‘Ka’ completes Cirque’s return to Strip
THE Final Battle carried new meaning, for a show that spent 19 months fighting back to the stage.
“Ka” returned Wednesday night at the MGM Grand. Cirque du Soleil’s most lavish production, with a $165 million outlay and 300 cast members. The production checks Cirque’s final box among shows returning to the Strip from the company’s long Covid-forced pause.
Importantly, some 1,250 Cirque employees are back to work in Las Vegas.
Cirque du Soleil Senior Vice President Eric Grilly took his position with the company about four months before the universal entertainment shutdown in March 2020. He has seen all five Cirque shows come back, with “Mystere” at Treasure Island, “O” at the Bellagio, “MJ One” at Mandalay Bay and “Love” at The Mirage, in that order, preceding “Ka” to the stage.
The MGM Grand spectacle, which opened in February 2005, was held because the grandiose production carried large-scale challenges. The show was planned to reopen in October, then nudged back to Thanksgiving weekend.
“It’s a massive theater, with a very large cast and a very large technical crew needed to operate it,” Grilly said before Wednesday’s relaunch. “We added an additional couple weeks of rehearsal, time to factor in that. … We had to replace a number of technicians, given the timing of the show, as well as a number of artists. But even with integration of that many people, you’re going to see a beautiful show.”
As has been evident in all of Cirque’s returns, the company spent the shutdown remaining sharp. The show delighted the packed house in the 1,950-seat theater. The show returned such signature elements as the Wheel of Death, attacks on the stage by archers and spearmen, the bumbling Valets clown characters and the Imperial Guard martial artists.
The show’s two stage decks are back in the show, including its Sand Cliff Deck, which rotates 360 degrees and tilts toward the crowd to allow video projection.
“There are a handful of new artists that have been added to the show, but no material changes have been made,” Grilly said. “The show did get a bit of a refresh in 2019. It is in beautiful shape.” The full-house, standing ovation served as “Ka’s” exclamation mark.
Box office acrobatics
As has been the case for Cirque since it reopened “Mystere” on June 28 and “O” on July 1, the cast and crew are required to be vaccinated, and nonverbal performers are in face covers. The theater staff wields “Masks Up” signs as readily as performers brandish their crossbows, as audience members are required to wear face masks when not “actively” eating or drinking.
The result, not just for Cirque but for several production shows, has been a dip in attendance after the original burst from “Mystere” and “O” reopening, when those shows were selling out nearly every performance through July and into August.
Producers have pointed to the masking concerns as a leading reason for the drop in numbers, in some cases up to a 40 percent slide since indoor mask mandates returned in late July.
“It was unbelievable to be nearly 100 percent sold out for ‘O’ and ‘Mystere’ through the summer, then we saw the traditional seasonal drop we’ve seen right around Labor Day,” Grilly said. “We had a lot more families here than in years past, and we can see a dip due to the fact that they returned home to get their kids back in school.”
Grilly says business has rebounded, like a Cirque acrobat in a bungee harness.
“We’re having a fantastic November across all shows,” he said. “Every show will be at, or above, pre-pandemic levels.”
What is next
“Zumanity” was the Cirque show that did not survive pandemic, shut down permanently in November 2020. Cirque has since been developing a new show and refreshing the former Zumanity Theater. Aside from a limited engagement from ventriloquial ace Terry Fator and a one-off from the drag show “Bianca del Rio,” the venue has been latent.
The show will carry a New York-fashioned theme. It will probably open in the second quarter, or spring, of 2022.
The production will different from the extravaganzas that have been a Cirque trademark since “Mystere” opened in 1993. The theater, though gorgeous in Cirque’s tradition on the Strip, is long overdue for a makeover.
“We’re going to introduce things that you’ve not seen as a Cirque show before,” Grilly said. “The theater is 19 years old, right? So obviously, it needs to be updated. There’s been a lot of advancements in technology in terms of sound, lighting, projection mapping that we’ll be able to take advantage of and we’ve used across our other shows.”
The company that seemed all but finished in the spring of 2020 has bounced back, expertly.