The Genii Forum

A year in, Criss Angels Believe hasnt changed much for the better

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/oc ... ch-better/

"I was curious about how Angel and Cirque du Soleil might have changed or improved their collaboration in the intervening year, so I bought tickets (including a second seat for just $25) for Wednesdays 7 p.m. performance.

Mr. Angel, Im afraid Ive got some bad news.

Believe now seems a bizarre, stranded artifact of a moment when some people had too much money. The show has been streamlined a bit no live musicians, fewer aerialists and dancers, less video wizardry but it hasnt been improved, only diminished. Not much has changed with the overall experience of Believe: I got it pretty much right the first time around ...

...Angel is quite literally going through the motions now. The least compelling figure on the Luxor stage, hes a puzzlingly blank, passive star and centerpiece, pushed and pulled through a series of disappearance stunts by his quartet of clowns and his dueling dark-and-light stage assistants ..."

More: "If not exactly humbled by the shows critical drubbing and lackluster sales, Angel, now the butt of jokes by most other Strip comics and magicians, seems less hubristic than he did a year ago. Theres less swagger and no chest-baring (Angel appears to have put on a few pounds). He looks like what he is a cape-wearing Long Island schlub with a tragic Jennifer Aniston haircut."

Jeez, and if that isn't enough:
"Mercifully, Angels speaking lines, which even a year ago were mostly non sequiturs, have been reduced."

And going in for the kill:
"But the leading man, the shows raison dtre, has gotten worse, if that can be imagined."

Ouch, baby. The journalist closes with:
"... which leads me to believe that Cirque is just letting Believe lie there, hoping unwitting customers will forget the reviews, until someone comes up with a plausible, face-saving reason to shoot it in the head and replace it."

"no live musicians, fewer aerialists and dancers, less video wizardry" = budget cuts ...

Some of the Wade Robson choreography was amazing ...