South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
‘Magic Mike’
Even Steven Soderbergh, who helmed the first movie and now the third “Last Dance,” is involved with his Singani 63, a spirit created and distilled by the Oscar-winning director being featured in specialty cocktails themed around the show. (Soderbergh is also a producer of the show.)
In addition to several bars at the indoor-outdoor space, The Arcadia also houses Wildfire, a pop-up restaurant in a partnership with Miami’s Meat N’ Bone for an open-air dining concept.
Specifics aren’t set yet, but the plan is to have this new production tour throughout major cities in North America including New York, Chicago, Dallas and Toronto.
Below, learn more about “Magic Mike Live: The Tour” from a question-and-answer session with executive producer Vincent Marini.
Q: Why was South Florida chosen as the first place to launch this new tour?
A: I think we chose Miami because we just felt like the population, both local and tourist, was diverse — sort of vibrant enough that it would be the perfect place to generate the kind of excitement and buzz around the tour that we need to sustain it for the present, for the future. But it really came down to just the ... unique nature of the city. You know, the unique nature of just how alive and vibrant it is.
Q: Can you describe what people will see as they enter The Arcadia?
A: You walk down these landscaped pathways and if you’re going to the restaurant, it’s adjacent to
the venue, so you literally go into our new Wildfire restaurant, which has a menu that was specifically curated for our guests. You hang out there, you have a great meal, and then you continue on to the venue outside. You’re in this sort of beautiful landscaped garden area with festoon lights and fire pits and drinks available for everybody ... You come into the lobby — and when I say lobby, it’s sort of a misnomer — it’s almost like a giant lounge that has seating and a beautiful full bar and photo opportunities and all of that cool stuff.
Q: What about the space where the show is actually staged?
A: I would say that’s the moment that most people, they just stop, because I don’t think that anybody’s ever seen anything quite like it. I certainly haven’t in all my years of touring and doing shows. It’s basically this gorgeous in-theround venue where you have a three-story bar in front of you [and] a stage in the middle. You’re sitting on couches, and at cabaret tables, and on easy chairs and at the bar — all this mix seating arrangement. All around you is all of this incredible technology, but it’s delivered in a way that feels personal and very intimate despite the grandeur of the room. So you watch the show and, while you’re watching the show, you have this fully curated drink service with drinks that you can order to match the numbers in the show. It’s just a really special and unique experience.
Q: What about the show itself? It sounds like a full-on production.
A: I think a really good way for people to think about it is like the difference between ... an old-fashioned circus with elephants and stuff and Cirque du
Soleil. Like that literally is the difference. So when you come in, it is this really fun hybrid of an immersive theater experience and hysterical comedy and also one of the most exciting sexy dance and acrobatic shows you’ve ever seen ... For example, during one part of the show, it actually rains in the structure. During another part of the show, you have this massive drum kit that flies in from the ceiling and that seems like it comes from nowhere. In other parts of the show, you have pianos that are moving out towards the audience and staircases full of performers.
Q: And what about the cast?
A: Whether you’re male or female, it doesn’t matter. If you’re a guy and you happen to be straight, you’re basically going to be wowed by the physicality of what these male and female dancers can do. And if you’re female, you’re going
to be not just wowed by that, but also you’re going to be incredibly inspired by just how beautiful and how incredibly talented and attractive these guys are. So it’s sort of like a really cool combination for basically anybody that comes in. We have a very diverse cast, too. So I think when you think of a male revue, you think of a bunch of guys in a line that are all the same. That is the opposite of what this show is. We have performers from all over the world, from Europe, from Australia, from New Zealand, from America.
Q: How will you evoke the movies into this stage show?
A: I think a lot of the dancing and a lot of the dance moves that Channing did ... you will recognize very quickly ... They just finished shooting a third film and that third film is going to be released during our run right here in Miami. So one of the fun things is that
there are a lot of crossover elements between what people are going to see here and in the third film. One of the good things about the show is they didn’t just take the films and put them onstage. Instead, they did something that is sort of an evolution of a lot of the ideas, especially in the second movie, and they’d created sort of a new piece of art, and I think that people that come to see it that love the movies are going to feel like, “Oh my God, it’s almost like I just got a third movie.”
Q: How perfect is it that Soderbergh has a spirits brand and this project has several bars?
A: He has been incredible ... We started working with Steven’s team to not just have a cocktail program, but to find a way to make the cocktail program an integral part of the show. So certain numbers in the show are combined and curated with specific cocktails. If you buy one of our ultra seats, for example, which are sort of front-row couch seats, you literally get a cocktail that’s made for that moment in the show ... And because of the flexibility of Singani 63, it is really wonderfully paired with so many different other kinds of spirits. We have these really unique cocktails that taste amazing but also help sort of highlight specific moments throughout the show.
Q: What made you choose the site next to the Miami Marine Stadium?
A: We needed a space that was big enough to be able to house the football-fieldsized ... site. It has the main tent structure, which we created in Belgium a few years ago from scratch. It’s literally a custom-built sort of venue that has literally the production value that you would normally see in a massive Broadway show or in a mini arena ... But then the other part of it is we wanted a great view of the city ... So it’s kind of the perfect place because it has the size that we need, but it also has the views and the feeling, like at night when you’re sitting here on the deck and watching the sunset. It gets a perfect setting for the show.
IF YOU GO
What: “Magic Mike Live: The Tour”
When: Oct. 13, 2022-April 9,
2023
Where: The Arcadia venue tent is located beside the Miami Marine Stadium, 3501 Rickenbacker Causeway
Cost: $49-$499
Information:
To order tickets, call 7 0 2 6 2 3 -3 6 5 0 , email Support@ mmlworldwide.com or go to MMLtour.com.
For reservations at Wildfire, call 7 8 6 -5 4 4 2 6 2 4 , email info@ wildfiremiami.com or go to MMLtour.com/restaurant.