By Poyi (Natalie) Leung
Cirque du Soleil is determined to shape Macau as a must-see destination in the world by giving exclusive and unique productions at its first permanent theatre in Asia, president and CEO of the Canadian-based global entertainment company, Daniel Lamarre said yesterday.
A 20-minute sneak peek of Cirque du Soleil’s upcoming show, “ZAIA”, was yesterday unveiled to media from Macau and other neighbouring regions at the custom-built theatre that will be opened officially on August 28 at the Venetian Macao Resort Hotel.
The word “ZAIA” is derived from a Greek name meaning “life” and is also reminiscent of the Greek goddess “Gaia” who represents the living, self-aware and spirit of earth.
The story of “ZAIA” is about a young girl who journeys into space on a strange, yet familiar voyage of self-discovery. As she travels, she encounters the beauty of humanity and eventually brings it back with her to share with the inhabitants of earth.
It is a show that features dance, movement and aerial acrobatics and performed by 75 high calibre artists including from mainland China.
According to writer and director Gilles Maheu, the production idea came from a drawing on a postcard that shows a young girl in space uniform sitting on a sand castle on the moon.
Hundreds of local and overseas reporters such as from Japan, Thailand, Korea and Indonesia were showed two particular scenes of the entire 90-minute production titled “City Scape” and “Romeo and Alice” after top executives from Cirque du Soleil and Las Vegas Sands Corp delivered a speech to the audiences.
They included executive vice-president of Las Vegas Sands Corp, Brad Stone; Cirque du Soleil’s president and CEO, Daniel Lamarre and his senior vice-president of creative content, Gilles Ste-Croix.
Speaking to the media after the show, Mr Lamarre said the Macau-exclusive production has the potential to become “renowned not only in Asia but worldwide”.
“We will dream that in the future people will not visit Hong Kong without taking the ferry and come to see this show because it is not going to be replicated anywhere in the world,” he said.
Although 10 shows will be performed every week including two shows daily from Thursdays to Sundays and the adult ticket prices could not be of affordable for everybody, the president and CEO said he believed that the growing convention market in Macau will help feed the 1,800-seat show especially on weekdays.
“I’m very confident that people from Hong Kong who may not be gamblers will come to Macau and be entertained with this show. That’s what Cirque du Soleil has changed in Las Vegas,” Mr Lamarre said.
When Cirque du Soleil first opened their theatres in Las Vegas 14 years ago, he said there was “barely entertainment” as people were going there “only for gambling”.
“At that time 90 percent of all the revenue in Vegas came from gambling. Today, their gambling revenue is less than 50 percent and Cirque du Soleil has been the main contributor in changing the habits of visitors there,” Mr Lamarre said.
“So I hope we can achieve the same thing here which means we will contribute to increase dramatically the number of tourists in Macau,” he added.
Although today is just the first day to begin selling tickets for the preview period of “ZAIA” between July 26 and August 27 and regular performances starting from August 28, the CEO already announced yesterday the second permanent show for Macau will be on stage in 2009 which will be “totally different” from ‘ZAIA’.
However, he told the Macau Daily Times none of their touring shows such as Saltimbanco, Alegria and Varekai will be performed in Macau as they wanted to preserve the “uniqueness” of ZAIA Threater.
“Our key priority now is the development of Asia. We’ve been working for 20 years in Asia and today is the beginning of a new era having now a permanent facility in the region,” Mr Lamarre said.
The second custom-built theatre in Asia will be opened in October in Tokyo which Mr Lamarre said was the second largest market of Cirque du Soleil after Las Vegas.
Although Macau could be a new market for the entertainment company, Mr Lamarre said the region was chosen not only because of the 20 million tourists it receives every year, but also “there are very few players who are willing to invest as much money as they [Las Vegas Sands Corp] are investing in this theatre”.
And according to him, US$150 million has been spent on the production as well as the theatre for “ZAIA”.
As there are three more months ahead of the gala première on August 28 which is to coincide with the first anniversary of the Venetian Macao Resort Hotel, Mr Lamarre told the MDTimes his team will during this time “feel the theatre and feel the stage” in order to give “the best” to Macau’s audiences.
“We’ve been rehearing the show for more than a year now in our creative centre in Montreal. But when we walked in the actual theatre we need to do a lot of changes because the magic of Cirque du Soleil is going to operate very soon,” he added.
