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O Cirque du Soleil |
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Freelance writer David Hofstede has covered Las Vegas for 20 years, chronicling it’s attributes and excesses. He's a contributor to the America Online CityGuide Las Vegas website and to books about Las Vegas. Here he names the five spots no visitor should miss Click to view Top 5 Las Vegas.
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Best Show (O - Cirque du Soliel) |
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 It’s not true that O is short for “O wow, I can’t believe what I just saw.” But that’s the reaction audiences have experienced en masse since the Cirque du Soleil production opened at the Bellagio in 1998. If you can do only one show, make sure it's this one.
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If you’re not on your feet at the final curtain, give up on live theater now because nothing is ever going to impress you.
An international cast of 81 artists perform in, on and above water (“O” is a play on “eau,” the French word for H2O). The stage transforms as if by magic from a solid surface to a deep pool where swimmers, divers and acrobats appear and disappear beneath the waves. O uses every inch of space surrounding its proscenium stage, from the bottom of the 25-foot deep pool to the top of the theater, a vertical span of nine stories.
The staging is a technological marvel, a result of three years of study and testing. Transitions between set pieces happen almost invisibly. One minute, two clowns are perched on the roof of a cottage half-submerged in water; the next, animals roam across an African plain, while above a French bateau sails into sight, carrying a troupe of acrobats and trapeze artists performing a series of death-defying feats.
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 What’s it about? Who knows? Writer-director Franco Dragone’s concept strives to be both whimsical and profound, but any attempt to describe the indescribable always loses something in the translation. Suffice to say that in its best moments, O illustrates what can be achieved when no limits are placed on talent, budget and imagination. The ticket price is high but the show still sells out every night, so be sure to buy tickets in advance.
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