''Viva Elvis'' was the seventh resident

Cirque du Soleil Cirque du Soleil (, ; "Circus of the Sun" or "Sun Circus") is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 Ju ...

show on the

Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of ...

. It resided at the

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and premiered on February 19, 2010. The show closed on August 31, 2012. Cirque du Soleil partnered with

Elvis Presley Enterprises Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. (EPE) is a corporate entity created by "The Elvis Presley Trust" to conduct business and manage its assets, including Graceland.

to produce this show, similar to how they partnered with The Beatles' Apple Corps Ltd to produce the resident show ''

Love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...

'' at the

Mirage A mirage is a naturally-occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays bend via refraction to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French ''(se) mirer'', from the Latin ''mirari'', meanin ...

CKX, Inc. Sony Pictures Television Nonfiction (formerly known as CKX, Inc., CORE Media Group, Inc. and Industrial Media, LLC) is an American company founded on February 7, 2005, that owns and develops entertainment content and intellectual property. Histo ...

, the company that owns the rights to

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

's name, likeness, and music publishing, signed an agreement to have Cirque du Soleil create the Elvis-themed residency show. The gala premiere was originally scheduled for January 2010 on what would have been Elvis' 75th birthday, but was postponed until February 19, 2010.Cirque's Viva Elvis postponed
/ref>
/ref> CKX and Cirque du Soleil eventually intended to develop additional touring shows and multimedia interactive "Elvis Experiences" throughout the world.

Closure

Due to low attendance records for ''Viva Elvis'', MGM Resorts asked Cirque du Soleil to replace the show. The show had its final performance on August 31, 2012. On March 7, 2012, Cirque du Soleil announced that following its second

Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Nicknamed "The Showplac ...

engagement, the show ''

Zarkana ''Zarkana'' was a Cirque du Soleil stage production written and directed by François Girard. It began as a touring show in 2011 and was converted to a resident show in Las Vegas in late 2012. It premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York ...

'' would be its replacement.

Set and technical information

The Elvis Theater was designed with a conventional

proscenium A proscenium ( grc-gre, προσκήνιον, ) is the metaphorical vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch (whether or not truly "arched") and on the bottom by the stage floor ...

layout reminiscent of an opera house. The stage had 16 platforms, divided into 12 sections which could rise ; the widest section was and was controlled by four large motors located below the stage. The show's opening scene contained a jukebox made of chrome and gloss black which is wide by high. It also incorporated a 50-foot-tall (15 m) video screen. Also seen during the opening, a 29-foot-long (8.8 m), blue suede shoe weighed and was made of steel and fiberglass. During " Got a Lot of Livin' to Do", seven trampolines were utilized. The entire structure took up the entire width of the stage, , and weighed . The set for the " Jailhouse Rock" scene was based on the technical requirements for a circus art called ''marche inversée''. It had ten tracks that allowed acrobats to walk upside down, attached by their feet, while dancers performed right side up on other levels; the whole structure weighed .

Acts

The acts for ''Viva Elvis'' were staged to the music of

. * Opening * Blue Suede Shoes: Dance number with acrobatics * Don't Be Cruel: Dance number with

German wheel Wheel gymnastics (German: Rhönradturnen) is a form of gymnastics that originated in Germany. Wheel gymnasts do exercises in a large wheel or hoop known as the Rhönrad, gymnastics wheel, gym wheel, or German wheel, in the beginning also kn ...

* One Night With You: Aerial frame, performed on a metal-frame guitar * You'll Never Walk Alone: Interlude * Saved: Dance number * Got a Lot of Livin' to Do:

Trampoline A trampoline is a device consisting of a piece of taut, strong fabric stretched between a steel frame using many coiled spring (device), springs. Not all trampolines have springs, as the Springfree Trampoline uses glass-reinforced plastic rods. ...

* Heartbreak Hotel: Interlude * Love Me Tender: Singing duet * Return to Sender: Dance number with horizontal/parallel bars * Are You Lonesome Tonight: Aerial pas de deux * Western Medley: Gun twirling and Lassos * Burning Love: Band interlude *

Bossa Nova Baby "Bossa Nova Baby" is a song recorded by Elvis Presley on January 22, 1963, at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, CA as part of the soundtrack of the 1963 motion picture ''Fun in Acapulco''. It was released as a single that year reaching the Top Ten in ...

: Balancing on chairs * King Creole: Dance number with

diabolo The diabolo ( ; commonly misspelled ''diablo'') is a juggling or circus prop consisting of an axle () and two cups (hourglass/egg timer shaped) or discs derived from the Chinese yo-yo. This object is spun using a string attached to two hand ...

* Jailhouse Rock: Dance number with acrobatics (''Viva Elvis'' centerpiece) * It's Now or Never:

Chinese pole Chinese poles are vertical poles on which circus performers climb, slide down and hold poses. The poles are generally between in height and approximately in diameter. Some poles have a slightly larger pole that rotates around the static central ...

s * Can't Help Falling in Love: Interlude * Love Me/Don't: Duo cerceaux * Viva Las Vegas: Dance number * Suspicious Minds: Acrobatic dance duet * Rock Medley: Banquine * Hound Dog: Finale * Such A Night: Bonus Finale

Costumes

''Viva Elvis costume designer, Stefano Canulli, drew inspiration from the iconic Elvis fashion of the 1950s and 1960s and added Technicolor lines to highlight the human body. The wardrobe collection as a whole contained nearly 400 costumes and around 1,500 costume components. Part of this total came from more than 450 pairs of shoes and 150 custom wigs. Cirque du Soleil, for the first time, used flocking to create some of the accessories, thus giving them a velvet appearance. Some of the several wigs used for the show were created using urethane foam, which gave them the appearance of Japanese

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

Music

The music for ''Viva Elvis'' was created in partnership with

Elvis Presley Enterprises Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. (EPE) is a corporate entity created by "The Elvis Presley Trust" to conduct business and manage its assets, including Graceland.

. The soundtrack album, which was released on November 5, 2010, was released under Sony Legacy Recordings and was produced by Erich van Tourneau. List of music included in the show (In alphabetical order): * All Shook Up ''(Banquine)'' *

Also Sprach Zarathustra ', Op. 30 (, ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' or ''Thus Spake Zarathustra'') is a tone poem by Richard Strauss, composed in 1896 and inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical 1883–1885 novel ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''.Official Cirque du Soleil site

Official site for Viva Elvis Album
{{Elvis Presley Cirque du Soleil resident shows Cultural depictions of Elvis Presley Production shows in the Las Vegas Valley Las Vegas shows