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Viva Zarkana!
Golly, the ARIA/Cirque du Soleil PR machine must really be failing as it took reading through the fine print of a CityCenter LLC annual report to learn that the new show coming to ARIA is called "Zarkana."
Zarkana, described as a "modern rock opera," is currently in limited engagement at Radio City Music Hall. A preview of the trailer shows a lot of typical Cirque schtick - beam bouncers, tight rope artists, dudes on spinning contraptions, trapeze artists, contortionists, dancers, jugglers, clowns and gymnasts - dressed up in a goth/steampunk Barnum-style freak show sorta vibe.
Production values look fantastic as to the stunts but I seem to find what it is that sets this show apart from other Cirque shows already on The Strip. The operaness?
Here's a 9 minute chunk of the show courtesy of the YouTubes.
I could swear that they stole that melody from one of the post-2000 Iron Maiden albums. I'll get to figuring out which track it is, but I've definitely heard it before ("Dance of Death" ??!?). On the positive side, I do love the set design with the multileveled projection screens.
The question still exists... with two Cirque shows almost permanently docked in Los Angeles, other permanent shows in various cities and a handful of touring shows and the pending Michael Jackson tribute show "Immortal" when is too much Cirque du Soleil? And we thought that the closing of Viva Elvis! and de-Cirquing of Criss Angel's Believe disaster was the writing on the wall....

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Comments & Discussion:
Could not agree more. I am just plain sick and tired of Cirque in Vegas. Seems to show an astounding lack of originality on the part of MGM International. Indeed I rather enjoyed the Viva Elvis show because it was less "Cirque like" than the others.
Unfortunately this is another reason that Las Vegas has lost some its style. With the consolidation of ownership on the strip, 2/3 of the casinos (MGM and CET) on the strip are run with the same boring charter, so we'll get continuous Cirque, as they can charge a premium for the product, and even if they only sell 1/2 the seats it really doesn't matter.
When is too much Cirque? Unfortunately I doubt the brass at MGM will ever realize until it's (waaaaay) too late.
That being said, I hope they don't realize it until after the Pat Benatar themed Cirque show opens.
I want to see a Blade Runner Cirque show.
Biggest problem I see is that unlike the other good Cirque's this isn't a custom designed theater. They seem to do much better when they can design all of the elements of the showroom, rather than trying to shoehorn into an exsisting box.
As someone with no interest in Cirque, I can't express how disappointed I am that MGM keeps adding more of these shows. I would love to see something original get a push from these guys. Look how well Caesars has done with Absinthe! They gave it a shot, and it's getting all kinds of praise. How many people who actually like Cirque and stay exclusively at MGM properties would actually want to see every Cirque show they offer? Maybe I underestimate their drawing power. IMO this is symptomatic of the root problem with MGM. MGM is obsessed with making all their properties the same. They're all variations on some kind of trendy, modern theme. It's boring. Blah. Sorry, end rant.
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