Alegria/YMMV

Audience-Alienating Premise: The film adaptation -- the story is the sort commonly seen as too dark and mature for children, but good luck trying to get older viewers to watch an allegory in which whimsical circus people are the good guys.
Lowest Common Denominator: The original esoteric representation of power, through symbolic gestures such as the possession of the white letter, have been dumbed down to appeal to a wider audience.
Magnum Opus: Only "O", which is not a tour, is more acclaimed and beloved.
Values Dissonance: Mystere was embraced by Las Vegas audiences, so Steve Wynn figured that this show would have a similarly warm reception in Biloxi, the gambling mecca of the Southern United States. As detailed in the book Winner Takes All, Wynn Did Not Do the Research on the tastes of gamblers in the South -- and among other things they apparently weren't interested in seeing a show as part of a casino resort stay. Beau Rivage was an expensive dud for its first few years, and it got so bad that a deal offering a two-night stay at the resort for $69 threw in tickets to this show for just $10 more per person. The custom theater built for the show was subsequently gutted and remodeled into an all-purpose space for touring acts.