| rev:text
| - The Palazzo Theater dropped the ball, selling us and another couple tickets for the same exact seats on the same night, same showing. Staff was completely flummoxed. Though we arrived half an hour early, they kept us waiting so long I was afraid we might miss the opening. Luckily ours were the tickets they honored but I felt so bad for the other couple. We got to know them while we were waiting for someone to straighten things out. They flew in from Dallas, their flight was delayed 8 hours last night - they only just arrived this morning! They'd bought their tickets a month ago and for some reason Ticketmaster didn't relay the purchase to the theater, so we were able to book the same seats yesterday. It was a relief that our tickets were the valid ones but I felt guilty since they had bought their tickets first. I wonder whatever happened with them; I hope they got upgraded to a lounge table. Our seats were some of the only cheap seats left yesterday. If they had to pay extra for better seats because no cheap seats were left, I would've been willing to trade places with them and pay extra for upgraded seats. For us coming to Vegas is no big thing since we live in Victorville and drive up all the time, but to fly all the way out here from Texas and then have to pay even more for tickets you bought a month ago...
But I digress; you don't care about 4 people's seating snafu. You wanna know how the show was.
Well, it was weird and wonderful like the films. The DH and I are big fans so this show felt like it was made for us. We're also big Cirque fans but after seeing Kurios, Mystere, Zarkana, O, etc., we were let down by Paramour, Beatles Love, and Zumanity. We've been looking for another show to take the bad taste out of our mouths. When we found out about Baz we immediately booked it. I know it isn't a Cirque but I can't help but compare it to the dancier Cirques, particularly Paramour since that's also a musical.
They mixed the music of all 3 films together - and threw in a little Strictly Ballroom for good measure (see what I did there?) - having characters from one movie sing songs from other movies. They told the bare bones version of just the love story parts of each film, weaving back and forth between plotlines, so I can see how it might be confusing for someone who hasn't seen (or isn't at least familiar with the originals the films are based on) the films, especially with the mix-and-matching of the songs and stories.
As a former singer/musician, I'm very picky. I thought they were all better than the cast of Paramour (Broadway) and ShowStoppers (Wynn). Especially Satine, Juliet, Christian, Daisy, and Romeo's amazing voices! Satine was my favorite: great range; high notes in a haunting, ethereal tone reminiscent of Rebecca Luker in Secret Garden. Gave me chills.
I loved that they cast an African-American as Juliet, and that they cast her opposite a white dude. I actually thought her voice was a little strong for Juliet, though. She's a young, naive, and sheltered character, so it was strange imho for such a booming voice to come out of Juliet.
I loved that the violinist was also the Green Fairy, but I wish they'd done something to combine the Green Fairy and the Gatsby green light. Since they were mixing it up so much it seemed a shame there was this missed opportunity for additional crossover. In this day and age we can have an interracial Romeo and Juliet but the Asian chick is still a violinist (stereotype) but whatever, she was still awesome.
I loved the 3-person tango, I felt it was a much more dynamic push-pull dance than the love triangle dance of Paramour. There was tension and suspense in the choreography and the dancers all had a lot of chemistry.
Costumes and sets were maybe not "Vegas-y" enough for some, but just right for the Broadway-esque vibe of the show imho. I could've done without the t-shirt under Romeo's armor, but now I'm just nitpicking. It's just that the other costumes were all so great that it felt incomplete to half-ass just one costume.
Like a Virgin fell flat. I think it's supposed to be comic relief (though in the movie it was creepy/cringeworthy), but it just wasn't amusing. Ooh, a dude grabbing another dude's crotch - is that still funny to anyone over the age of 12? Yawn.
Also some of the acting wasn't great, particularly the Shakespeare lines.
The theater itself has a beautiful blend of modern and classic architecture. I saw Panda! here, which was kind of boring compared to Cirque and had a terrible excuse for a plot [and was also accidentally gay (the "bride" was a peaCOCK, not a peaHEN, with MALE plumage) - not that there's anything wrong with that!] but I was excited to see another show here.
TL;DR: An audiovisual masterpiece like the films. Though you have to have seen the films in order to truly follow and appreciate what they did here, you don't have to have seen the films in order to enjoy the music, the talent, and the pageantry.
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