Vegas loves a dead celebrity

I speak, of course, of the city’s penchant for resurrecting departed superstars, often making big money for their estates, without the inconvenience of them actually having to perform.

Helmed by impersonated Elvis, “Legends in Concert” has been a fixture for 28 years. In various forms, “The Rat Pack is Back” has been toasting the memories of Frank, Dean and Sammy since 1999, merely a year after we lost Ol’ Blue Eyes.

Starting Saturday, Las Vegas hosts 33 performances of Cirque du Soleil’s “The Immortal” tribute to Michael Jackson, with more than 246,000 tickets to push at Mandalay Bay Events Center.

That’s only 17 short of the 50 “This Is It” concerts planned for London, which the frail Jackson was rehearsing when he died in 2009. If you believed the title, there weren’t going to be any more. There was talk of more touring, but the Gloved One probably wouldn’t have played Saskatoon or Salt Lake City like his globe-trotting Cirque substitute.

Jackson was a big Cirque fan, so perhaps he would have signed off on “The Immortal” and lived to see it, much the way Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr support “Love.” Part of what makes that show special is that it’s a de facto Beatles “reunion” with the interests of all four partners represented.

But Cirque du Michael certainly would have been more complicated with Jackson around.

In 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported Jackson might be coerced to play the Las Vegas Hilton, because its owners carried the papers on his Neverland ranch. The most probable scenario called for an ongoing “Immortal”-type revue that he could step into 20 or 30 times a year.

But it’s hard enough to work around absent stars in “Viva Elvis” or “The Immortal.” Most Hilton audiences would have felt they were getting the consolation prize if they knew a few lucky ticket holders would see the real deal.

Sadly, it’s simpler this way.

However, we learned last week that “Viva Elvis” has been put on notice to probably close at the end of next year. Disappointing ticket sales motivated the request to ask Cirque to come up with something else.

Perhaps dead celebrity tributes belong on a short list of things — such as prime rib and lounge acts — that were better in the fun, cheesy Vegas of the 1980s than the classy new, respectable Vegas.

It’s the literal versus the abstract. “Legends” impersonations of Michael and Elvis are silly but earnest expressions. Cirque’s more high-minded ambitions can leave us feeling like someone skipped his own party.

“Viva Elvis” was a schizoid mix of biography and Borat; the movie foreigner adrift in the American heartland, struggling to impress. “Love” worked from the get-go because it used the Beatles’ music and social history to create its own cohesive world.

When “The Immortal” launched in Montreal two months ago, it landed somewhere in the middle. We’ll find out Saturday how it flows now.

But the checks will cash for the Jackson estate either way.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.