"Blue Suede Shoes": On the giant stage the King surveys his court of musicians and frenetic dancers
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There's plenty of vigorous terpsichore (this is as much a dance show as a circus show), but Viva Elvis can't stay earthbound for long. In the Army section, to the tune of "Are You Lonesome Tonight?," two figures on wires--a soldier abroad and his girl back home, holding a letter she's written him--execute a poignant pas de deux; they never touch until at last he grasps the letter and presses it to his chest. The Elvis-Priscilla courtship is staged with a man and a woman reclining on separate beds, then (to "Love Me") rising in sleep to meet their dream lovers on large airborne engagement rings in two complementarily sensual couplings. Cover the kids' eyes!
The very smart choice of songs covers both the canonical ("Heartbreak Hotel," "Jailhouse Rock," "Burning Love") and the merely fabulous ("Got a Lot o' Livin' to Do," which accompanies an ecstatic amusement-park bit with high-bouncing superheroes). Of course the climax is "Viva Las Vegas," with 40 Elvis impersonators and a dozen chorines filling Mark Fisher's staircased set and the Big E back onscreen, overseeing the riot of color and movement.
The real Vegas has had its profits pinched by the Great Recession lately. But luxe, energy, sexual threat and primal rock 'n' roll are back in fashion on the Aria stage, where Cirque is throwing its most joyous party ever--and where Elvis lives.