What went wrong with Cirque du Soleil’s Viva Elvis show?
What went wrong with Cirque du Soleil’s Viva Elvis show at the Aria? Just about everything, according to local gaming industry insiders who know a thing or two about the entertainment business. It’s difficult to imagine a multimillion-dollar Elvis show not doing very well in Las Vegas. His concerts were a travel destination in themselves during the 1970s when he was regularly filling the showroom at the Las Vegas Hilton. But that was then and here we are some 35 years after his death. All those years seemed to give Cirque’s big thinkers the feeling that the time was right for the company’s own interpretation of Presley’s music. "Elvis was a show without heart, a lot of talent but no heart," says Minnie Madden, a Las Vegas-based producer, director and critic who now writes and talks about the business where she has made her living for a number of years. "When you’re doing a show about someone as iconic as Elvis, people want to see the performer they loved,"...