Le Grand Chapiteau: Mystère

What brought Cirque du Soleil to this place in time? And what were they about to give birth to? For Mystère, we look to the history of Cirque du Soleil to provide those answers, and in doing so revisit the innovative and imaginative Nouvelle Expérience. "At the end of the 1980s, we were presenting a show called Nouvelle Expérience, and were approached by Caesar’s Palace organization to mount a show there, to be presented in a theater by 1991," said Gilles Ste-Croix in an interview for the Spectaculara section of Cirque du Soleil's website. "We put together the concept for a show with a mythological theme, which seemed appropriate," but it didn't go as planned.

Genesis • An Esoteric Narrative
1.0 (1993-1996) • 2.0 (1997-2011)
Mystere 3.0 (2012+) • Conclusion

Genesis

In January of 1991, after investing more than $150,000 in a presentation, Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté and Patrick Berg, General Manager of Sceno Plus (a Montreal-based company specializing in the design, restoration, and renovation of theaters - which Laliberté had chosen to design a space complete with Roman-style columns) were in Las Vegas pitching their plans to the Caesars Palace board of directors, but things were not going well. After a lengthy presentation to these "12 guys in grey suits," as Berge refers to them, the Cirque contingent was met with a less-than- enthusiastic response. "No one really wanted to say, 'Oh, it’s a good concept,' or 'Oh, it's a bad concept," Berg says. Matters were complicated when the board expressed concern over such matters as show schedules and costumes. "It came to a point with Caesars Palace where they were telling us that the girls are going to be dressed like this and the show had to look like that. So we all got up and walked out and slammed the door."

"I was raging," Laliberté recalls of the rejection, "and there was nothing we could do." But he cites a business adage: "Sometimes the deals that don't happen are the best deals that could happen."

Whether or not the meeting ended so abruptly is open to debate, but after hearing a rumor that Cirque was talking to (and later rebuffed by) Caesars Palace and the Las Vegas Hilton, then Mirage Resorts (now MGM International) Chairman Steve Wynn approached Cirque du Soleil: "Have you made any deal with my competitors? Why have you not contacted me?" Laliberté remembers Wynn asking. He answered, "I never thought you'd have a place for two shows there (after Siegfried & Roy)."

Still smarting from the Caesars experience, Laliberté wanted to know: "Have you ever seen our show? After all I went through there, I would just like you to know where we are standing artistically." Wynn traveled to Toronto for Nouvelle Experience and saw all he needed to see by intermission. According to Berge, "Wynn was so impressed with what he saw that he approached Laliberté at intermission and said, 'I'll give you your building.'"

"Then we were in business," Laliberté says. (Laliberté had been blown away by the first 20 minutes of Siegfried & Roy at The Mirage. "That's when we knew we could build on something that was probably a little more emotional. We knew we could count on the human-body aspect of the performers," he recalls.)

Wynn saw in Cirque a perfect complement to Treasure Island, a show that would appeal to its international guests, but more importantly, one that would appeal to Vegas' newest target audience: the family.

Therefore, in 1992, following a successful North American tour, “Nouvelle Expérience” rolled into Las Vegas and set up stakes in a special white-and-gold striped tent on the grounds of The Mirage. "We really took a gamble when we tried to play Cirque in Las Vegas," Sally Dewhurst, publicist for Mystère at the time said in an interview with Amusement Business (June 5, 1995). "Our situation was that we were behind the Mirage and people had to go through the casino to the tent, which wasn't conducive to convenience. Visitors didn't see its location or know the name, although the locals who did know about it loved it. One of the incentives to having the show in a tent prior to Mystère coming was that people became aware of the name Cirque du Soleil. But Nouvelle Experience didn't have the attendance figures that we had hoped for."

While the show was less-than-well received – at first (“At that time, no one in Vegas knew us. We would call suppliers and they would say ‘Cirque who?’”, Gilles Ste-Croix remembered) – the yearlong experiment proved one thing: Las Vegas could handle a sophisticated production (remember, at the time cabaret-style Showgirl shows and headliners were the norm). “But the show was a success, and Steve then asked us to mount a show in a permanent theatre at Treasure Island by 1993, which was very fast. We ended up building on some of the ideas we originally presented to Caesar's. That's why there are traces of mythology in Mystère, like the Odyssey, or Scylla and Charybdis."

