Starting Friday the Quebecois carnival group Cirque Du Soleil takes over the American Airlines Center with their tribute to the life and music of Michael Jackson with THE IMMORTAL tour.
The Texas leg of the tour is the last in the U.S. for the company, as they will cap off the 3 year long world tour in Mexico in August. Currently the tour is stopped up in Oklahoma City, where spokesperson Laura Silverman called us from to answer a few questions about the show.
DC9 at Night: How far does the music span? Are we getting any Jackson 5 songs?
Silverman: They did a really good job of covering pretty much all the decades of his life, from the Jackson 5 up until his passing. You get a great glimpse at everything he did from the '70s, to the '80s, the '90s and his final work in the 2000s.
How many people does it take to pull something like this off?
We have 49 performing artists, 130 on the crew, and we load into 30 trucks. So we have 30 drivers as well, all coming together to make this happen.
How many people involved with the show actually worked with Michael?
We have 4 of his band members performing. Jonathan "Sugarfoot" Moffett was Michael's drummer for 34 years. Our percussionist was a part of the "This Is It" rehearsals. Don Boyette, our band leader, and our guitar player, Jon Clark, were on the "Bad" tour. We also work with many of the choreographers from his tours, along with most of the technicians from those tours.
You're swinging through Texas and then into Mexico. Is this show highly anticipated internationally?
We've already been all over the world. When we premired the show in 2011 we did North America, and then Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand [and] Dubai. Now back to North America, and we'll finish in Mexico after a three-year tour.
Elvis, the Beatles, now MJ. Is there anyone else from the music world that could possibly hit the Cirque benchmark?
Those three are the top of the top of their genre, and all three changed their genre, and really music, and culture. There are no set plans now, but who knows down the road?
So maybe we'll get a Prince, or Rolling Stones show?
You never know.
Really, though, what sets this show apart from the things you can catch in like Vegas, or other Michael Jackson tributes?
It's the only official show out there celebrating Michael and his music. Everything is as close as you can get. We cooperated fully with his family. We used his actual vocals, his videos and his crew. We recently became the ninth-highest grossing music tour of all time, and that's a pretty special thing to accomplish.
Cirque de Soleil's Michael Jackson THE IMMORTAL World Tour opens at the American Airlines Center on Friday, July 25. Tickets start at $66.
