At 8 AM on the morning after Viva Elvis had its official opening performance in Las Vegas, I Googled Viva Elvis to see what the entertainment critics had to say about the reworked Cirque du Soleil show.  For two months, there had been many reviews panning the initial trial presentations of Viva Elvis.  I was hoping the bugs had been worked out and the critical review would be positive.

Believe it or not, Google found over 2 million results for my search.  On the first page of these, there was a selection called “News results for Viva Elvis,” and you could click on links to fifty different articles.  As a service to ElvisBlog fans, I checked out every one of them.  Here are my choices for the five most interesting, and they come at the subject from substantially different directions.

Best Look at Costumes and Backstage:

I liked the Lights, Vegas, Action blog of Vegas.com for several reasons.  The text by Kristine McKenzie was organized into four categories: The Cast, The Music, The Costumes, and The Acrobatics.  There is also a video showing snippets of several dance numbers as well looks at some costumes and other backstage stuff.  And finally, there is a gallery of nine still shots plus three more in the body of the article.  Click on the picture below to go to this informative site.

 

Most Glowing Review (and most intellectual):

I was a bit surprised to read the review on the Time magazine website and find it so complimentary.  Time columnist Richard Corliss used his considerable writing talents to praise Viva Elvis using adjectives like spectacular, fantastic and ecstatic.  I love the way he says that Cirque du Soleil shows are to the typical Broadway shows what Avatar is to the 1933 King Kong.  Corliss tends to write in a scholarly manner, and he incorporates a lot of words we regular folks don’t use in everyday conversation.  I’ll share the ones I had to look up, so you won’t have to do it, too.  Éclat (striking effect). Hagiography (worshipful biography), Oeuvre (body of work), Oneiric (relating to dreams), Terpsichore (choreography), Caconical (recognized/accepted), and Chorines (chorus girls).  You will enjoy this review, so click this picture to go to it.

 

Best Videos about Viva Elvis:

CNN.com has a good article by KJ Matthews on its website.  I liked the analysis of how Viva Elvis differs from the Cirque show Love about the Beatles.  There are actually three videos you can check out, and two are good.  “A Look at Viva Elvis” covers the theater, the specially-built stage, set pieces, and backstage activity.  You may have already seen this video on the Elvis Insiders website.  I also liked “Sneak Peak at Viva Elvis,” which has excerpts of Priscilla’s interview on the Larry King Live TV show.  The last video is titled “Elvis, Obama, and Vegas,” but you can skip it unless you want to hear President Obama doing damage control over his recent slam at Las Vegas.  Click on the pink Caddy below to link to this site.

 

Best Description of the Elvis Songs Used in the Show:

There almost 40 Elvis songs used in the show, either in their entirety or in medleys.  The deepest discussion of the music in Viva Elvis is found in the show preview on the Las Vegas Review-Journal website.  Columnist Mike Weatherford has been writing regularly about Viva Elvis for two months, and this time he interviews Musical Director Erich van Tourneau.  It is revealing when van Tourneau discusses trying to keep Elvis moving artistically – trying to imagine how Elvis would do his hits today.  There is no video and only two photos.  Click on the one of van Tourneau below to read the interview.

 

Most Detail About What is in Viva Elvis:

As you may know, Cirque du Soleil is Montreal based enterprise, so it is no surprise that the Montreal Gazette would cover Viva Elvis on their website.  Columnist Pat Donnelly has written a lengthy article covering (in sequence) just about every element of the show.  I don’t know how anyone could read his piece without yearning for a trip to Vegas to see Viva Elvis.  Because there are no photos accompanying the article, here’s one I picked for you to click on to go to it.

 

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Elvis, Elvis Presley, and Graceland are registered trademarks of Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.

