Note: This review is by Kirk, but Watermark’s Jamie Hyman also saw the show’s opening night and will occasionally interject via itallicized notes. If you saw the show, feel free to add your own notes at the end!
When it comes to entertainment pow and pizzaz these days you can't get more bang for your buck than a production staged by the French-Canadian troupe Cirque du Soleil. The group is responsible for rejuvenating the concept of the travelling circus to the delight of many, most notably the folks at PETA, since Cirque shows are always animal-free. In recent years they've built permanent homes for many of their shows; Las Vegas is home to several productions, and one of their best shows, â┚¬Å”La Nouba,â┚¬Â is right here in Central Florida at Walt Disney World. Midway through last Sunday's Oscars show CdS also presented a highly energetic and artistic tribute to the world of motion pictures.
Cirque's biggest and most extravagant travelling show to date played the Amway Center last night for the first of a two-night nearly-sold out run in Orlando. â┚¬Å”Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tourâ┚¬Â is an ambitious two-hour-plus homage to one of the greatest musical artists of the last century. The show's producers were given unprecedented access to Jackson's music, and have created an amazing aural palette. (The Cirque folks have previously done the same with both the Beatles' and Elvis Presley's catalogs for two Vegas-based productions.) The mini-mega-mixes and mash-ups of Jackson's tunes breathe new life into Mike's well-known classics as well as some of his lesser-known album tracks. Among the soundtrack's highlights are a tribalized â┚¬Å”Wanna Be Startin' Somethingâ┚¬Â and a hard rocking mash-up of â┚¬Å”Beat Itâ┚¬Â and â┚¬Å”â┚¬ÂÂState of Shock.â┚¬ÂÂ
While Jackson's music has stood the test of time, Cirque's MJ show likely will not; frankly, it's one of the most disappointing Cirque du Soleil experiences to date. Some of that could be attributed to the show's audience â┚¬â€œ and more on them in a minute â┚¬â€œ but missing from â┚¬Å”Immortalâ┚¬Â is a lot of what usually makes Cirque shows so great: the seamless combination of art and unique daredevil feats of human skill. [On that note, the opening act was one of my favorites with artists stunting on a video projection of a brick wall that responded in interesting and surprising ways to the actions of the aerialists. It gave me high hopes for the rest of the show! –Jamie]
For example, WDW's â┚¬Å”La Noubaâ┚¬Â offers contortionists, gymnastics, bicyclists, a high-wire act, aerialists, trapeze artists, and an adorable set of child jugglers. â┚¬Å”Immortalâ┚¬Â relies too much on having its cast suspended from ropes and/or wires, either soaring out over the crowd or being pulled straight up over the stage before descending again. One second act number featured three artists being repeatedly raised and lowered to the stage while a video montage played on the large screens behind them. While it's an impressive stunt after the first few ups-and-downs, having a trio strike-a-pose-on-a-rope quickly becomes redundant when it's the only live human visual presented for an entire song. [This was during Scream, one of my favorite Jackson tunes. I was SO BORED. I was also disappointed to suddenly realize their treatment of Jackson’s Motown phase – definitely my favorite MJ music – was nothing more than a really enthusiastic lip-sync with fun costumes. I mean… it was nice, but I can get that at Parliament House, you know?]
Overall â┚¬Å”Immortalâ┚¬Â relies far too much on Jackson's music videos for the show's foundation. And while a live band was present, it was difficult to tell exactly what music they were playing (let along why they were there in the first place) since the show is centered on Jackson's incredibly well-known recordings. [I also wondered what was the point of the band.] The band's presence gave the impression that â┚¬Å”Immortalâ┚¬Â was a live concert, but considering Michael Jackson's death was nearly three years ago certainly no one in attendance should have expected the legend to actually appear, let alone sing, live.
Still, that didn't stop at least some audience members to respond as if the singer was indeed alive and present in the Amway Center Tuesday night. â┚¬Å”C'mon, enough of the slow stuff; let's rock MJ!â┚¬Â shouted one man as if MJ himself had any input on the show's direction â┚¬â€œ last night, or ever. [I also heard a, “I love you Michael!” and thought, “Hmm. Not so sure he can hear you, lady.”]
If he had, Jackson likely would never have allowed one of his most passionate and powerful anthems, â┚¬Å”Earth Song,â┚¬Â to be reduced to the mediocrity presented Tuesday night. Here, yet another video montage played while a half-dozen or so dancers jumped, leaped, and walked in a circle at center stage. Not to diminish the skills of the show's fine dancers, but Cirque's less-than-creative presentation of Jackson's hard-hitting save-the-planet song came across as nothing less than filler. The same can also be said of the aforementioned leap-fest as well as â┚¬Å”â┚¬ÂÂWill You Be There.â┚¬Â In that number several members of the Cirque troupe first appeared in the audience holding glowing red hearts, before joining their cast mates on stage (also heart-handed). The group then raised and lowered the electronic devices in unison while marching about, and then exited the stage. Cirque du Soleil â┚¬â€œ and Jackson's music â┚¬â€œ is far too creative to deserve such a lazy production treatment.
Clearly â┚¬Å”Immortalâ┚¬Â is the closest anyone will ever get to attending a Michael Jackson concert since his passing. That's probably what has made the show such a success as it has played to sold-out arenas across the country. Seeing well-trained dancers recreate Jackson's infamous moves live on stage is indeed entertaining. [Yes! But it is not a CIRCUS.] But for the not-so-stupid human tricks and everything else that Cirque du Soleil is known for, and does incredibly well, there's far too little of that in this latest stage creation, especially for the ticket prices charged. [The clear highlight was the aerial dancing duo, first act post-intermission.]
As an example, just a few months ago a ticket to Britney Spears' â┚¬Å”Femme Fataleâ┚¬Â tour cost only a third of what the Cirque folks charged for a seat in roughly the same section of the Amway Center. Granted, Britney actually sang about the same amount live that Michael did Tuesday night, but at least she was there. While no one expects Cirque to tour MJ's post-mortem corpse around Evita Perrone-style, Jackson's creativity should be honored with more than having dancers recreate his signature dances while video remixes of the original are projected in the backgroundâ┚¬Â¦especially when the honoring is put in Cirque du Soleil's more than capable hands.
But when Cirque du Soleil can get an audience to erupt into wild applause when nothing but a few memorable moments from Jackson's epic â┚¬Å”Thrillerâ┚¬Â video are shown â┚¬â€œ no dancers, no lighting or other special effects, nary a single aerialist â┚¬â€œ is there really any reason for the show's designers to try any harder?
