Review: Cirque du Soleil's ZUMANITY

I'm writing this mainly because I looked all over for this online but could never find it. I hope you find it useful in your planning!

NOTE: Spoilers + the dirty details below.

We arrived into the theatre (which is gorgeous, by the way) about 25 minutes before the show began. To the right, a set of stairs that lead to the upper levels and rear floor, and to the left there was a corridor to the main floor and the restrooms. We needed a restroom break, so we took the left hallway. In the hallway, we noticed that there were a few lights that seemed unusual on the velvety plush wall - and they were flickering. So I looked at them a little closer and noted "hey - I think these are peep show holes" - and buried my face into the wall to see if I was correct, which indeed I was. The peep holes showed fast paced videos of body parts, some hands, some faces, some bare breasts - all intended to wet your visual appetite before the show began.

We found our seats and the pre show began about 15 minutes. If you're familiar with Cirque du Soleil, you'll know that every show has a pre show with the Cirque clowns harassing the audience and latecomers.

PRE-SHOW: The pre show of Zumanity essentially consisted of 3 separate acts.

(a) The first were a pair of heavyset twin sisters, wearing thongs and corsets, making their way around the audience with trays of chocolate covered strawberries. As they would squeeze their way through the rows, they would often offer strawberries to a patron on a different row - causing them to stretch their arms over the row they were on, and often placing their breasts into the face of the patron on their direct row. Funny? Sure - but a little more uncomfortable as they got closer and closer to our seats.

(b) The second was a latin male who was extremely vulgar, often grabbing at his crotch, or even putting it in the face of female patrons taking "selfies" with them that looked as if they were preforming oral sex on him. My wife was extremely offended by this - not because of the overt sexual nature, but because it was vulgar and completely classless.

(c) The third act was a middle aged male and female couple who were "swingers" and "sex therapists" who made their way around the first few rows with flirtatious advances on the audience. When interviewing a couple on one of the front row couches, the male clown presented a blue rubber sex toy and gave it to a male in the audience, and he pulled out another one, and they preceded to sword fight with them - first in the air, and then again placed as if it were their actual genitals. Comical, yes - but we were still a little put off by the second act - and were kind of on pins and needles on if we would also be singled out. This completed the pre show.

ZUMANITY - in no particular order, but as closely as I could remember.

Our transvestite host arrived onto the stage and went through a comedic monologue to open the show. It was much classier than the pre show, while still screaming sexuality. With a few clearly scripted words, he launched the show - which ran like a series of cabaret acts.

The first two acts were international dance numbers. The first, a female dancer (topless) did a spinning, latin feel dance in a cloud of rose petals and smoke. The second dancer was a clothed (tribal looking bra and g-string) african american female who did an african stomp dance. Very classy. My wife (who can be fairly prude) noted that it was a beautiful dance number, classy, and was not put off by the lack of clothing.

The famous waterbowl act soon followed, where two beautiful ladies proceeded to take their tops off, and do a few acrobatic dives into the shallow pool of water. Flirty, and on the edge of kissing and caressing each other between each dive, it was actually a classy act - though not as impressive as I would have thought it would be.

Shortly into the show, our transvestite host addressed the crowd noting that there was so many beautiful naked women, that I'm sure they wondered "where's the beef" - and a male dancer came out with roses, handed them into the crowd, and then proceeded to do a Chippendales style strip tease. He made it all the way to his g-string before being surrounded by female (clothed) dancers, who placed their heads strategically - at which point the g-string was removed and they disappeared via a lowered stage (so you never saw full frontal male nudity).

A female wearing a school girl outfit came out and twirled hoola hoops. First one, then 3, then 30. I expected her top to be removed, but was surprised that it was not removed. More surprising was that they took out the part where she attaches her hand to a cable and hoola hoops as she is lifted into the air. This could be for our particular show - as I'd seen a video of her doing the hoola hoops while suspended from a cable.

Middle aged female pre-show clown made an appearance in which she brings a male audience member on stage to assist her with creating her own breast implants - complete with a squeeze test to see if they feel real. It was cute, comical - but was obviously a show filler that could have easily been replaced with a different act.

The vulgar latin male from the pre-show then came out and did a series of cartwheel moves on a ring that was the size of his body. This act was actually one of the better acts, as what he was doing was very difficult. He was eventually stripped down to a speedo type bottoms, and the act continued.

A contortionist made his way out, wearing boxers, and put his body in positions and contortions that made the audience squirm. It was comical and entertaining at the same time. Amazing act.

