Fans expect the best from Las Vegas show, especially given how pricey they can be. Unfortunately Criss Angel's Believe, showing at the Luxor, will force audiences to rethink Vegas shows. To say Believe is bad or horrible is a step too far. However, to call Believe a Cirque du Soleil is a sizeable mistake as it leaves out the acrobatic marvels and artistic feats of human ingenuity that makes Cirque du Soleil so popular. Though Believe has instances of Cirque du Soleil, in the end the show is simply a series of illusions masked in a dark, and often a time, puzzling plot that is suppose to mimic the search for love and one’s self.
What's Good About Believe
The four Ushers—Maestro, Luigi, Slim and Lars—prelude the show by walking about the audience entertaining and warming up them up with I Love Lucy-type antics and minor slight of hand tricks. They play the assistants to Criss Angel both in the show’s reality and in Criss’ dream world of Believe. The Ushers also act as a link to the classic Cirque du Soleil. Their high jinks before and during the show make the parts in between bearable, but only to a certain extent.
Immediately after Criss begins the main part of the show by “killing” himself, a small, white rabbit named Lucky pops up behind a suitcase and announces that he will now take over the show and pay homage to all the rabbits that have died in the line of magic. It’s clever and the small series of dancing that follows the untimely death of Lucky is well put together. The problem is that it only lasts about ten minutes without an explanation for what is going to happen after. It’s one thing to surprise your audience; it’s something entirely different when you utterly confuse them.
The Lack of Cirque du Soleil in Believe
Believe is billed as a new Las Vegas Cirque show, the problem is that it has very few elements that make a Cirque du Soleil show unique and spectacular. It's easy to bypass the oddly developed storyline and choppy plot development given that the imagery and adequate choreography bring the entire show to a relative standard, but to almost completely leave out Cirque-style elements that have made other shows like O and Mystère so stunning makes for a false impression on the prospective audience. Believe is truly a unique illusion packed show more focused on mimicking Alice in Wonderland than on displaying defying feats of human imagination. It is a problem that can be overlooked but it’s hard to when it’s labeled as a Cirque du Soleil show. Without the wonders of Cirque du Soleil, Believe is simply an abstract magic show that disjointedly revolves around the idea of love.
Fans of Criss Angel's show Mindfreak might find Believe more entertaining. But otherwise it may be better to approach Believe with caution. Criss Angel is the center of the show. If his persona is a turn off, it may be better to steer away from Believe and look into other shows at the Luxor by looking at their website. Perhaps Carrot Top or Fantasy.
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