Scylla and Charybdis were mythical sea monsters noted by Homer; later Greek tradition sited them on opposite sides of the Strait of Messina between Sicily and the Italian mainland. Scylla was rationalized as a rock shoal (described as a six-headed sea monster) on the Italian side of the strait and Charybdis was a whirlpool off the coast of Sicily. They were regarded as a sea hazard located close enough to each other that they posed an inescapable threat to passing sailors; avoiding Charybdis meant passing too close to Scylla and vice versa.

“I guess you could say I was the pursuer,” Wynn said in an interview for the show’s press-kit. “I tracked them down in Toronto. I told them I was building a new hotel, Treasure Island, and I said I would build them the same theater they wanted at Caesar’s. I asked them to shake hands on it since I had to catch a plane. I was standing at the bottom of the ramp. I said, ‘This is how I do business. I won’t know you any better in five years than I do now, so let’s make a deal.’ Guy Laliberte said, ‘I don’t believe this,’ but he shook hands.”

Once the deal was made Laliberté and Berge flew back to Vegas, this time to meet over the proposal for the performance space. “The first morning at 9:00," Berge recalled, "we're sitting in the conference room and Steve Wynn walks in with a plan in his mouth and two others in his hand and said, 'Okay, guys, you can go back home, I've designed your whole theatre.' That was the beginning of a three-year adventure." (Theatre Crafts, May 1994) To say the guys at Cirque du Soleil were shocked would be an understatement. But eventually Steve Wynn was convinced of the merits of their plan and offered up a compromise: the construction project would be managed by Wynn’s in-house design firm, Atlandia Design, while the design would be handled by Sceno Plus.

“Vegas 2 was one step closer to reality; now all Cirque and Sceno Plus had to do was convince everyone else of the merits of their plan, a task that would not always be easy.” (Theatre Crafts, May 1994)

Of course, it’s difficult to fully comprehend the cosmic chorus that would eventually become Mystère without fully appreciating the space within which these sprites jump and play. Read all about Mystère's Theater here.

An Esoteric Narrative

"The Mystère set actually suggests Ulysses, and the mythical obstacles he had to overcome on his own journey. The two towers represent Scylla and Charybdis, two of the perils Ulysses faced. The true journey of life is never easy."

The multi-million dollar production of Mystère tells a story -- An amazing story of time, beauty and memory; a ballet without gravity and a theater performance without actors. "Mystère is a voyage to the very heart of life where past, present and future merge and all our emotions converge," Franco Dragone says within the pages of the show’s program book. "Mystère is the enigma of time, the bearer of hopes and dreams, but also of tragedy. It is above all the remembrance of time past, memories of life unfolding, following its course and ultimately surviving against all odds."

Mystère is the story of the universe - a rich voyage from the dawn of time to the end of the millennium. Mystère is also mans journey from infancy to adulthood - his desire to understand the universe, his search for answers and his ultimate discovery that life itself is a mystery.

Mystère is a celebration of life. From the genesis of the first life forms to the rise of human civilizations, the driving force has always been the vital spark of life, throbbing, struggling, reproducing, and weaving through death and rebirth. From the infinitesimally microscopic to the infinitely vast, from the most majestic to the most terrifying, from the most fragile to the most powerful, all is the making of life. Mystère is a voyage to the very heart of life where past, present and future merge, and all our emotions converge. Mystère is the enigma of time, the bearer of hopes and dreams but also of tragedy. It is above all the remembrance of time past, memories of life unfolding, following its course and ultimately surviving against all odds.

And that includes beating the show’s own development odds.

Although Steve Wynn compromised with Cirque du Soleil on the design and construction of the Mystère Theater (which proved to be a successful decision), and allowed Cirque to retain full creative control over the c reation of the show that would play within that theater, doing so wasn’t without reservations. The story goes that when the show was still in its conception stage, where nothing was yet final, Steve Wynn decided to take a gander at his gamble and watched a rehearsal. When the house lights returned, the expression on his face was that of controlled terror - he was not enthused. He thought the show was too operatic, and he wanted it changed.

