Cirque du Soleil remains committed to entertainment in Las Vegas

By Brock Radke (call)

Monday, Dec. seven, 2020 | 2 a.m.

About a calendar year ago, Cirque du Soleil’s aquatic landmark “O” shifted to a 7-evening timetable, a initial for the desire-like epic that initially opened with Bellagio in October of 1998. After passing the ten,000-demonstrate mark previous September, the generation hired new artists and improved the cast to 117 from 77 in preparing for what should have been its biggest calendar year yet.

Previous week, Cirque du Soleil President and CEO Daniel Lamarre claimed “O” will probable be the initial Cirque demonstrate to reopen on the Las Vegas Strip in 2021.

“People in Las Vegas and even we ourselves from time to time overlook that ‘O’ is the most prosperous demonstrate in the globe. There is no other one demonstrate that is marketing that numerous tickets calendar year right after calendar year for about twenty many years now,” he claimed. “This signature demonstrate is a symbol for us and that’s why it will be much more than natural to open up ‘O’ initial. It will mail a apparent signal worldwide that Cirque du Soleil is back.”

Just before Thanksgiving, the Montreal-based mostly reside entertainment team declared the closure of a buy settlement with its secured loan companies and that the enterprise has emerged from the creditor security time period for which it filed in June in Canada and the United States. The new expense team is led by Toronto organization Capital Catalyst Group and the co-chairs of the new Cirque du Soleil board of administrators are previous MGM Resorts Global CEO Jim Murren and Catalyst Controlling Director Gabriel de Alba.

The existence of Murren and yet another new board member, present MGM President of Leisure and Sporting activities George Kliavkoff, is confirmation of the sturdy romance among Cirque and Las Vegas, which commenced when the company’s initial Strip residency “Mystére” opened at Treasure Island in 1993.

“Having [Murren and Kliavkoff] is not only very good for Las Vegas, which is crucial to the enhancement of this enterprise, but it is also [about] the prospect to produce with [MGM] in their other casinos close to the globe,” Lamarre claimed.

Cirque has relaunched 3 productions in the latest months: “X: The Land of Fantasy” in Hangzhou, China “Joya” in Riviera Maya, Mexico and a more compact vacation demonstrate at the Gaylord Palms hotel in Kissimmee, Florida. The enterprise also introduced a new on the internet information hub known as CirqueConnect for the duration of the pandemic shutdown, in which a new guiding-the-scenes special on “O” premiered previous week.

But Lamarre claimed the authentic re-commence for Cirque du Soleil will materialize on the Las Vegas Strip.

“It is the same enterprise, the same bunch of artists and creators that are however pretty passionate about carrying out new shows. What the new [ownership] seriously usually means for our folks is that now I can say the long term of the enterprise is guaranteed,” he claimed. “When the market is back to normalcy, it usually means we can deliver back our shows, deliver the enterprise back to profitability and it also usually means we have the money power that it normally takes to go as a result of the procedure we’re in ideal now in which it is not probable the market will be back to ordinary right up until have a vaccine. After that we will be equipped to make investments the millions of bucks it normally takes to relaunch all of our existing shows.”

Cirque declared the long term closure of the seventeen-calendar year generation “Zumanity” at New York-New York previous thirty day period and concurrently declared contract extensions for its other Las Vegas Strip shows — “O” at Bellagio, “The Beatles LOVE” at the Mirage, “KÁ” at MGM Grand, “Michael Jackson ONE” at Mandalay Bay and “Mystére” at Treasure Island. The Cirque team also owns the prolonged-functioning Blue Man Group demonstrate at Luxor, which has yet to return to performances considering that the March shutdown of the Strip.

With the the latest closure at New York-New York and the pre-pandemic closure of “R.U.N,” at Luxor, there are two Strip theaters formerly occupied by Cirque shows devoid of prolonged-term residency strategies and Lamarre claimed he’s hoping to make some bulletins with regards to those venues before long.

“We are on the lookout for new types of shows we could deliver and hopefully they will be equipped to arrive to fruition in the upcoming couple months,” he claimed.