windy09
Proud Member
Second Time a Glitter Charm:
A review of Cirque Du Soleil’s Michael Jackson One at Mandalay Bay
A legacy 40 years in the making, and a man who sought immortality finds a home in the city that never sleeps. Michael Jackson’s legacy, artistic genius and inspiration are still strong and the “Michael Jackson One” show captures it in a ninety minute journey through his life and legacy.
It’s September 2013 and my friend and I are ready to travel to Las Vegas to bear witness to this tribute presented by Cirque Du Soleil and the Michael Jackson Estate. At this moment, we can’t know the excursion we are in for, nor how different this tribute would be from others that have come before the resident “Michael Jackson One” show at the extraordinary in itself, Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas.
We arrive in Las Vegas on Saturday, early afternoon. When we deplane and find our way to the shuttle, we almost collide with a “Michael Jackson One” mural advertisement on the wall of the airport. For anyone arriving in Las Vegas to attend the show, the sight of that huge mural triggers excitement. It’s about 9.5 hours until show time. We make our way to the Mandalay Bay Resort.
Our drive down the Las Vegas strip tells us there is no doubt that “Michael Jackson One” is in town; his image beams from billboard signs all along the boulevard and from the entrance way to Mandalay Bay, home of the latest tribute to the world’s biggest entertainer.
We walk through the entrance of the resort and are not disappointed by the magnificence of the lights, glamour and grandeur. More signs are displaying the show throughout the resort as we walk towards the hotel lobby to check in.
After check in, we try to navigate the resort to find the ticket office. Mandalay is like a city within a city and arrows lead us to our destination, which is near the “Michael Jackson One” Theatre.
As the clerk hands us our tickets, the excitement becomes real; we really are finally going to see the show. The in-hand tickets prove it. Since we’re early, we decide to explore Las Vegas but we don’t have to go far. Mandalay has installed several slot machines, each featuring a different iconic pose of Michael Jackson. Every station blares one of Michael’s songs and when a player gets lucky, the song changes, amplifies and celebrates with Michael’s signature “hee hees” and “aeowwwwwwws”. Winning lets everyone in the casino know you’re playing Michael Jackson slots.
At show time, we head to the “Michael Jackson One” Theatre making our way down the long hallway towards the theatre; it didn’t take very long to see the ongoing tribute to Michael’s legacy. The path to the show was filled with huge floor-to-ceiling Michael Jackson classic dance poses and signature Billie Jean moves from the 1995 Video Music Awards.
Outside the “Michael Jackson One Theatre”, a few exhibitions of memorabilia including pictures of some of Michael’s iconic poses, leather penny loafers and Swarovski Crystal socks from the "Dangerous" Tour helps fans remember Michael Jackson at the height of his creative genius.
We enter the theatre, find our seats 10-15 rows back left center and looked to evaluate our view; there’s not a bad seat in the house.
The stage is expanded beyond its borders with large video screens placed on each side. Flashing across the screens are images of entertainment magazines with pictures and articles about Michael and other celebrities. Center stage offers the illusion of various items floating in mid-air: fedora, sun glasses, penny loafer and his single glitter glove. These items represented Michael’s legacy and would have significant meaning later in the show. Other images would appear, each offering an important significance relating to Michael and his life such as Neverland, the VMA’s and various photos and videos from many of his live shows. For fans, the meanings of these images are obvious. For those who may not be familiar with Michael Jackson, the images in most cases are well known so the meaning isn’t completely lost.
The show focuses on 4 young misfits who embark on a journey to find a way to capture Michael Jackson’s creativity and spirit to help bring to light the messages that he spent a lifetime bringing to the world. In order to make that happen, they are to acquire 4 essential items that belonged to Michael Jackson. Once the items are in their possession, they unlock the door to the spirit and essence of Michael and his desire to heal the world.
Each scene takes the audience through an exciting experience of the misfits’ journey to achieve the goal of sharing Michael’s messages. The performances are accompanied by Michael’s music along with electrifying dancing, acrobatics, aerialists, pole dancers, musicians, elaborate sets and scenery, video imagery, lighting and sound effects. The costumes are colorful, beautiful and innovative. The special effects are state-of-the-art and even extend out into the audience from the stage, above and surrounding the theatre so the audience becomes part of the show. We can’t forget the moon goddess and the aerialists who appeared from somewhere above.