The long awaited opening of Cirque du Soleil's new show VIVA ELVIS is just three days away. On Friday, December 18, 2000 fans will file into the specially built theater at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas to view this wonderful tribute to The King.   more »

Your Elvis blogmeister is in the middle of a busy week leading up to Thanksgiving, with two different groups of relatives coming to stay for a few days. So, it is time to take it easy and share with you an interesting Elvis article posted by my friend Ty at www.TheFilmFrontier.com.    more »

As speculated here on September 18, Cirque du Soleil has chosen Viva ELVIS as the name of their new Las Vegas show.   more »

There’s another Cirque show coming to Las Vegas that I’m going to miss out on. It is their newest creation, based on Elvis’ life and music, and tentatively set to open on January 8, 2010, after several weeks of private showings.   more »

History has recorded that Elvis’ return to the stage on July 31, 1969 in Las Vegas was a huge, major success. It was his first live performance in eight years, and he was outstanding. We are quickly approaching the 40th anniversary of this epic concert, so I checked out several sources in my Elvis library to find the best description of the event.   more »

An old high school buddy of mine is also an Elvis fan. He lives in Indiana and has a background in history education. So, it was a pleasant surprise when he sent me a copy of the Spring 2008 issue of Traces, the publication of the Indiana Historical Society, with this cover story: “The King’s Last Concert – Elvis Presley in Indianapolis.”   more »

A while back I checked in with Darwin Lamm, Publisher of Elvis…The Magazine, to see what the theme would be for the next issue. It was “Back To Vegas” - the 40th anniversary of Elvis’ return to live performances in 1969."   more »

Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Carl Perkins performing at the same concert was a very rare phenomenon. It only happened twice: November 17, 1955, in Texarkana, Arkansas, and December 12, 1955 in Amory, MS .   more »

In the early years of his career, Elvis performed in all sorts of venues: high school gymnasiums, amusement parks, VFW Halls, county fairs, honkytonks, you name it. But did you know he even gave one performance on a riverboat – one that the police declared was unsafe to sail? It happened on March 23, 1956 on the Potomac River in Washington, DC.   more »

Over the years, we’ve had fun on ElvisBlog a few times critiquing the press reviews of Elvis’ early concerts, TV appearances, and movies. Recently I found another gem at the Los Angeles Times website. In a December 2007 blog by Larry Harnisch, he takes a look back at a 52-year-old column by LA Mirror-News entertainment editor Dick Williams.   more »

Back at Elvis Week 2002, the best entertainment values in town were the two Elvis Midnight Blues Jams at the Daisy Theater on Beale Street. These were totally misnamed, because there was no blues music performed at either show. It didn’t matter. They were so much fun, anyway.   more »

One of my favorite events at the Collingwood (Ontario) Elvis Festival is the Street Party. It’s free, it lasts over eight hours, and you can bring your own food and beverage of choice. There’s a big stage, a monster sound system, and a great eight-piece band that seems to know every song Elvis ever recorded.   more »

Elvis lore is filled with stories of fans freaking out at his concerts in the 50s, but the biggest ruckus didn’t happen in this country. That honor goes to the Canadian city of Vancouver in British Columbia. Elvis’ concert at Empire Stadium on August 31, 1957, turned into a real mess. Reporter John Kirkwood wrote in the morning newspaper The Sun, "Vancouver teenagers…transformed into writhing, frenzied idiots of delight.   more »

Everybody knows the two signature events of Elvis’ latter career were the ‘68 Comeback Special and the Elvis Aloha From Hawaii worldwide TV broadcast. Do you know there was one other event that was a very big deal at the time but has faded a bit from memory? I am referring to the four-show block of concerts Elvis gave at Madison Square Garden on June 9, 10, and 11, 1972.    more »

I am no longer amazed at some of the stuff I find while surfing the web on the trail of Elvis links. However, I was very pleased to run across the full text of a 49 year old news report in the Toronto Star covering two Elvis shows at Maple Leaf Gardens. The article was like a time capsule, revealing what went on during the height of Elvis-mania.   more »