Wade Robson, Cirque du Soleil & Criss Angel

What do all three of these have in common? The new Criss Angel Believe show in Las Vegas at the Luxor. I was there and was lucky to get to watch from the front row recently and here’s my review.

First of all ladies, it wasn’t hard to watch Criss Angel from just a few feet away when he had his shirt off.

He’s always a fabulous illusionist so the show gives him a way to showcase some of his more spectacular illusions. But it’s not all Criss and his magic, even though that by itself would be a wonderful show.

It also brings in the most incredible Cirque du Soleil performers and they do their amazing acrobatics in mid-air, as well as all over the stage between dances and illusions. The costumes are just as incredible as any other Cirque show, so you know it will be dazzling to watch.

But then there’s the third aspect of Believe that I think you dance fans will be as interested, if not more interested in hearing about. It’s the fact that the dance routines have been choreographed by one of my personal favorite chorographers, Wade Robson. And yes, the dance totally lived up to my expectations of Wade Robson work. Spectacular!!

If you watched last season of So You Think You Can Dance, there was a performance one of the dance numbers from Believe. The piece is entitled Homage to the Rabbits. Here’s the version that aired on the show:

Now you can tell that I watched that dance routine over and over with my TiVo dozens of times even before I knew I would be going to Las Vegas. The way you can tell that is that I recognized slight differences in the version that they performed live. For example, the rabbit-sized coffin with the rabbit ears was not in the live show. It was a supposedly dead rabbit instead. There were other slight differences, but just like this one, none of them detracted from my enjoyment even a tiny bit.

This show is different from other Cirque shows, for example “O” which I saw the very next night from the second row, in that it had a specific star and incorporated the dance numbers and the cirque elements as clever ways to transition from one of Criss’s illusions to the next. It all flowed seamlessly and the time flew by so fast I wanted to stay in the seat and see it all again!

Here’s the official Cirque highlights clip:

The main reason I wanted in the front row was to see if I could spot any wires, etc. that were there to help Criss levitate, or other tell-tale clues to how things were done. Even when he levitated from the back of a curtain and walked down the front, there were no wires to be seen. I absolutely could not see how he did it! He’s amazing!

So if you will be in Las Vegas any time in the next 10 years (that’s how long he’s under contract for the show there) be sure to go to the Luxor and see Criss Angel Believe. It’s a show for everyone. And don’t be late for the show…in fact, you should be early. Like all Cirque du Soleil shows, the show begins before the show begins. Cirque performers come into the crowd and do comedy bits while the audience is being seated. The earlier you get there, the more show you get to enjoy. This one is a definite winner in my book!