Cirque du Soleil celebrates 30 years in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — It's been 30 years since Cirque du Soleil became a permanent fixture on the Las Vegas Strip.

Cirque du Soleil was founded in the early 1980s and did their first tour of the United States in 1987. The first Cirque show that came to the valley was "Nouvelle Experience", which raised the curtain in Las Vegas on Nov. 10, 1992 and had its final show on Nov. 21, 1993.

As the company continued to grow, company co-founder Guy Laliberté said Cirque du Soleil wanted to find a permanent home on the Strip. At one point, the company was in talks with Caesars Palace but things fell through.

"For several years, we were looking around Las Vegas for a place to bring Cirque du Soleil. Steve Wynn, one day, gave me a call and asked me if we had made a deal with his competitors," Laliberté remembered. "He said I might have a place for you. I want to build a permanent showroom for Cirque du Soleil."

"If you shake my hand," Wynn remembered telling Laliberté, "you get your own theater in the new hotel I am building on the same terms as Siegfried and Roy."

That led to the creation of "Mystère", which raised the curtain at Treasure Island on Dec. 25, 1993. They also hosted a special gala event on Jan. 15, 1994, which celebrities like Roseanne Barr and Kevin Costner attended.

"Magicians fool me and jugglers amaze me and lions scare me so the circus has a lot," Costner told Channel 13 that night.

WEB EXTRA: "Mystére" welcomes celebrities to gala on Jan. 15, 1994

According to Cirque du Soleil, since "Mystère" opened in 1993, it has been seen by over 17 million fans with more than 13,000 shows performed, as of February 2023. The show's success led to creating "O" at the Bellagio.

"The conversation about doing the "O" show at Bellagio came very soon after it was clear that "Mystère" was a success in Las Vegas. We were hoping to be able to convince them to do a single show like "Mystère" but with water in it," Laliberté said. "We presented a schematic or a sketch that had fire and water. Then, it totally switched and they decided just to do the fountain in front of the Bellagio and build us a theater."

Laliberté said putting the show together took the creative team to places they didn't expect.

"The challenge was here we are. We have the deal but know nothing about water. What we did is, basically, we envisioned something that has never been done," Laliberté said. "The success of those two shows in Las Vegas was a big game-changer for Cirque du Soleil. It had opened the door to a greater relationship with MGM and the continuation of this relationship to create other shows. Those two shows have not only marked our reputation but gave us the stamp of being a mega entertainment company."

"O" opened at the Bellagio in October 1998. As of February 2023, there have been over 11,000 performances and the show has been seen by more than 18 million people.

Like Laliberté said, the shows put Cirque du Soleil on the entertainment map and they became a mainstay on the Strip. By innovating and continuing to create, it led to other shows opening including "Ka", "The Beatles Love", "Mad Apple", and "Michael Jackson One", which celebrated its 10th anniversary earlier this year.

RELATED LINK: Cirque du Soleil's "Ka" celebrates 8,000 performances

There have been some bumps along the way for the entertainment company. For example, the pandemic led to theaters shutting down across the country, including shows on the Strip. Eric Grilly, President of Resident Shows and Affiliate Shows for Cirque du Soleil, also said the business was being restructured.

"We made a conscious effort to stay in touch with our artists and held monthly Zooms to try to keep them aware of what was going on. When shows started coming back, they had capacity limits, which weren't viable for us to reopen to perform in a theater of 25% or 50% occupancy," Grilly said. "But once the path became clear to us and we started ramping up, we started thinking about what do we do? We invested heavily in health and safety protocols. It started with us building a testing center that was testing 1,100 people a day. An artist or technician would be tested early in the morning and if they were cleared, they would then go to the theater. Through the rigor we took in our protocols, when we opened the shows, we never had to close them again. I think it was an important thing for our new investors, but also for our employees who had been out of work for months."

According to Grilly, over 90% of their artists and over 80% of their technicians returned after the pandemic. Audiences were also thrilled to be back and attendance numbers continue to be strong post-pandemic.

"At the end of June 2021 and then, opening a new show every month for six months, the appetite was unbelievable," Grilly said. "I think people are certainly starving for experiences and getting out of their houses after being secluded away because of COVID. I think with our digital transformation, it's allowed also allowed us to expand our booking window so we've actually built to sell more advanced tickets now because of planning and what we're seeing coming into the market."

Cirque du Soleil officials said the key to the productions remaining fresh is innovating and adding on to the beloved shows.

"You're watching humans do amazing things right in front of your eyes on a nightly basis and they you couple that with Cirque's opulent style, costumes, wardrobe, music, sets, lights, it's an experience that's out of this world and it started at "Mystère"," said Timothy Smith, Senior Artistic Director for "Mystère". "The show changes on a nightly basis due to lineups, the cast, who's in, who's out. You might come back the next time and see a new act, see a new lineup, see a new visual or new music you haven't seen before. The door to exploration, the door to design is wide open. We can always discover new music, new circus apparatus, new innovations. I find it to be quite limitless because of how universal the entertainment is."

That includes unique settings that have allowed Cirque shows to evolve.

"I think that's part of what brings the story to life. There's one theater in the world, one stage that does what it does in the world. I think it's an important part of the transportation that we do to bring people into these new worlds and help them escape into one we create for 90 minutes," Grilly said. "I think the artistry and performances are important and staying true to the DNA of circus arts, but also constantly looking to how do we advance."

Casino officials who have seen the Cirque brand grow said they expected nothing less and that the future is bright.

“When we began our partnership with Cirque du Soleil, we had great respect for the creative ambition of Guy Laliberté, Gilles-Ste-Croix, and Franco Dragone," said Bobby Baldwin, former senior executive with Mirage Resorts and MGM Resorts. "There was never a question they would create a special entertainment experience, even for Las Vegas, where the bar is quite high. What they did was immediately change the entertainment landscape of the city. And then, Cirque du Soleil did it again. And then, again. I don't doubt they will continue to do so for decades to come. They made history and it's gratifying to have been part of that."

"Cirque has had an incredible impact on MGM properties. They're bringing in literally thousands of people every night into our showrooms and there is no other production company in the history of Las Vegas that has had the success that they have. They have been able to pull in thousands of people night after night. It's something that no one else has been able to replicate," said Dan Bernbach, Senior Vice President of Content Development for MGM Resorts. "We've developed such a great relationship and it's across all levels of the organization. These people are really friends of ours and we couldn't ask for a better entertainment partner."

And as for Cirque du Soleil, they continue to reach their goals of touching people's lives and creating lasting memories.

"The word impossible is not in our vocabulary," Grilly said. "I think our core of being innovative and imaginative drives us to find solutions to things that have never been done before or problems that haven't been solved yet."

RELATED LINK: Cirque du Soleil announces new show is coming to Hawaii

"It feels phenomenal to think that every day, every night, our performers continue performing in these amazing shows and there's so many people that continue to go to Las Vegas and see them,," said Stéphane Lefebvre, CEO and President of Cirque du Soleil. "I envision the relationship between Cirque du Soleil and Las Vegas with an amazing amount of optimism. Beyond our existing shows, I'm really hopeful that in the future, we can build experiences using different art forms. I think it would be an amazing add to the community and to Las Vegas."