Criss Angel Believe

Cirque du Soleil has seven resident shows in Las Vegas and two more imminent. But if you think that sounds like oversaturation, think again. Each of the famously lavish productions, which the Canadian entertainment giant describes as a “dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment,” offers a wonderfully unique experience. “Guy Laliberté, the owner of the company, insists that we never repeat ourselves,” explained James Hadley, senior artistic director for many of Cirque du Soleil's Las Vegas shows.

Cirque du Soleil has seven resident shows in Las Vegas and two more imminent. But if you think that sounds like oversaturation, think again. Each of the famously lavish productions, which the Canadian entertainment giant describes as a “dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment,” offers a wonderfully unique experience. “Guy Laliberté, the owner of the company, insists that we never repeat ourselves,” explained James Hadley, senior artistic director for many of Cirque du Soleil's Las Vegas shows.

Chris Lee did a fine job on the article about Criss Angel's new show at the Luxor, "Criss Angel Believe" ["Mashed-Up 'Mindfreak,'" Oct. 12]. It was a great piece. He gave some much-needed insight not only to the inner workings of the show but of Criss Angel himself. Based on other articles I have read, many journalists seem to want nothing more than to tear Criss and the show apart. Many of them refuse to look past the haze and see Criss for who he really is -- a hardworking man who is finally seeing his dreams of a live show come true.

Andrew Adamson is no stranger to fantasy worlds. In his previous films, the New Zealand-born writer-director brought an ill-tempered green ogre to life ("Shrek" and "Shrek 2") and ventured into C.S. Lewis' parallel universe of Narnia, a land occupied by talking animals, magical creatures and an evil witch (the first two "The Chronicles of Narnia" movies). Adamson returns to the realm of the fantastic with "Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away," opening Friday, a film that captures eye-popping acts from seven of the troupe's Las Vegas live shows in vivid 3-D and weaves them together with a simple, fairy-tale-like romance.

AFTER midnight on a recent Tuesday, a crowd has gathered behind velvet ropes in front of the Luxor on the Las Vegas Strip, as if waiting for the Hilton sisters to arrive. Instead, they're watching a flatbed truck with a huge piece of jagged, round steel that looks like a postmodern sculpture. Slowly, workers arrange two conveyors to lift the heavily wrapped, padded and Styrofoam-protected steel, taking their instructions from Alison Worrell, project director of Premier Exhibitions, whose construction helmet stands out by virtue of being pink.

'Suburbs' edges Eminem The Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts Wednesday. In its first week of release, the latest from the Canadian orchestral pop outfit sold 156,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, narrowly edging out Eminem's "Recovery," at No. 2 with 152,000 copies sold. It is the first No. 1 album on the U.S. pop chart for Merge Records, founded in the late '80s by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan of indie band Superchunk.

Like a bad omen, January put Vegas in the national news for all the wrong reasons with a fire at the Monte Carlo. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt, but it was a portent for a scary year, a year marked by record-breaking plunges in tourist volume, the bankruptcy of the Tropicana and many other resort companies reeling from the fallout from a national recession. This was actually surprising to many who believed Las Vegas, as conventional folk wisdom put it, was recession-proof.

If Criss Angel were blindfolded, straitjacketed, run over by a steamroller, locked in a steel box and dumped from a helicopter into the Pacific Ocean, he still might be easier to salvage from disaster than "Criss Angel: Believe," the gloomy, gothic muddle of a show that officially lurched into being on Halloween night like some patched-together Frankenstein's monster.

Before the Cirque du Soleil performers pranced onto the outdoor stage in the sweltering heat Sunday, bushels of ice cubes were flung across the wooden floor to cool the surface for the hands and feet of dancers. A crowd of hundreds, hot but patiently watching at the Grove shopping center, cheered as if this safety step was part of the show. Onstage, Sebastien Coin, encased in a yellow striped unitard, balanced his body horizontally on one hand and languidly eyed his rapt audience.

ARIA 877.25.ELVIS Tuesdays – Saturdays: “Viva Elvis” by Cirque du Soleil   BALLY’S 888.739.4111 Saturdays – Thursdays: “Donn Arden’s Jubilee!” Tuesdays – Saturdays: “The Price Is Right Live!”   BELLAGIO 888.488.7111 Wednesdays – Sundays: “O” by Cirque du Soleil (additional dark dates June 12)