Then, from every aisle of the audience, men wearing only briefs carried chairs onto the stage, and a TV set with a woman on top rose up from the stage floor. The woman proceeded to dance seductively on the TV while the men seemed only interested in the football game that was showing. The woman dancer made her way around, throwing them from their chairs (offended that they weren't interested in her) and she made her way back to the TV - and was joined by 4 more female dancers. As the music intensified, the women stripped off their clothes un unison until they were topless and in thongs - which the men immediately became interested in them over the TV. A short lap dance from the 5 women occurs, and then the men are thrown off the stage, as the women continue their topless dance on their chairs.

A woman, bound by straps, does a series of arial acrobatics. She seems nude but is actually in a body suit. As her movements get more difficult and skilled, she makes the sounds of passion, eventually leading to a simulated orgasm as she is lifted into the ceiling. If you're close enough to see what she is doing (it's very dark - lit only by candle light), it's very impressive. Otherwise, I could see where this is just a scene of erotic passion.

Preshow clowns "the twins" and two other clowns then come out and do a cheerleading dance. They appear to be nude, covering themselves with only cheerleader pom-poms. Eventually, the pom-poms of the male are taken away (revealing a realistic prosthetic male genital - though you can tell he's wearing it) - and the naked male climbs over the rows to retrieve his pom-poms which made their way into the crowd.

The pre show swinger clowns then grab one male and one female audience member for a game of "monkey see, monkey do" in which they have the strangers dancing together, and eventually simulating sex (comedically) on a mini bed. This was probably the funniest part - and my prude/easily offended wife found this to be extremely funny, extremely classy and the best part of the show.

A bathtub raises up from the floor with a female and a male in it - both wearing towels. The towels are seductively removed by the opposite sex, leaving the male in a thong and the female topless and in a g-string. The female proceeds to to the splits as she does a series of pretty amazing acrobatics on the rim of the bathtub (who would have guessed) - all while simulating the act of making love in a bathtub.

Our host comes back out, along with the rest of the cast, which they take place in an "orgy" - with every level of clothing possible, from a full rubber body suit, to a practically nude woman (though full nudity is not allowed in Vegas shows). This was essentially their curtain call, before one last bow to the audience.

OVERALL:

I was entertained. My wife found herself not enjoying it as much as she hoped. Make no mistake - there is a TON of bare breasts in this show. I would venture to say 15-20 girls total. If you're shy or easily offended - just know what you're getting yourself into, and hold on to the amazing acts (because there are some really amazing acts) in the show.

3.5 / 5 stars

 

Excellent review, I have many MyVegas points to use. When I have time to see this show, I will do it.

 

I saw the show years ago and just this year. They did do some changes but keep the show about the same.


Thanks for the recap.

 

Yeah, I heard it changed - but I have no idea how. The soundtrack is completely different than what they use in the show now.

 

Very nice review. I had similar thoughts. Thanks for taking the time to share.

 

Wife and I just saw it last week. If you are prudish, you will not enjoy or may be uncomfortable. If not, you will love it. We thought it was great - funny, sexy, amazing. Similar to Absinthe but much more nudity/erotic. Highly recommend. Military discount 35% BTW.

 

Thanks for the overview. I'm kind of turned off by the crotch in face guy. Everything else sounds like a good show.

 

Yeah, it was just completely tacky and there was no need for that character. That said - everything else (for the most part) is great. Go on a discount and you'll be happier.

 

I saw the show about five years ago. Seems there have been some changes, including more nudity. Another is that in the show I saw, there were two men dancing in a cage who ended up kissing. Although I'm not used to that and it was a little odd for me, I appreciated the fact that they put out many different types of erotica.

I agree that if you're not open to being a little uncomfortable, don't go. I think that the cost of the ticket should not affect the entertainment value of the show. But I know it does, unfortunately.

 

I believe the show is closing for a complete rehab; and except for a few performers, everyone else is out of a job. This will be happening in Jan.

 

I think you're correct. I'll be interested to see what they do with it. It needs to go back to the old "storyline" based show like the other Cirque shows. I mean - even Criss Angel's beLIEve has a storyline!

 

I saw the show a couple of years back and thought that it was okay, nothing special. And a few months ago decided to use a MyVegas reward to see it again. Except for the toplessness, I kept thinking that I hoped the performance would end soon as soon as possible. The only laughs were when people were brought up on stage.