Cirque du Soleil, William Shatner in line for ‘One Night’ revival

A lotta Cirque and a little Shatner is trekking to the web.

Cirque du Soleil is reviving its annual “One Night for One Drop” charity production at noon Friday in its weekly CirqueConnect series. Find it at cirquedusoleil.com/cirqueconnect. The show will remain available on the site after Friday’s premiere.

“We found that content is king,” says Pien Koopman, an exec with the worldwide water-conservation charity. “We have beautiful content that has never been seen from a show that has been going on since 2013. We should use it to stay connected with Cirque fans.”

“One Night” was to be held March 27 at Luxor, featuring a performance by the magic production “The Illusionist.” That show was brought in for the originally planned “One Night” show, “R.U.N,” which actually closed in March.

In years prior, “One Night” drew from all of Cirque’s Las Vegas Strip productions — and used artists from other Vegas shows — for a one-off performance.

Friday’s hourlong show plucks highlights from the 2015 and 2017 productions. The ’17 show was staged at Zumanity Theater at New York-New York, with William Shatner as the celeb guest star. The show was produced Cirque vets Nicky and Laetitia Dewhurst, featured veteran circus actor Brian Dewhurst (Nicky’s father) in his usher/clown Brian LePitit character from “Mystere” at Treasure Island.

The 2015 show at “Love” theater at The Mirage was directed by Mukhtar Omar Sharif Mukhtar, a former “Love” artist who advanced to director and has since moved on to work on the international “Messi10” show. Friday’s special features updated messages from Shatner, Jewell, Redfoo, Marie Osmond and The Tenors. Jewel was the focus of the 2018 show at Michael Jackson One Theatre at Mandalay Bay.

Cirque has hours of unseen footage from these “One Night for One Drop” shows, benefiting the international charity founded by original Cirque co-founder Guy Laliberte.

“We could do several of these productions,” Koopman said. “I would like that, and I think the fans would, too.”

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.