“It was terrible,” said Steve Wynn in a 1997 interview for Forbes magazine. “I almost wet my pants!” But Cirque’s creative team argued loftily that their shows come together as performers interact with each other and the audience. ("With Mystère, Cirque knew they were doing something totally new in Las Vegas, and that meant breaking the rules, doing the unexpected,” Luc Lafortune remembers. “While we were rehearsing the show, someone said the lighting was too heavy, that it made him think of a Wagner opera. Franco and I looked at each other and said: 'All right!' We knew we had to be on the right track.")

The creators - Franco Dragone (Director) and Gilles Ste-Croix (Creation) - jumped to the defense of the show, and thankfully, Steve Wynn allowed the two to continue uninhibited and in full control. (“Cirque would not dilute its brand of theater to turn Mystère into a standard Vegas show,” Gilles Ste-Croix remembered.) That decision was a fateful one, because who could guess at this day and age, what Mystère would have been... or if it would have been at all! Their visions coalesced with the juices of creation. The result: a unique story - a blend of circus and theater; of dance and darkness; and, of life and death. Their vision consisted of a mountain and a bird -- a story so bold and yet so fragile, exploring the human condition in a sense that had not been done before.

That vision brought forth Mystère.

"Mystère, for me, is about life,” says Franco Dragone (Spectaculara). “We knew we were building this temple in the desert, in Las Vegas. When you see the fragile beauty there, you can't help but ask yourself: how did life come to this planet? Mystère, in a way, is the story of this innocent being who is born into the universe, and then becomes a pilgrim, exploring its history. We're always influenced by the latest discussions and dialogues. And we were fascinated by chaos theory: the idea that, when a butterfly flaps its wings in Argentina, it causes a rainstorm in Europe. Everything is connected. Of course, the mystery is never fully resolved, but maybe that is what our pilgrim discovers."

To once again quote the show's program: “An Ancient Bird hops down the song-lines that furrow the brow of the desert, tapping his beak the path that only he can see clearly. Every click of the crooked bone raises a puff of dust, a few notes, and a few memories. A shiver ruffles his sun-worn feathers and the joy of remembrance fills him with surprise, as always...”

“A thousand years from now, the sun sets for the billionth time on the Nevada desert. The Ancient Bird bears witness, standing on a single gnarled leg. As the warmth of the day ebbs away, he turns his sand-scarred beak to the Ancient Mountain and croaks mischievously, "Do you remember, friend?" The wind sighs down the slopes, whispering a fond memory... when giants roamed a land where birds were still magical and humans believed in destiny. The bird's unblinking eye hardens at the memory of injustice. But the Mountain's warm breath whispers a comforting word. Remember... Remember the glow of the day when a hundred souls fused to deposit a generous gift on the desert floor; a gift that bloomed into a cactus flower, the beauty of which touched the world. Remember the radiance of the flower blossoming in the desert. Remember the mystery.”

The Mountain and the Ancient Bird tell us a story of humanity that is on the brink of a new Century. It is December 31st, 1999 and the universe is filled with the cries of three enormous babies (wait, three? Yes!). In thirteen brief seconds it will either be the dawn of a new millennium "fraught with the hopes and fears of humanity", or the beginning of the apocalypse doomsayers of the world have predicted. As the second hands everywhere slow to a solemn procession the whole world counts down with bated breath... all eyes turn skyward. All the sounds of the world, all the moments of history fuse into a few seconds. Time seems to grind to a halt. But the true Mystery is that it never moves forward, only in circles.

Mystere 1.0 (1993-1996)

“A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG MAN SAILS over the green earth, briefly alighting, then aloft again. Next a man and a woman materialize, Adam and Eve without the snake, in a stately, rapturous dance that hints at what passion was like before guilt. Finally, six animal-angels drop from the sky and soar back into it, gliding, pirouetting, and seeming to meditate in midair before they swoop back, swing down and holds hands, in a little aerodynamic miracle of celestial accord.”

The first version of Mystère - opening with “Manipulation” (a specially crafted act in which a trio manipulated various shapes and balls), then leading into Chinese Poles, Hand-to-Hand (performed by Yves Decoste and Mario Pontbriand), Bungees, Korean Plank / Trampoline / Fast-track and ending with Flying Trapeze - is quite a mystery (if you’ll excuse the pun) to most of us. Why? As Gilles Ste-Croix said above, Mystère’s first couple of years were fraught with big changes. Mystère started slowly in January 1994, with attendance at only about 60 percent, while the touring show (which was then Saltimbanco) was extremely successful, consistently selling out at 100 percent. The show required a lot of media coverage to bring Mystère to public attention. Indeed, not content to rest on its laurels, about 30 minutes of fresh material had been added to the show for the 1996 season, including new featured acts and a rousing new opening. Mystère no longer eased out of the gate, it roared out courtesy of a lavish new opening that pulled out all the stops and demonstrated the incredible lighting and pristine sound capabilities of the theater.

