Elvis show at Aria

I just saw the Elvis show at Aria, and unless your tickets are comped I wouldn't recommend paying the ticket price unless you are a die hard Elvis fan.

The show is just not up to the Cirque standards, and is certainly not even close to the quality of the Beatles Love show at the Mirage, or KA at the MGM. This is a straight stage show, on a traditional stage. Most of the show is just clips of Elvis, mostly in the early part of his life, and is kind of a distraction from the live acts. There are a few good acts you would expect from a Cirque show (i.e. great trampolene act), but mostly the Cirque performers are trying to re-create a traditional Vegas stage show and, at least for me, it just didn't work. Something was missing. The movements seemed slow & mechanical.

Maybe I caught the performance on an off night. The energy just wasn't there. But, even if the energy was there this show is not in the same league with either Ka or Love.

If you are an Elvis fan, go and enjoy the clips and music. If you aren't an Elvis fan, go see Ka or Love.

Your comments about "Viva Elvis" vs. "Love" remind me of that deleted (but available) scene from the film "Pulp Fiction", where Mia Wallace tells Vincent Vega that there are two kind of men, Elvis men and Beatles men. Vincent in an Elvis man, and she makes several comments about that in scenes that did not get cut.

So, scotty81, are you a Beatles man or an Elvis man, and do you think that had any effect on your review?

By the way, I think your opinion is shared by most all who have seen it. One review even said it is bad enough to make "Believe" seem tolerable in comparison. Was that review on this forum?

Quote: Doc

So, scotty81, are you a Beatles man or an Elvis man, and do you think that had any effect on your review?

Actually, I'm neither - although I tend toward Elvis. I grew up with the flower children, but never really got into the music of my generation. I enjoy the Beatles music, but I'm not gaga over it.

Now, if they build a show around Hank Snow or Little Richard, I might be a bit biased.

Quote: Doc

By the way, I think your opinion is shared by most all who have seen it. One review even said it is bad enough to make "Believe" seem tolerable in comparison. Was that review on this forum?

I was looking at some reviews of the other Cirque shows on yelp. Most people really loved Mystere, but predictably some people found it confusing or even boring in places. They have apparently simplified some of the more complex scenes over the years so that they are not as impressive. Several people used the adjectives terrible or horrible to describe the Elvis show.

Out of 288 reviews of Mystere 113 people gave it 5 stars out of 5 (or 45.5%). Only 7 people gave it 1 star.
Out of 117 review of Viva Elvis only 17 people gave it 5 stars out of 5 (or 14.5%). A whopping 28 people gave it 1 star.
Over half the reviewers of Criss Angel's "Believe" gave it one star out of 5.

The review in the Las Vegas Review Journal was fairly reserved. The biggest compliments go to the real videos of Elvis. The reviewer said he was puzzled why the timeline would skip 1956 with the game changing 6 Elvis songs, and skip right to 1958 with Elvis going into the army.

1-Don't Be Cruel
2-Heartbreak Hotel
3-Hound Dog
4-Love Me Tender
5- I Want You, I Need You, I Love You
6- Love Me

Quote: scotty81

I just saw the Elvis show at Aria, and unless your tickets are comped I wouldn't recommend paying the ticket price unless you are a die hard Elvis fan.

The show is just not up to the Cirque standards, and is certainly not even close to the quality of the Beatles Love show at the Mirage, or KA at the MGM. This is a straight stage show, on a traditional stage. Most of the show is just clips of Elvis, mostly in the early part of his life, and is kind of a distraction from the live acts. There are a few good acts you would expect from a Cirque show (i.e. great trampolene act), but mostly the Cirque performers are trying to re-create a traditional Vegas stage show and, at least for me, it just didn't work. Something was missing. The movements seemed slow & mechanical.

Maybe I caught the performance on an off night. The energy just wasn't there. But, even if the energy was there this show is not in the same league with either Ka or Love.

If you are an Elvis fan, go and enjoy the clips and music. If you aren't an Elvis fan, go see Ka or Love.

Thanks for the heads up, Scotty. Having seen the real Elvis live, I don't think anything could compare. I would have been tempted to see the show at the Aria, but I'll put my time and money toward something else.

It sounds like this one isn't worth getting "All Shook Up" over.

Unless you really want to see an Elvis tribute, save your money. I had comped tickets 8 rows from the stage, 1 couch from being dead center. Face value for the tickets I believe were $165. I agree that the trampoline act was pretty good. It happens early in the show. Like watching a football game and all of the scoring happens in the first quarter and you get to watch a punting exhibition for the rest of the game.

Only 29 out of 476 reviewers of O gave it either 1 or 2 stars out of 5, and 332 gave it 5 star rating. It makes the ratings of Elvis look terrible by comparison.