‘Viva Elvis’: It’s here and …

… it’s one giant, steaming heap of merde. Cirque du Soleil is clearly just doing this one for the bread and it shows. Desert Companion Editor Andrew Kiraly‘s baneful summation of Cirque’s oeuvre as “arid pretension” never seemed more appropriate. Congratulations, CityCenter, you now have the theatrical counterpart to Crystals: pompous, overpriced, dysfunctional and largely empty. MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren is to be congratulated for sticking with The Lion King when Cirque coveted the Mandalay Bay showroom. Now, if only he’d go one step farther and rethink MGM’s exclusive “content provider” relationship with his clown-shoed business partners from Montreal.

More interesting than the show itself is the degree of veto power that Priscilla Presley exercised over the stage presentation. At least there are no contortionists in Viva Elvis. I seriously doubt the Widow Presley would have been down with that staple of Cirque grotesquerie and for that I am thankful.

P.S.: The after-party was terrific, not only in terms of the food but the very imaginative set spun by the DJs (including a Shirley Bassey cover of The Doors‘ “Light My Fire” that made it sound like the ultimate James Bond title track). Celeb-spotters could at least console themselves with the sight of Andrew Dice Clay eschewing a VIP booth in favor of the hoi polloi on the dance floor. Aria should present the after-party twice nightly and scrap Viva Elvis.

P.P.S.: Barring proof to the contrary, I’m calling B.S. on the “tripped an alarm” story for why the opening number of Viva Elvis ground to an ignominious halt. Something was clearly amiss during the song — it later turned out that the ginormous blue suede shoe missed its cue — and then the sound system abruptly cut out, while a suddenly enfeebled band played on a bit more. That there was some huge snafu was obvious but the official explanation didn’t jibe with what we heard and saw.