What is the deal with Criss Angel Believe?

[TazTarney]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 1:22pm

I have not heard a single good word about this show and yet it has been playing for 7 years. Are Criss Angel's fans really that devoted and the reason this show has stayed open? Has anyone seen it lately?

[vegas2]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 1:57pm

A friend of mine saw it last year and said it was awful. Since the audience is mostly tourists, I suppose they don't know any better. And perhaps the show is promoted aggressively. There are giant billboards en route from the airport to the Strip, so it's one of the first shows people might learn about upon arriving in Vegas.

[blaxx]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 5:04pm

It's beyond awful. Words cannot describe how bad it is.

I also assume it survives on discounts, promotions and unaware tourists. Cirque should not have attached their name to this.

[TazTarney]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 5:22pm

I'm tempted to see it just out of pure curiosity. It can't be THAT bad...right? I also wonder if the problem has more to do with people's dislike of Criss Angel...rather than the actual show.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 5:33pm

I'm guessing pretty bad. I don't know too many people that spend money to go see someone they already dislike.

[darreyl102]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 5:35pm

I have a friend who was a big fan of Criss who went and saw the show and he told me it wasn't very good (His mother said it was awful) , but he is still a fan.

[TazTarney]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 5:39pm

So how is it still playing?

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 5:40pm

My guess is that the answer lies somewhere between "they make enough money to continue to pay the rent" and "it's better than having an empty space."

[haterobics]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 6:41pm

Vegas shows almost have no advance sales, according to Penn Jillette on his podcast. So, many shows will go from nearly every seat available to sold out that day. So, between the Vegas version of TKTS, hotel guests getting comps, and other things, it is obviously doing well enough to keep running. I made it a point to see every Cirque in Vegas when I lived in SF, but that was the last one I needed to check them all off, but I just couldn't do it.

[TazTarney]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 6:44pm

How would u rank all the cirque shows u saw in vegas Haterobics?

[haterobics]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 6:52pm

1. Love (probably #1 because of how much I love the Beatles, but still an amazing show)
2. O
3. Ka
4. Mystere (probably would have been higher had I been to it earlier, but by the time I saw it, a lot of touring Cirques had done similar stuff, so it didn't seem as fresh)
5. Zumanity (I've been to enough seedy gay stuff to not find it all that risque, plus it is very straight, and I was amazed how many audience member gasped when the MC was revealed to be a man, as I never knew that was even supposed to be a secret, oh well... I think the percentage of the audience surprised by that probably changes at every show. It did seem to be more of an aphrodisiac for straight older couples, although there was certainly enough hot guys in it, heh)

I think that was all of them...

One and Zarkana were not playing when I was last in Vegas. I got to see Viva Elvis in previews, and knew that one needed work or wouldn't last long, which is pretty phenomenal, not getting an Elvis show right in Vegas.

[TazTarney]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 7:03pm

Nice ranking. I saw Love very recently and loved it ( hehe see what I did?). The show is a borderline musical if you ask me with the structure of the piece. I found it more beautiful than "O".

"O" seems to be doing the best out of the 8 cirque shows. It's still selling out every night and it costs the most out of the 8. I did enjoy O but I've always found it to be the sort of show that doesn't really know what it is.

Mystere was my first show to see and I absolutely fell in love. I'm afraid to go back...I want to preserve the memory. Haven't seen Zumanity and I don't really want to. I've heard great things about the MJ:ONE show. I will check it out soon I think.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 7:06pm

I'm probably the only person in the world who was bored to tears with O. Yes, the use of a huge water tank onstage is awe-inspiring but beyond that, I found it less impressive than the other Cirque shows I've seen. It was very repetitive- one diver after another.

My favorite is probably Ka, which I found to be the most exciting Cirque show I've ever seen- none of the other shows had that sense of danger that Ka does. My other favorite was Love, which was the most joyous of the Cirque shows, and had the best choreography.

Updated On: 6/29/14 at 07:06 PM

[TazTarney]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 7:09pm

I can see why some would fine "O" boring. I Myself was nodding off near the end.

KA is the most gigantic show I have ever seen. I got to go on a backstage tour and it really is amazing how they do that show 10 times a week without a hitch.

