‘Le Reve’

Criss Angel should take hope. Shows can get better. Just don't go braggin' to people who bought a ticket for "Le Reve" back in 2005.

Granted, most people may just remember the big stuff that doesn't change: Jaw-dropping 80-foot plunges from a bell tower high above the circular pool of a stage. A trio of women on a spinning globe. Divers somersaulting from the giant "wedding cake" that rises from the murky depths.

And the aquatic spectacle always was better if you hadn't seen Cirque du Soleil's "O," or other titles by director Franco Dragone that were first out of the gate with deja vu music and imagery.

But "Le Reve" now goes its own way with flourishes of ballroom dancing and an unapologetically romantic story line, well-suited to the acrobatics that unfold in the water or like an aerial ballet.

(The Wynn Las Vegas spectacle did get up and running before Cirque's "Love," with which it shares in-the-round staging that turns the dial one notch from "circus show" to "theater" for each row closer you sit.)

The opening minutes now establish a more linear story. We follow a dreamer (Marcia Moreno) and her ambivalent reaction to a suitor (David Oliveri) brandishing flowers.

She climbs into a bed that's swallowed by the dreamy waters and we're off, with Morpheus (Dider Antoine) as our guide and the dreamer as our surrogate.

She lingers, usually dripping wet in her dress, on the edge of acrobatics that once seemed to clear the decks. A convulsive "splash dance" by a woman (Lorna Somner) throwing herself to the ground with a violent, almost suicidal beauty, is now part of a confrontation.

The hand-balancing act with two sculpted bald men (Grzegorz Ros and Tomasz Wilkosz) still never ceases to amaze. How can these guys hold one another aloft when they're all wet?

But now it plays in counterpoint to the dreamer having her affections tempted by the seductive powers of another baldie (Sebastian Zarkowski). As he gets closer to breaking down her resistance, the hand-balancing steals the crowd's attention, visualizing her conflicted emotions about the men in her life.

Later, the dreamer has a romantic candlelight dinner with the bald dreamboat, only the table is suspended high above the water. It gives a new focal point to the surrounding acrobatics, which compress what used to be two or three separate pieces of business.

Perhaps this newfound economy of purpose is why the show doesn't feel like a cheat after being whittled down to 75 minutes. Every piece of stagecraft is still employed, but the limitations of risky action so close to the audience is less obvious through the lack of repetition.

Michael Curry, known for his puppetry in "The Lion King," concocted the giant blooming flowers for a romantic finale that's sure to inspire a big, giant "Awww!" in a show already bursting with sensuality and feminine energy.

The changes are almost all for the better, though you can admire the original show for making the skin crawl with a couple of unsettling moments. And while composer Benoit Jutras has pumped up the guitar licks and action-flick rhythms, you wonder if there still isn't a chance to do something less Cirque-like and more distinctive with the music.

It's safe to say "Le Reve" now resembles the work Dragone and artistic director Brian Burke did for Celine Dion at Caesars Palace as much as Dragone's past Cirque creations. Especially when Jutras steers the score into pop songs with Celine-worthy lyrics: "Remember love and being swept away ..." a singer voices, intruding upon the lyrical moment of the dreamer sitting sad and motionless amid the figures swirling around her.

Coherence is a fine thing, but who wants every dream to be literal?

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