Hans Zimmer, Blue Man Group join Cirque’s ‘One Night’ show
The “One Night For One Drop” show shows off Cirque artist’s capacity to raise themselves artistically, and raise awareness for a vital cause.
They also get to frolic in the water.
Cast members from this year’s “One Night” show unveiled a five-minute scene from the show on Monday afternoon where it all started in 2013, O Theatre at Bellagio. The scene, titled “Fisherman,” showed the artistic connection between a man and his catch and shows the artists diving and performing synchronized singing elements. It is a scene in the one-off performance set for 7:30 p.m. March 8 (tickets are on sale at onedrop.org/onenight).
The story follows an Everyman character, played by Cirque artist Michael Duffy (who was a main character in “Zarkana”), being led on a spiritual awakening through watery scenes by a little girl named Drop (7-year-old dance sensation Sabine Nehls). The show features 137 performers primarily from Cirque’s six Las Vegas shows, but several artists outside the Cirque family have also joined.
What we learned, about “One Night” and about Cirque elsewhere, during the pop-in:
Hans is in
The acclaimed Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer is performing three original pieces in the show. Zimmer has won an Oscar for Best Original Score for “The Lion King,” and also created the music for the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series, “Interstellar,” “Gladiator,” “Inception,” “Dunkirk,” and “The Dark Knight Trilogy.”
André Kasten and Leah Moyer, the show’s co-writers and directors, have been using Zimmer’s compositions as inspiration in developing music for their own scenes. Thus, they were thrilled to have him in the pool.
“‘Now We Are Free’ from ‘Gladiator’ is one of my all-time favorite songs,” Kasten said during a break in Monday’s rehearsal. “This whole show is original music, and it’s a dream to have him be a part of it.”
Moyer added, “He creates worlds with his music so it’s such a perfect blend, with what we like to do visually with his music.”
There’s a Blue infusion
The Blue Man Group is joining “One Night” for the first time. Cirque bought the entire BMG production company in 2017. “They have their own side story, which coincides with our own storyline throughout the show,” Kasten said. “They are very woven into the show in their own context with a powerful message.” (I compare it to the way BMG manages to make themselves part of the scene at Vegas Golden Knights games at T-Mobile Arena.)
Last week, Cirque also purchased The Works production company, which adds to its already deep bench of talent. Cirque Senior Vice President Jerry Nadal listed some of those productions, “We now have ‘The Illusionists,’ ‘The Naked Magicians,’ ‘Circus 1903,’ all in the family portfolio.”
By happy coincidence, ‘The Naked Magicians” open at Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club at MGM Grand on Wednesday. Now that Australian magicians Mike Tyler and Christopher Wayne are in the family, might they add some unbilled skinny-dipping to this year’s show?
“I don’t think so,” Nadal said, laughing. “It’s a brand-new acquisition. Look for next year’s show.”
Luxor show on fast track
Cirque plans to announce in April its new show moving into Luxor, with an October premiere. That will be about a year after Criss Angel’s “Mindfreak Live” closed. The show is reportedly themed for extreme sports, as the company is developing a concept outside its acrobatic-based productions on the Strip. Cirque President Daniel Lamarre said last week the show “is the first live-action thriller by Cirque du Soleil.”
Addressing reports that the show will use all-electric vehicles, rather than gas-powered motorcycles, Nadal said, “That could be possible.” Of reports the show’s working title is “Jump” but will be named something else, he said, “We have working titles and then name the show what it is supposed to be named, but it’s always that it takes us a year to stop referring to the show under its working title.”
An example is “The Beatles Love” at the Mirage, which was known under its working title “The Boys” until it was formally announced in 2006. As Nadal said, “It took forever to stop calling it ‘The Boys.’” And impress your friends, or not, that the only Cirque show ever to keep its working title through it’s formal run has been “Zed,” which ran from 2008-2011 at Tokyo Disney Resort.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His PodKats podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts.Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.
