, have been improved. However, not all the deficiencies in the effects have been corrected. The mirror in the heroine's dressing room still reflects unwanted views of off-stage activities. The music is what this musical is all about, and here it sounds fabulous with great acoustics in the lovely theater (see the photo on the right) and great voices in all the parts. Potomac Region theatergoers may remember Tim Martin Gleason from Signature's The Rhythm Club. Here he's Raul, a role he played in the national tour of Phantom when it played the Hippodrome a few years ago. At least for now, Brent Barrett and Anthony Crivello are alternating portraying the Phantom.

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Mystère
Treasure Island
Opened December, 1993
Running time 1:35
$60 - $95

The longest-running of Cirque du Soleil's Las Vegas spectaculars is this family-friendly assemblage of clowns, skill acts, new-wave music, fantastical costuming and visual spectacle directed by Franco Dragone. If you've seen one of Cirque's traveling "tent shows" you know what to expect - grace, power and beauty in a highly theatrical presentation set to live music with colorful costumes and spectacular lighting effects. However, unlike the tent shows, the scale here is so large that the effects take on a depth they don't have under the canvas. As with all Cirque shows, there is some pre-show clowning to warm the audience up, so it is a good idea to arrive early and enjoy it all. There are so many things to look at through the hour and a half that there isn't time to get bored. The props are as intriguing as some of the skills displayed, and they blend nicely as in the chrome cube that a balancing act spins with alternating colored lights early in the show and the Korean Plank and trampoline act that comes toward the end. In between, it never gets dull.

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O
The Bellagio
Opened October, 1998
Running time 1:35
$99 - $150

The best blend of Cirque's unique circus skill acts with visual spectacle and enchantment is also a Franco Dragone piece, a show named for its major element – "O" being the phonetic equivalent of the French for water, "eau." Fitting perfectly with the water theme of the Bellagio’s dancing waters exhibit that draws crowds to the sidewalk for five or ten minute displays presented every fifteen minutes all evening long, this indoor hour and a half show is performed on the surface of a one and a half million gallon tank. In the water are giant hydraulically operated platforms that can be dry just above the water for one effect and then deeply submerged for a high dive. Different platforms can be moved into different depths so set pieces can float into place or clowns can run across the water. With some 85 performers, plus a running crew of over 100, the show is Cirque's loveliest, excelling at visually striking effects and featuring a sharper, more varied and sophisticated musical score.

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The one thing Cirque shows have never really done is tell a story – a traditional, linear plot as opposed to some ethereal theme that loosely connects the acts in their earlier shows. With Kà, director Robert Lepage tries to make the jump from circus to theater and take all of Cirque's circus skills and theatrical spectacle along. As drama, Kà doesn't quite work. The storytelling is such that you need to know the plot before you come into the theater, and, even then, you loose track of it from time to time. However, there is more than enough technologically amazing spectacle here to make it a memorable experience. With fabulous acrobatics, feats of strength and a floating stage some 25 by 50 feet able to come up from the pit, rotate completely around and then turn up on end to allow the audience to view a battle from overhead (see photo to the right), the show is a series of astonishments. If you are the type that likes to buy souvenir programs, arrive early enough and buy yours before the show so you can read the plot synopsis before the show begins.

The words "The Beatles" are easily four time larger than "Circue du Soleil" on the logo for Love, which is entirely appropriate. The thrill here is for the ears much more than for the eyes. 6,500 speakers! 2,200 seats, each with two speakers of its own to assure proper balance, while the other 2,100 speakers provide 25x5 surround sound! It isn't just the playback system that is mind-blowing. What is most impressive is the sound those speakers are playing - the original tracks from the Beatles' recording sessions remixed by their original record producer. Twenty-eight Beatles songs are sung by the Beatles themselves, and are so well cleaned up digitally and re-mixed by Sir George Martin and his son Giles as to make it seem like they are fresh, new recordings. The visual elements sometimes come up to the level of the material and at others simply distract from the glory of the sound. There are acrobats, tumblers, contortionists and clowns and visual effects of note (the diamonds in Lucy's sky never sparkled so beautifully before, and there is a shadow effect that may actually convince you "the lads" are really on stage.) Still, nothing you see can compare with what you hear.

The adult-oriented Cirque show is subtitled “The sensuous side of Cirque du Soleil.” Written and directed by Dominic Champagne and René Richard Cyr, Zumanity is a disappointing show for those who are intrigued by the idea of a show featuring the beauty of the human body in all its sensuousness. Instead, the show focuses on the kinky, and the routines of the madam/hostess and the lounge-act comedians emphasize raunch over romance. This adults-only production does have a few lovely bodies exposed in graceful ways, but more often it concentrates on either the bizarre or seeks audience participation in a mixture of vaudeville and burlesque with a jazzy house band and comics doing shtick with bananas.

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La Rêve
Wynn Las Vegas
Opened April, 2005
Running time 1:15
$99 - $ $175

Here it isn't theater in the round. It is pool-in-the-round. The show offers synchronized swimming, diving, tumbling into the pool, displays of grace, balance and strength as well as clowning, combined with dramatic water effects ranging from  torrential downpours to foaming bubbles. Franco Dragone, having left Cirque du Soleil, returns to the water show genre which has made "O" a decade-long success. The Wynn Las Vegas has converted the round audience area to offer plush lounge seats in the rear circle (which is only the twelfth row in this surprisingly intimate 1,600 seat auditorium) where patrons enjoy chocolate covered strawberries and champagne poured by hostesses for $175 a seat. The view from there gives a sense of perspective on the action without being too far away. However, the front two rows ($99) are called "the splash zone" where you can feel part of the show. In between, the seats go for $119.