As the misfits embark on their journey they also encounter similar obstacles as Michael Jackson did with the tabloid media and paparazzi. This is evident from some of the video images and costumes. Additionally, an enormous and ominous mechanical mix of metal appears center stage in many of the performances. This mix of metal contains items such as cameras, TV’s, and anything related to the media and seems to have arms or tentacles that extend out ready to grab its next victim. The metal monster symbolizes the forces of media and industries that grabbed at Michael Jackson all his life. What gives it away is the accompanying paparazzi with tabloid-lined costumes and cameras.
Each performance features something representative of Michael Jackson’s creative contribution whether it’s his videos, live performances or photos. The show’s intention is to offer an artistic interpretation of Michael Jackson’s messages so recognizable aspects are incorporated, such as the well- known lean in Smooth Criminal and the monster zombies in Thriller. Add the artistic input of the Cirque performers and you have visually stunning displays of creativity, talent, and skill.
The set designs are detailed, colorful, functional, and familiar, yet they take you someplace else at times. For instance, you see the elephant bones gliding across stage and a rocket ship flying. Does the video “Leave Me Alone” come to mind? There’s a trunk of MJ memorabilia that many of the audience members may appreciate as they reflect back on their own lives. What is in their trunk? In many of the performances you see some influence from Michael’s original creation, but Cirque takes it to another level. The dancers incorporate many of Michael’s dance moves, but they also add acrobatics, rope walking, and martial arts that showcase the diverse talents of the performing artists on stage.
The symbolism for Michael’s messages is predominant in the performances. Some are more obvious than others. For example, “Black and White” features a steel-like bridge that seems to span from one end of the stage to the other. “They Don’t Care About Us” finds soldiers dancing in cadence behind the dancers on stage. The dancers themselves have the words “Greed”, “Hate” and “Fear” displayed in LCD lights across their chests. Also there is another set of dancers with the message “They Don’t Care About Us” spelled out. In “Earth Song”, the original video splashes across the background and incorporates Michael standing in front of a tank as he did during the “HIStory” tour. Then enter “Dirty Diana”, represented by a pole dancer. In addition to the paparazzi, a pole dancer dressed in red enhances the ambience of forbidden encounters. The paparazzi are all trying to get at her as she displays her extraordinary strength and maneuvering up, down and around the pole. Billie Jean is presented in a simpler artistic manner where for the first portion of the performance, we watch a video of Michael performing the dance, but then the lights go out and the dancers’ suits light up as they glide into the Moonwalk in the dark. The lights on each dancer change color and lights up in rotation one at a time. The middle dancer rotates and rises up to the ceiling while the crowd responds with loud applause. Another performance that stands out is “Scream”. During this performance two of the misfits -- boy and girl, appear on stage along with some of the dancers dressed as wolves. The wolves begin bothering the kids. At the same time an Anime version of both the “Scream” video and of the kids plays in the background.
The last performance takes a page from Michael’s “Dangerous” tour where Michael brings the night to a close with “Man in the Mirror”. During this performance, we see the 4 misfits actually see Michael Jackson as he appears on stage as if by magic. Michael proceeds to sprinkle fairy dust on the kids, signifying that they have achieved their goal of attaining his spirit and essence. Now they are able to spread his messages and help heal the world. The creators of the show fashioned a hologram that moved, danced and looked like Michael Jackson. It’s rather eerie to watch when the character first appeared on stage; for one breathless moment, I thought I was actually watching Michael Jackson.
The show closed with “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough.” By the time all the performers appeared on stage, the audience was on its feet and the dancers were clapping and dancing along with the audience. It is a celebration! “Remember The Time” starts to play. As I watched the audience clapping and dancing, I got the feeling that maybe just maybe, people finally got it. They understood who Michael was as a gifted artist but also as a philanthropist and humanitarian. They understood his messages. There is that hope now.
© 2013, by Kimberly Bonk
Co-contributor: L. Madsen
Editor: Rev. B. Kaufmann
Last edited: