LAS VEGAS (AP) - Criss Angel, the long-haired, punky magician whose "Mindfreak" show is shooting its third season for A&E, will team up with Cirque du Soleil to produce its sixth permanent show on the Las Vegas Strip.
The show will start in the summer of 2008 at the Luxor, the pyramid-shaped hotel-casino where Angel has been filming, officials said Thursday at news conference to announce the still-unnamed show.
Director Serge Denoncourt described the live production as "Criss in Wonderland."
"He appears in a world he doesn't control and he has problems with girls, with giants, with evil," Denoncourt said.
"It's that kind of acid trip show. It's like being in Criss's head for two hours, which is something."
In the June 5 season debut of Angel's TV show and in a spectacular feat of cross-promotion, the magician levitates some eight metres above the light beam that shoots from the Luxor's pinnacle into space. On the televised show, Angel, 39, has dressed up as a woman, performed card tricks, walked on water, been lit on fire and caught bullets with his teeth.
In one illusion for the live show, Angel said a tornado will "come out of my mouth."
"The Luxor will experience a tornado 10 times a week. That's just one small element in a show filled with things that have never been experienced," he said.
The Cirque du Soleil (French for circus of the sun) show will add its signature acrobatics performed by dancers and puppets accompanied by music composed by Angel himself. The production has a story line and is filled with characters in a strange world.
"Criss is prisoner of that world and he will try to escape," Denoncourt said.
The Luxor has been looking for a headline act since the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical "Hairspray" closed there last June after just a four-month run.
Luxor president Felix Rappaport said Angel comes with a "built-in audience," while "Hairspray" had a hard time drawing a crowd.
"Mindfreak" is A&E's No. 1 show among 18-45-year-olds and averages about 1.5 million viewers a week, the show's executive producer Dave Baram said.
"Broadway is still an open-ended question in Las Vegas," Rappaport said.
"Criss right now is just starting to erupt as a star. Cirque is going to give him exposure to a whole new level of audience."
Luxor parent MGM Mirage Inc. will spend US$75 million in pre-production costs, Rappaport said. Most of the money will be spent on the show itself, with only minor changes to the 1,520-seat theatre, he said.
The show joins other Cirque productions on the Strip, "Love," "Ka," "Zumanity," "O," and "Mystere." The Quebec-based circus troupe formed in 1984 is known for its extravagant theatrical performances that combine music, dance and acrobatics.
A seventh Cirque show with an Elvis theme is planned at MGM Mirage Inc.'s $7-billion CityCenter. The megaresort, set to open in November 2009, is under construction at the centre of the Strip.