In the 1995-1996 season the story of the human condition turned tragic as a storm blew across the desert. When the sand cleared away and the Ancient Bird could once again catch a glimpse, he found a change in the narration – and with it, a change in the production. Gone were the Flying Trapeze, Manipulation and original Hand-to-Hand act.

What caused this sudden change? Quidam.

In 1995, Cirque du Soleil began preparations for a follow-up touring show to their very successful tour of “Alegría” in the United States. "Quidam," taking its name from the Latin for "a nameless passer-by", featured many acts and performers previously seen in Mystère. For instance, Yves Décoste provided his talents for Quidam's Statue Act (with Marie-Laure Mesnage), and was replaced by Christophe Suszek and Bogdan Zajac, whose act – AROS – took top prize at the International Festival of Circus in Verona, Italy. Steven Ragatz and Patrick McGuire came on board with the Manipulation Act and were replaced by Mikhail (Mischa) Matorin – a long-maned, bare-chested man who manipulated a 50-pound aluminum cube while dangling high above the stage (the “Aerial Cube”, or “Flying Cube”, or just known as “the Cube Act”) – from Alegría. The Flying Trapeze was replaced with an exciting new performance: The Aerial High-Bar, which was created by Pavel Brun and Andrei Lev. A version of the High-Bar had been and continues to be featured in Alegría.

Also new to the show were clowns James Keylon and Francine Côté (Alfredo & Adrenaline), who mined laughs via Cote’s mockery of Keylon’s mime skills set to a cool jazz backdrop. The dynamic duo was no stranger to Cirque du Soleil's stage. Adrenaline (Canadian Côté) performed with La Ratatouille in Cirque du Soleil's 1985 "Le Grand Tour" and in the 1990 European tour of "Le Cirque Réinventé". Alfredo (Keylon from the USA) performed with Adrenaline at Cirque's G7 Halifax special performance and on tour in 1992 with Cirque and Circus Knie. The saucy Cote used a chainsaw to destroy her partner’s imaginary walls, and the act was the show’s first to use limited English verbiage instead of untranslatable gibberish (a.k.a. “Cirquish”). They replaced Wayne Hronek’s “mad professor” (“Benny Le Grand” act; according to the programme Mr. Le Grand had come into possession of certain documents relating to the internal affairs of Le Cirque, which was why Cirque thought it best to allow him to continue with the company, but he also occasionally took time off to “go home and cave ducks and grow plants in Vancouver.” This time, though, he had hung up his clown shoes in retirement.

The following year even more changes would come.

Mystere 2.0 (1997-2011)

“We think audiences will find the spirit of Cirque du Soleil in every detail of Mystere,” said Gilles Ste-Croix, Mystere’s Director of Creation. “But remember, when you see Mystere, you are seeing a production in progress. Like life itself, Cirque du Soleil’s Mystere is in a constant state of evolution.”

Christophe Suszek and Bogdan Zajac (“Aros”) would take their leave in 1997 making room for Marco & Paulo Lorador (the “Alexis Bros”) as Hand-to-Hand artists (they joined Mystère after Saltimbanco ended its first European tour in 1997). Alfredo & Adrenaline would also take flight (their act seemed to ground the show somewhat, briefly dulling the otherworldly feel. Their second segment was a slow-building exercise in vintage slapstick that ended with a foamy fight that spilled out into the audience), allowing Cirque du Soleil veteran Brian Dewurst to bring his alter-ego “Brian Le Petit” to the stage. Le Petit turned out to be more like Benny LeGrand than Cirque would have liked (tongue firmly planted in cheek), running amok throughout the show. And even Yuri Maiorov, who performed a Flying Man in Silk act in Alegría (from 1995-1997) took to Mystère’s skies for a brief time while Paul Bowler was being prepped to take over Aerial Cube for Mikhail Matorin. (Maiorov would later fly in the skies of La Nouba from the show’s launch in 1998 through to his retirement in 2012. His act is currently performed by David Poirier, whom Yuri mentored and trained for the role.)

