Neon Museum celebrates a vivid history with ‘Stories from Backstage: Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas’

The Grand Gallery inside Las Vegas City Hall has hosted many art exhibits and more than a few previews and opening nights. Few have been as emblematic of Las Vegas as a cultural crossroads where artistic excellence and performance must balance with box office success as Stories from Backstage: Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas. A collaboration with Neon Museum, the exhibition delves deep into the evolution of athlete into artist, characters into costume concepts and fantasy into functional footwear.

“Whether you have seen a Cirque du Soleil show or not, this is relevant to you,” said Neon Museum executive director Aaron Berger during the preview’s keynote speech in February, where museum members gathered along with VIPs such as Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley and Mike Newquist, Cirque du Soleil’s president of resident and affiliate shows.

Berger recognized chief curator and Neon Museum deputy director Sarah Hulme for coordinating the effort. “The Cirque du Soleil team worked tremendously hard with her team to bring forth the costume designers, the dressers, the stories, the oral histories,” he said before calling for a round of applause.

Every show in Cirque’s current Strip portfolio is represented at Stories, which runs through May 1. Iconic costuming such as the Red Bird from Mystère and Moonhead mask from “O” are featured. Makeup designs for Michael Jackson ONE are demonstrated and skin-matching swatches for bodysuits are beautifully displayed.

There are also instructions on how to juggle a person as featured in the acrobatic Icarian Games from Mad Apple, insights into what it’s like for athletes to transition from Olympic podium to performance, and a moving tribute to Dominique Lemieux, the accomplished costume designer who passed away last year.

Neon Museum considers Stories to be a “cornerstone” of its April 24-27 architecture-and-design event Duck Duck Shed. The correlations between attention-grabbing neon and audience-dazzling costuming, or detailed resort interiors with Cirque stage productions, are made emphatically clear in the Grand Gallery exhibits.

“Everybody in the city that comes to City Hall on business has an opportunity to observe this extraordinary exhibit,” said Berkley after Newquist expressed his gratitude to the assembled guests. “Cirque is so much a part of Las Vegas and our history, and it’s absolutely breathtaking.”

She remarked how she’s seen every production, and every time she returns she sees something different. Stories shows something different about Cirque du Soleil that people who may have only seen one or two shows can relate to. Audiences may see the athleticism, but may not be cognizant of the path of the podium-to-performance pipeline. They may be drawn into fantasy by fantastic characters but unaware of the expertise behind the processes of their creation.

Stories from Backstage: Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas aims to enlighten the intentional visitor along with passersby who happen upon the exhibition and are drawn in by the purposeful pageantry, elaborate displays and elaborative insights. It’s the right exhibition in the right place at the right time.

Las Vegas City Hall, 7 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Mon.-Thurs., free, 495 S. Main St. neonmuseum.org

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