House of the Purple Worms: First Evening in Las Vegas

So you have seen our hotel room and some of the random sights and I thought I should tell a little bit about our trip. Our purpose was a family reunion kind of thing where three sisters and their Mom could get together for a trip to see the city lights. Don and I headed out towards the location of our first show: Cirque De Soleil's Love - a loose adaptation of the Beatles story. Onthe way we passed the Brooklyn Bridge at New York, New York.

And this is a fountain in front of Ceasar's.

We ate dinner at BLT Burger in The Mirage. The food was very good. I had a Tandoori style burger and Don had a Kobe beef burger.

The exterior of the Theater was very "mod".

Since we aren't allowed to take pictures inside the theater, I have posted images in no particular order that can be found on the web (linked through other people's websites.) The story is very loose. It starts with Seargent Pepperteaching the band to play long ago

...and then the war comes and the band can no longer play. Liverpool is dramatically destroyed. (In one of the best segments of the performance.) Styrofoam buildings are burst into rubble under red light while Eleanor Rigby walks determinedly around town.

We see young Beatles growing up and then the times change to the Hamburg club years.

Time shifts to the mod years of the sixties and the white VW shows up along with women in mini-dresses.

For me the story began to disintegrate, but we have wonderful circus performance to the tunes of Beatles songs. The theater is in the round and four screens go u and down dividing the space and frequently showing the images of the real Beatles.

The Revolution number is also wonderful showing trampoline action across a London phone booth.

Here's the young Beatles in bed.

There is lots of umbrella imagery in the performance to give the mood of London.

The VW bug in the show has at least three carnations including the one below:

At the end of the show they explode it. The VW seems to drive on stage and then be taken apart by Cirque members carrying pieces.

The show is an amazing spectacle and I kept finding myself exclaiming Wow! and thinking that there couldn't be any more surprises.

The show climaxes with the Song "All You Need is Love." It is emotionally laden and everyone leaves uplifted and feeling good!

Here is our view leaving the Mirage. We had to head over to the Bellagio for our second show of the evening. O.

Each time we saw an interesting bathroom I took a picture.

I can't remember if this was The Mirage or The Bellagio, but it had lovely botanical and hummingbird prints.

The Bellagio had gorgeous Chihuly glasswork everywhere. This is the lobby with the huge Chihuly ceiling.

Here is a closer look.

There is also an enchanted forest section of the hotel with large human-made plants that are animated. There are large Venus Fly-Traps and other plants that move.

This tree opens and closes its eyes. Other than this section of the hotel, the Bellagio is very classy and elegant.

They have their autumn decorations up.

Of course the main reason for the visit was to see the Cirque de Soleil, but there was an exhibit of work by Richard Mac Donald who has done a series of Cirque acrobats.

The gallery was tended and perhaps owned by a lovely man named Albert, who was eager to sell you any sculpture you particularly liked.

Please do consider going to the website and purchasing one. You can find out more information here: http://www.richardmacdonald.com/

His style is quite realist or even naturalist, but there is a touch of Pre-Raphaelite to the work, perhaps because the jugglers and acrobats seem so medieval and timeless somehow.

Here are a few of the pieces.

The exhibit is right in front of the theater.

My photos don't really do the pieces justice.

The sculptures do fill the space in front of the theater very nicely.

Here is a nicer shot from the actual website.

O is an interesting show. I have to confess I was very tired by this time, so I don't know if it was the show or my ability to comprehend that was disjointed. I suspect a little of both. It is a show that takes place primarily in a huge tank of water. (It took three years of practice to bring it together and the water temperature is kept at a temperate 88 degrees.)

The theater was designed specifically for the show and has (I think some 150 technicians (more than the 80 performers that one actually sees in front of one.)) Everybody is trained in Scuba diving and a large number of technicians are under water during the entire show making sure that all the scene changes and equipment perform correctly.

The show opens with an aerial ballet that takes place all over the upper section of the theater.

The performance seems to be controlled by these gentlemen from the 18th century. There is a huge event on a sailing ship armature with one of these red-coat clad gentleman along performing.

The make-up was dissolving because of the chlorine in the water and they had to design special make-up for the performances. The costumes had to be replaced after about 10 performances for the same reason and some cost something like $10,000 of dollars each.

There is a water ballet with acrobatics done by these "dark-eyed" beauties.

I think this is from the curtain call at the end, but it shows some of the inventive and stunning costumes.

Everyone we spoke to thought this was the best of all the Cirque shows in Las Vegas.

You can click on any of these images to go to the original websites and blogs that they come from.

I seem to enjoy the contortionists more than anything else. I just can't believe flesh and muscles can do some of the things that they do!

I was really looking forward to these guys, because they feature so prominently in the advertising, but aside from acrobatics in an armature and a little swimming- they weren't as impressive as many of the other acts. I think they could have done some wonderful things with the shapes of the bodies and the lines of the costumes.