[haterobics]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 7:13pm

KA was impressive, but I did wonder how much the stage was the impressive part as opposed to people doing the things that seemed amazing. I honestly don't know the answer, maybe it has as many human performance elements as all the other shows.

[TazTarney]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 7:18pm

One of the things I love about Ka is there is an actual storyline. There aren't any random acts, the whole show fits together. That being said, the performers are amazing at what they do but the real star of the show is the stage.

[haterobics]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 7:21pm

I usually find Cirque storylines to be a bit blah, I usually prefer the ones where they are just like dropping acid for sober people.

[TazTarney]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 7:30pm

Oh well then you would love Zarkana. What problems did you have with Viva Elvis? just wondering. It looked like a cool show even though I thought Elvis's music isn't universally loved enough to create an entire to show to run for 10 years on.

[haterobics]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 7:54pm

It was a mess from a story perspective, and a mess from an Elvis perspective. Like one of the break out stunts was superheroes doing a trampoline schtick that has been in other shows. And the connection was that Elvis likes comic books?! Umm, this is Elvis, and we can't think of anything more interesting to tie it to than his love of comic books.

Plus, they had a big wooden guitar suspended above the stage that two guys did an elaborate choreography on and around. It wasn't the best stunt, but then the point was that it showed Elvis missing his twin brother that died early/at birth or somesuch. Again, just the moments they chose to dramatize were so weird, plus rehashed or done better in other shows.

They also had a narrator who came out and told us historical stuff between scenes, as though there was a story... but then the story jumped around all over the place, and then it would be a long time with the narrator not saying anything.

They also had people in the cast singing Elvis songs as solos/cast, which is nice, but clearly a lesson they could have learned from Love, who had the good sense to use the Beatles singing their own songs.

Just a meandering, odd mess of a show.

A proper Elvis show would play FOREVER in Vegas, since Elvis and Vegas are connected, since he played there for so long, and was a huge draw there. That's why every show you go to in Vegas has an Elvis impersonator, why you can have Elvis marry you in Vegas, why the Flying Elvises did their parchute jumps in Vegas, etc.

[FishermanBob]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 8:02pm

"KA is the most gigantic show I have ever seen. I got to go on a backstage tour and it really is amazing how they do that show 10 times a week without a hitch."

If you don't consider it a "hitch" when a cable snapped and an acrobat in KA fell off the platform to her death last June, then yes they do it without a hitch.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 8:06pm

I think Vegas audiences have pretty low standards in terms of musical theater entertainment. I mean, no one come to Vegas just to see a show.... Am I wrong?

[haterobics]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 8:09pm

A lot of people only go for the shows, but that isn't the focus of the casinos. That is the bait they use to get us to gamble. I don't know what % of the house would be people who came for the show, vs. people who were in vegas and figured they should see a show.

It was perpetually annoying that no Vegas show runs longer than 90 minutes, so we can get back out and gamble. They would charge crazy prices for Bette, Cher, and all these names, but 90 minutes on the dot and they would always be done. Whereas on her previous tour, Bette would go nearly 2.5 hours.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 8:12pm

So, will a show like Spiderman be successful there?

[haterobics]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 8:13pm

Keep in mind, though, when I lived in San Francisco, I could sometimes get round-trip airfare for around $50 on a sale, casino hotel rooms can often be had for cheap, and the shows have discounted tickets, so you could do an overnight trip, see two shows the first day, one show the second day, and then catch the late flight home, and keep it under $250 (if you didn't gamble or get spa treatments).

[haterobics]

Posted: 6/29/14 at 8:17pm

"So, will a show like Spiderman be successful there?"

It would be a quick 90-minute show, so that will trim a lot of the fat from the show, but spectacle plays big there. The question is whether it will be in a weird middle ground, like it's not a great musical so would theater people rather see Phantom or Avenue Q or whatever else is playing, and people looking for spectacle would probably rather see Cirque than a guy flying kind of the same way over the crowd repeatedly.

On Broadway, a guy flying around the theater and doing aerial stunts was unique. In Vegas, that's kind of normal.

But maybe that will be the tiebreaker for couples torn between what kind of show to see, this has a bit of both? Plus, Spiderman is still a strong brand. Stranger things have happened....