Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour gives MJ fans an after-life encounter with the legacy of one of rock and roll’s iconic legends. We recently attended the Houston, TX showing.
Michael Jackson fans will like it. Cirque fans? Well, it depends on what you’re expecting.
We are long-time Cirque fans–and purists at that. We revere the excellence and beauty of Cirque’s stand-alone reputation and contributions to the world of artistic entertainment. In all of our years attending Cirque shows, we have constantly been mesmerized by the fluid beauty and extraordinary displays of world-class talent and first-rate acrobatics and logic-defying performances which give Cirque its “Best of the Best” status with us.
Yet Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour introduced us to another side of Cirque: Cirque meets Vegas, really. In The Immortal World Tour, Cirque delivered with excellence, superb music, high-quality choreography, and advanced technological acumen. Yet the one thing that was missing for most of the show was the thing that we as Cirque purists longed for most: the captivating encounter between featured performers who are the focal point and the audience in awe of them.
All in all, Michael Jackson The Immoral World Tour thrilled Michael Jackson fans. But it lacked the awe-inspiring signature that is unique to Cirque. Although advanced and well-executed, most of the scenes made us feel like we were at America’s Got Talent hosted by Michael Jackson. We felt like we were watching a live, 2-hour MJ music video.
We are some of the biggest Cirque fans out there. But we felt this show really had everything but the special something that only Cirque du Soleil brings to the stage of world entertainment.
Highlights:
- Mime Salah Benlemqawansa does an incredible job of mimicking MJ’s moves (although we really wanted to see more!)
- The Black and White Swans — This graceful aerial ballet duo gave us the traditional Cirque performance we have come to know and love.
- Musicians and Vocalists
We wish we hadn’t seen:
- A dangerous pole dance with gangsters? (random and inappropriate for the audience)
- Larger-than-life images of emaciated children with flies buzzing around their faces (yes, the show’s climactic moment involved portraying some of the darkest human conditions around the world)
As we said, if you are an MJ show, you will like this show. We interviewed several show-goers. They told us they were smitten with MJ and although they’d seen Cirque before, they didn’t mind that this was not a typical Cirque show.
What we would have like to see most of all: an MJ look-alike. The mime was a great MJ act-alike, but he was not a look-alike.
Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour will show in Houston, TX from February 10-12th, 2012 at the Toyota Center.
For more information, visit Cirque du Soleil’s official site here.
