"O" by Cirque du Soleil at Bellagio in Las Vegas Photo by: Matt Beard Photography, Inc
A few months ago, I took a friend to see “O” at Bellagio, her first time. She was visibly moved, digging in her purse for a tissue. The music, the eye-popping costumes, the otherworldly acrobatics—I first saw “O” the week it opened in 1998 (and a few times since), and it never fails to tug at the heartstrings.
“That’s a very common response that we hear from people,” Niall Sheehy, the production’s company manager, told Las Vegas Magazine. “It does evoke such an emotion that they find themselves in joyous tears.”
Twenty-seven years and more than 20 million audience members later, “O” continues to resonate. In February of last year, the show clocked its 12,000th performance, and the count has been climbing ever since—close to 500 added every year, two shows a day, five days a week.
Worth remembering: “O” arrived in 1998 as Cirque du Soleil’s first water-based production anywhere in the world, conceived alongside Bellagio’s opening. It was Cirque’s second Las Vegas residency, following 1993’s Mystère at Treasure Island, and it became the template for nearly everything Cirque has built on the Strip since: custom-engineered theaters, ambitious budgets and shows audiences book trips around.
Photo by: Matt Beard Photography, Inc
Yet “O” has never stopped evolving. Parts of the show are quietly being rebuilt behind the scenes, Sheehy said. The Island act, which replaced what longtime fans knew as Barge, is a perfect example. The intent was “to bring up the acrobatic skill level … for skills that actually weren’t in existence back in the late ’90s.” That’s absolutely unfathomable for some of us who can’t even manage a cartwheel.
This is part of the awe of watching “O.” The 75-artist cast includes eight current Olympians (seven artistic swimmers and one diver, the highest count of any Cirque show in the world). In their previous lives, they landed on mats. Now they land in water—a transition that requires entirely new mechanics, breath control, comfort with submersion and a full diving certification before they’re cleared to perform. “It’s not an easy adaptation,” Sheehy said, “but the performers are used to learning fast.”
Beneath them, the show also runs on people you’ll never see: 14 technical crew submerged throughout each performance, breathing through apparatus while moving props, scenery and equipment in real time. Above, on, in and under the water, it’s the only Cirque show in the world built this way.
“The water is what sets ‘O’ apart,” Sheehy said. “That’s the ultimate wow factor.” What keeps people coming back, Sheehy noted, is “very much about how you make a connection with what you see”—and that connection rearranges itself every visit. You catch the contortionists this time; you catch the underwater choreography the next; you catch your friend, mid-tear, the time after that.
Photo by: Matt Beard Photography, Inc
Several visits in, I’m still finding things I missed. I can’t wait to see it again.
Bellagio, 702.693.7068. bellagio.mgmresorts.com
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