Photos: Cirque’s breathtaking ‘Toruk’ brings Pandora to life with color, majesty
It was absolutely gorgeous and unbelievable visually. Cirque du Soleil is known for bringing wonder and delight to millions of spectators across the globe, and it dazzled audiences once again Wednesday night with the Las Vegas premiere of its newest touring show, “Toruk: The First Flight.”
“Toruk” is breathtaking from start to finish, and the video mapping special effects make the waterfall, flooding ocean and volcanic lava eruptions so realistic that the audience felt the effects almost firsthand.
The production kicked off its limited run at T-Mobile Arena through Sunday night with more than 3,000 guests transported to the world of Pandora, bringing the mythical planet to life on a 20,000-square-foot stage buoyed by technology, acrobatics and cinematic score.
The touring show with 27 truckloads of scenery, equipment and wardrobe was inspired by director James Cameron’s Oscar-winning blockbuster “Avatar.” It cost Fox more than $230 million to make with actors, but it earned $1 billion at the box office in 19 days and eventually $2 billion. It remains the top-grossing movie of all time, displacing James’ “Titanic.”
Movies and bestselling books rarely translate into successful stage shows, or arena spectacles in this case, but Cirque pulled off the miracle with Pandora. It is a masterpiece of eye candy filled with wild creatures, incredibly colorful fans and flowers and a highly emotional finale lighting of the Tree of Souls.
The flight of the giant creature Toruk is amazing. A phone app lets the audience control fireflies, colors, twinkling lights and other effects during the production. Jerry Nadal, Cirque’s senior VP of Resident Shows Division here, brought along casts and crews from “Mystere,” “The Beatles Love” and “Ka” to “Toruk.”
Our thanks to contributing photographer Tom Donoghue, who was given special permission to shoot the first half of the show. “Toruk” is the first touring Cirque show to perform at the arena. Tom also photographed my advance behind-the-scenes rehearsals look at the backstage secrets of the spectacular.
I interviewed Brazilian MMA artist Kleber Berto, who performed in “Ka” at MGM Grand for five years before joining “Toruk” as the court jester, and Shakespearean actor Raymond O’Neill, who is the storyteller helping explain the Na’vi language that James created for his film with Dr. Paul Frommer, a professor of linguistics at USC.
I also talked with Fabrice Lemire, who is the show’s artistic director. He told me that his “traveling village of 95 performers, crew and artistic team” complete with catering, laundry, dry cleaning and wardrobe start the Asian leg of the world tour this fall in Taiwan. We’ll post my interviews with the trio later.
The cast will stay here for a three-day break after Sunday’s show to celebrate with local Cirque colleagues before traveling to Wichita, Kansas, for next Thursday’s arena show. Almost 30 trucks will drive the amazing scenery and equipment after packing up through the night Sunday for the load-in that begins Wednesday.
James has confirmed that there are plans for four sequels. “Avatar 2” is scheduled for release in December 2018, with the others following in December 2020, 2022 and 2023. If you can’t wait for the excitement of new Pandora adventures, see “Toruk” before it ends Sunday.