"O" (theatre): Difference between revisions

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The setting is a baroque opera house, carrying on from the posh theme of its host hotel, with a red velvet curtain and soaring ceiling. As the lights dim, an "audience member" (Philemon) is surprised twice over -- first by a nymph-like woman who descends from the top of the dome and drops a red scarf to him, and second by someone beckoning to him from behind the curtain. Curious, he goes up to see what the stranger wants. Said stranger (Le Vieux) turns out to be the theater's guardian...because it's no ordinary theater. Philemon has just become the leading man in a unique adventure...

Wildly ambitious and extravagant, the show opened to glowing reviews and caused a sensation in Vegas, setting a high bar for subsequent theatrical spectacles worldwide (including Cirque's own) to clear. Due to an arrangement with its host casino it has not been filmed, but the making-of documentary ''Flow'', available in Region 1 via Cirque's gift shops and online boutique, includes excerpts from it; the [[Widget Series]] ''Solstrom'' also featured some of its acts, characters, and performers.

 

* [[Audience Participation]]: Due to the show's unique staging, not much of it here -- well, not much that's real, anyway. {{spoiler|The man taken from the audience for the high dive is a plant; the two men who wind up dancing with the clowns are not.}}

* [[Busby Berkeley Number]]: The opening water ballet and the "Tzelma" transition are examples of the Esther Williams variant.

* [[Dramatic Curtain Toss]]: The curtain isn't just raised as the show proper begins. Most of it is ''sucked'' up and away to reveal the stage space; the remainder resting on the "floor" is then gently pulled away to reveal the water.

* [[The Everyman]]: Philemon.

* [[For Doom the Bell Tolls]]: As the Russian swings act nears its finish, the bell on the middle swing begins to toll as an acrobat spins the swing up and over the bar -- and a funeral procession, complete with a wagon with a coffin upon it, crosses the stage in the background. However, the music and foreground action remains cheerful, ''and'' the coffin pops open to reveal a minor female character who cheerfully waves to the audience.

* [[Gentle Giant]]: The Barrel Organ Grinder.

* [[Gorgeous Garment Generation]]: Philemon is first seen in a plain T-shirt, pants, and ball cap; once he's fully pulled into the theater's world, he wears the clothes of an adventurer from an ''Arabian Nights'' tale. (One alternate name for the character, seen on a souvenir ornament, is "Sinbad".)

* [[Incendiary Exponent]]: The fire act.

* [[The Ingenue]]: Aurora.

** In the ''Delirium'' concert tour, "Nostalgie" became "Bridge of Sorrow", "Africa" became "Bour Mowote", and "Mer Noire" became "Time Flies".

* [[Scenery Porn]]: Inherent in the concept of a ''giant pool for a stage''.

* [[Singing Simlish]]

* [[Speaking Simlish]]

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[[Category:Short Titles]]