Believe (or don't)

My best friend, Crystal, and I went to see the new Vegas Cirque du Soleil show last night. I had bought the tickets for her birthday. I was excited to see the show and had to wait two weeks after getting here to go see it.
If you know anything about me, then you know that I am a HUGE Cirque du Soleil fan. This is the 8th show that I've seen. I have been on a mission to see as many Cirque du Soleil shows as possible since I saw my very first one in 2005. If you ever get the chance you should go see one of their shows. They are amazing. You can check them out on their website here.
When I had to choose a Cirque show to go to in Vegas (there are 6 to choose from), I choose the Criss Angel Believe show because I wasnt sure how long this show would last considering that it is a partnering of Cirque du Soleil with Criss Angel. So, I wanted to see it while it was still around. I didnt really know a whole lot about Criss Angel before going to this show, except that he was a magician (illusionist) and that he was supposed to be pretty amazing.
Even though I got the the tickets on a discount (buy one ticket and bring a friend for $25), they were still about $190 for two. If I would have read the reviews, I may not have spent that much on these tickets. The clowns were about the best part of the show. I wish I would have bought tickets to Ka or Mystere instead. It would have been a better show, although, I'm glad I did see this show because after reading the reviews and seeing the show, it's clear that it WONT be around much longer.
Just like all Cirque du Soleil shows, it started out with the clowns walking around the audience and messing with them. The clowns were funny, as usual, which is a good things because the show pretty much went downhill from there. Then Criss Angel came out and began doing the whole 'look at me, I'm a celebrity' thing. He was getting the crowd all wound up and basically just stroking his own ego.The costumes and the stage were amazing. As was the dancing. But that's about it. There were no classic Cirque du Soleil circus acts. It was just all dancing. Good dancing, but just dancing. No acrobats, no trapeze artists, no jugglers, no crazy stunts, nothing but dancing and Criss Angel's ridiculously predictable illusions. And many of the things that are in the program and on the website trailers didnt even happen. Like the character, Crimson...she never wore the costume below.And then there was the story line that was kind of sketchy. But basically went like this....Evil lady falls in love with Criss and gets jealous when he flirts with a pretty audience member. Then she messes up one of his "magic" tricks involving electricity and he gets hurt. The rest of the show is basically a crazy dream/nightmare that takes place while he is unconscious. There are some illusions built in to the show performed by Criss, but they were all obvious and predictable and not very well done. Most of them were based on trap doors in the stage and body doubles. They didnt even look convincing at all. Once again, the costume above was never worn in the show.He did a illusion with pigeons that was cool and he did a thing where he walked down a curtain. Those were the only illusions that even looked remotely convincing. I think many people came to the show thinking it was going to be like his MindFreaks show. It wasnt. Those fans were disappointed.
Other fans, like me, came to see a Cirque du Soleil show and, they too, were disappointed. It was not. The costumes and stage (scenery) were up to Cirque du Soleil calibre, but the rest of the show was just dancing. Great dancing, but just dancing. These doll characters were cool and there movements like marionettes were well choreographed. They were my favorite characters.
At some point in the show, Criss falls in love with this woman and they are married. But the evil lady murders her and then cuts Criss in half among various things. It was all extremely dark and absurd.When reading the reviews of all of the shows in Vegas, all of the Cirque du Soleil shows got A ratings, except for the Criss Angel show...it received a C+. I think that + was a bit generous, maybe a - would have been a bit more like it. Below is an example of another costume/character that was not actually even in the show.
All in all, by combining the two entities, each overshadowed the other to their own detriment. It was neither a Criss Angel show, nor was it really a Cirque du Soleil show. There was no uncontrollable clapping at the end of the show, nor was there an excited buzz while leaving the theatre as one would expect from the audience leaving a show that they really enjoyed. I feel kind of bad for Criss Angel, this show may be ruining him. All of the reviews online are terrible. One thing that I did enjoy was going back into one of my favorite casinos, the Luxor. Growing up, I thought the Luxor was the coolest thing that had been built on the strip yet. And it was, then.

Well, Crystal and I had a great time even if the show was a bit of a disappointment. I wouldnt recommend the Criss Angel Believe show. If you're coming to Vegas and want to see a Cirque du Soleil show, go see any of the other shows....Ka, O, Mystere, Zumanity, or Beatles Love.