Cirque head says shows still strong

I'm talking to the biggest player in Las Vegas entertainment on the loading dock in back of Luxor, because it's a place where he can smoke.

Guy Laliberté, head of Cirque du Soleil, may be low profile -- a T-shirt is standard uniform -- but he didn't get where he is by being wrong.

We should all hope he isn't wrong now.

The press-shy Laliberté agreed to talk a bit on Halloween day, before the official debut of "Criss Angel Believe" that night -- and well before the new show was savaged by critics.

My C+ turned out to be the kindest review so far. I think the show is fundamentally flawed, but I've seen worse. In fact, I saw worse just a couple of weeks before it.

With "Raw Talent Live" turning out to be a nonstarter at the Sahara, it couldn't be a worse time for audiences to listen to us snooty reviewers and skip "Believe." A rising tide carries all boats, and the Strip could sure use a new hit right now.

"At the end, you know my philosophy. We live or die with the public buying or not the tickets," Laliberté says. "This is my bottom line indication (of whether) something works or not."

He points out $5.5 million in presales -- way ahead of early sales for Cirque titles with no star -- and says fans are "going crazy" at the merchandise store.

Collectively, Laliberté says the six Cirque shows on the Strip are doing 9 percent better than they were last year, with "Ka," "Zumanity" and "Mystere" all stronger than in 2007.

"I'm not taking things for granted," he adds. "But it's about time we recognize here that there's not too many Cirque shows. Because at this point in time, the only entertainment in town that's working is those six different Cirque du Soleil shows."

The sky is no longer the limit with Cirque, however. "Believe" did not gut the Luxor's theater space and start over, as Cirque did with "Zumanity," "Ka" and "Love." And the next Las Vegas Cirque, an Elvis-themed show on track to open at CityCenter in December 2009, is "very tight with the budget," Laliberté says.

"There's a line that I don't care to cross with the creators," he says. "I gave them the sandbox, and this is the sandbox. They came with $200 million of ideas for that show, and I said they have 'X' number of millions. So they had to make a choice, and we made a choice together."

So far, he says, with a "knock on wood" motion, "We have really a star shining for us and an angel guarding the Cirque du Soleil company." I didn't catch the pun until later, so I didn't think to ask if "angel" should be capitalized.

I doubt it, but sort of hope so anyway.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.