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| - Four co-workers and I got tickets to a Wednesday evening (9:30pm) performance of Ka at the MGM Grand when we were recently in Las Vegas for the HIMSS conference. This was my second Cirque show and I left feeling like I had definitely gotten my money's worth. I agree with other reviewers that the story line has its lulls and the specifics are hard to follow if you don't read a summary before the show. However, it's incredible engineering and technological features combined with the baton-twirling, Wheel of Death jump roping, insane acrobatics characteristic of a Cirque performance can be appreciated even without context. Ka also weaves oriental costumes, capoeira dance, and martial arts into this unique experience. The theatre is huge and built specifically for Ka. It has dynamic, movable stages - one weighs 50 tons, rotates 360 degrees, and tilts from flat to 100 degrees. Once vertical, 80 rods sprout from the platform like a Plinko board staging one of many battle scenes. The story also injects humor into its dramatic soundtrack. The performance runs about 90 minutes. We paid $88 per ticket (after fees) for the second to last row of seats in the theatre, but 15 minutes into the show, we relocated 5 rows up when it was clear there were lots of empty seats. Despite being located nearly as far back from the stage as we could possibly be, we had no problem seeing the performers. Being in the upper level has its advantages in that you can see the entire stage and everything that would otherwise be in your peripheral vision, or above you in the lower level. There are 4 pre-shows beginning when the doors open. We only saw the last two, which included performers leaping matrix style around platforms situated at each side of the theatre, and a staged performance of their no video or photo policy. Everyone in my group enjoyed Ka and I highly recommend if you're in town and looking for an incredible piece of performance art.
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