Mystere 3.0 (2012+)

"I'm astonished at the change," says Gilles Ste-Croix. "I can have an idea, and when it's evaluated, I can't believe how expensive it is. Every idea we had for Mystère seemed to cost more than $100,000. And I'd say, 'We built a show for that much in '84!' But we spend the money because we want to keep the show of the highest quality. It is the point of the arrow of what we do."

Although the show had remained virtually static for fifteen years, there had been various rumors about changing Mystère up (prior to 2012):

Back in mid-2002, a stir was created amongst fans when the future of Mystère in Las Vegas was put into question, largely caused by a quote attributed to Guy Laliberté – Cirque du Soleil’s founder – appearing in the French-Canadian press (La Presse). He was credited with suggesting that Mystère would fold at the end of 2003 and be transplanted to one of several world cities under consideration. Both Tokyo and London had been mentioned (as had Hong Kong), but the decision had not been made at the time of Le Presse’s article. The basis for Mystère ending lay within its original contract with the Treasure Island Hotel/Casino. In 1993, Cirque du Soleil and Mirage Resorts (now MGM International) signed a 10-year agreement to stage Mystère and by 2002 the contract was coming due.

Without an extension the show would indeed fold at the end of the year; however, there was never anything to worry about even after MGM International sold Treasure Island to real estate investor Phil Ruffin in 2009. The new owner loved the show and Mystère received a six-year extension to its current contract through 2016, with a five-year option through to 2021, keeping the show in Las Vegas for the foreseeable future.

At the time other possible reasons for closing Mystère in Las Vegas and moving it to Tokyo were the announced opening of Zumanity at New York- New York Hotel/Casino in 2003, and KÀ at the MGM Grand in 2004. The rumor proved interesting though, as eventually Cirque du Soleil did set up a resident show in Tokyo – ZED. Furthermore, at the time of the renewal it was suggested that artistic changes were one of the conditions of extension. Rumors abounded that the energetic High Bar act, first seen in Alegría, would be replaced with a Flying Trapeze act and that the Aerial Cube, performed by Paul Bowler, would be replaced by the Flying Man, performed by Alexandyr Dobrynin from Alegría.

Although nothing more than idle gossip at the time, changes did eventually come to Mystère. Cirque’s creative team felt that two super acts from its show ZED in Tokyo could be moved to Mystère after it shut down from the tragic earthquake and tsunami damage there. “We thought it was a big opportunity to refresh ‘Mystere,’” Daniel Lamarre mused. “We love and cherish it because no one show of this magnitude has lasted so long and still sells out. But this was an opportunity, and when we called T.I. owner Phil Ruffin, he said, ‘Let’s jump on it.’ The idea was in place, and it was just a matter of executing it properly. The T.I. people supported the artistic content and went further by investing in the theater, refreshing it and installing new seating.”

“Any time we want to make an artistic change to our shows in Las Vegas, we present it to our hotel partners first. Even though we have creative control, we like our partners to be involved and have them agree and support our decisions. ‘Mystere’ is the favorite of so many people. The first thing that Phil told us when he bought T.I. was ‘I’m a big fan. The show is amazing. Don’t do anything.’ We told him, though, we wouldn’t change the show, but we wanted to enhance it. We showed him a video of the two new acts, and he was so excited he wanted to personally invest to refresh the theater." So, at the beginning of 2012 Mystère welcomed the following changes:

High Bar was replaced with Flying Trapeze.
The choreography of the Chinese Poles act was re-done.
And the show added (not replaced) a flying silks act

Today Mystère (3.0) is better than ever!

* * *

“Nobody can say what it’s about,” says Gilles Ste-Croix. “It’s about the passage of a human being through his life, through the stages of consciousness, with a rebirth at the end. We try to keep it loose, so you can’t interpret it too closely or literally – it’s a mystery, like the title. We are not philosophers, we’re entertainers. And we don’t think the audience is dumb – they can interpret for themselves. [...] When the show is over people don’t move. Then they say, ‘what was that?’ That’s the best comment I can think of for Cirque du Soleil.”

It’s also the best compliment we can think of.

You may call it art. You may call it theatre.

We call it Mystère.