Day 2 in Vegas
The next day we had to try and figure out how to pick up our tickets for the evenings' performances, but that meant we got out and ran around on the strip a bit. This bronze lion was kind of cool (but it was kept in a glass case.)
And what is Vegas without show girls?
Vegas is also famous for this.
We picked up our Zumanity tickets inside New York, New York. The interior looks like the streets of different areas in that city.
They have this cool magic shop called Houdini's there too.
Here are the slots in New York, New York - the townscape is around it on the edges.
I was really, really excited about seeing Ka. It was performed at the MGM Grand which was very close to our hotel. We had a wonderful dinner at The Grand Wok. It wasn't really a Japanese restaurant, but they did have some delicious Sushi. We had a Sashimi tasting that was marvelous too.
There are always interesting people walking around in the Casinos.
Here is a second look.
Each Casino has its own look.
(As do their bathrooms)
The set for Ka was amazing. When you enter there are huge flashes of fire coming from a hole where the stage should be and an incredible metal city that looks like it comes from the film Metropolis surrounds the stage. (Be sure to click on the image below so you can see the whole picture.
The first characters we meet are the villains. This Grand Vizier type guy in yellow misleads the ruler of his kingdom abetted by this sorcerer type guy in black.
The basic story tells of a royal sister and brother in a different kingdom who are beset by goons from the kingdom above and abducted.
The children get separated and go on amazing adventures. The Cirque scenery is amazing and a huge metal platform is elevated and turned and set up perpendicularly to form a stage for all the various adventures.
The sister winds up on a ship that is tossed about the ocean.
The sister is cast adrift and eventually ends up on an island with strange sea creatures that wriggle up from hills of sand.
The crab creatures are particularly well done!
She will travel through a variety of magical places including an underwater world and meet with a handsome prince.
The brother is captured by the evil magician and Grand Vizier who have discovered a way to transform a rock into a powerful explosive by virtue of this complex wheeled machine.
The wheel of death is operated by captives who must run on it hamster-like to drive the machinery.
The brother and sister meet up and are pursued and the stage is transformed into a mountainous wall. Shot at with arrows there is an amazing struggle on the tall vertical surface. This poster for the show gives the effect of the set.
The show ends with a spectacular pyrotechnic display.
Ka was by far my favorite Cirque show that we saw while in Vegas. The story was sweet and coherent and the showmanship was amazing. The magnitude of the set manipulation was absolutely awesome in the original sense of the word.
Of course in our quest to see every Cirque show in Las Vegas we had to immediately head back to the Luxor so we could catch Criss Angel in Believe. This show has gotten really mixed reviews, but we had seen the Homage to Rabbits Killed by Magicians on So You Think You Can Dance and we were curious whether we would like it or not.
The stage was lovely.
We went through a security gate and were told not to take pictures or our cameras would be taken away from us, so I guess that has scared other people on the net - for there are many fewer pictures available to show you what this show felt like. I will comment on a few publicity stills that are out there and linked into the blog. There is a story line of sorts (I think I could have done without it or at least without the merging of reality and fantasy. )
He is a magician who performs daring feats and whose jealous photographer assistant allows him to be jolted with enormous amounts of electricity from a Tesla coil. Criss is declared dead but enters a fantasy world in which rabbits mourn the loss of their bretheren at the hands of magicians...
and dolls live. I was a bit disappointed since the TV show had 14 rabbits and we only got nine. The rabbit costumes are eerie and just marvelous.
The evil assistant, Crimson, still stalks him in the fantasy world.
but eventually he is cut in half and disappears. Here are a few more publicity photos of and from the show.
As with other Cirque shows ther are also clowns. Here we see the Maestro and his cronies.
The magic was good, but it did not (for me) hang together well with the story and the clowns. I would have liked more magic and more dance and less concern for stories and definitely less clown stuff.
It was another great evening in Vegas!
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