Cirque’s profile raised at Oscars

If you wonder how Cirque du Soleil can sustain interest in seven shows on the Strip (and a bunch more elsewhere), the Super Bowl and Academy Awards aren't a bad start.

Madonna's Super Bowl performance wasn't excessively branded with Cirque. But Cirque's turn at the Oscars -- stemming from its standing production "Iris" in the same Kodak Theatre -- turned out to be one of the few performance segments in a year that pruned the broadcast's running time to its second shortest ever.

"What it did for our brand was amazing," Cirque's President and CEO Daniel Lamarre said before an 18th anniversary celebration of "Mystere" last weekend.

"There is no entertainment company that did the same year the Super Bowl (and) the Academy Awards. For us, the timing couldn't be better," Lamarre said. The week after the Oscars, "it helped our ticket sales worldwide. It was amazing."

Production numbers have a way of backfiring at the Oscars, as Cirque remembers from a 2002 appearance that did not read well on television. This time, Lamarre says founder Guy Laliberte told him, "We're not going to take a chance." The four-minute number included 54 artists, including aerialists transported from the closed "Zed" show in Japan to "Viva Elvis."

Closer to home, Lamarre said the Michael Jackson tribute "The Immortal" is due to land at Mandalay Bay on May 13 of next year. "We have redesigned the theater. We're in full construction mode right now."

The permanent installation will be "more theatrical," but it will not mean the current arena version will come off the road. "We should be able to tour for three and maybe four years," he said. "But not in this part of North America. We don't want to cannibalize it." ...

Jan Rouven's move from the Clarion to the Riviera is a step up the prestige ladder, but "the stage area is really small," said producer Frank Alter of "Illusions" reopening last weekend.

Squeezing a big magic show onto a stage that for years hosted "La Cage" came down to "an inch on the left, and an inch on the right," and required a stage extension to accommodate the final illusion.

However, it works to the benefit of audiences. "They do not expect such a big illusion on that stage," Alter said. "The impact of the illusions is better." ...

The King's Room annex to the Rio's Crown Theater will soon host two comedians with name recognition, and if anyone otherwise links Eddie Griffin with Grandma Lee, they are true students of comedy.

Griffin, the star of "Malcolm & Eddie" and "Undercover Brother" is now a Las Vegas resident, planning to perform in the former steakhouse Monday through Wednesday of each week, starting April 2.

Lee is the potty-mouth senior who got a national profile on "America's Got Talent." She will be back in town at the end of May, just after her 78th birthday, to perform Thursdays through Sundays through July. Lee is managed by Joe Sanfelippo, who runs the room along with his Bonkerz comedy clubs.

Michael "Wheels" Parise also will continue to work the room, and a "Young Guns of Comedy" showcase will fill in where needed. Parise, a friend and opening act of Andrew Dice Clay for 23 years, has two reality TV pilots awaiting word of pickup.

In "Dice Unbelievable," he's part of the comedian's extended family in a documentary treatment a la "Gene Simmons Family Jewels."

"I'm his closest confidant" and "often the one who keeps it together," Parise said.

The other pilot is "Cannoli Kings," focusing on Parise and his brother's successful Los Angeles catering business. Before Internet searches made it easy to connect the dots, "Nobody knew that 'Wheels' " was chef Michael Parise," he said. ...

Jenna Hollenbeck's record stands. I happened to be there watching "Name That Tune Live!" the day the Rochester, New Yorker nailed the first few notes of Pantera's "Cemetery Gates" to become the first -- and, it turns out, only -- $10,000 top prize winner of the Imperial Palace game show.

Producer Adam Steck has folded the afternoon show that struggled since late August to establish itself. The good news, Steck said, is that co-producer Noah Rubenstein, who owns the name to the classic game show, has struck a deal with Fremantle Media Enterprises -- producers of the rival "The Price is Right -- Live" at Bally's -- to bring "Tune" back to national television.

"There's a big future for that brand," Steck said, including a return to Las Vegas.

But as it is, "Price" offers the "immediate association" of a still-popular TV game versus "a show that's been off the air for a couple of decades."

And maybe there was an issue in having only one top-prize winner since August. Perhaps the game was too hard, or winnable only by devoted music geeks? Pantera is not as inclusive as knowing how much that instant coffee costs.

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