Spectacular! The Michael Jackson circus is coming to town

Spectacular! The Michael Jackson circus is coming to town

It was only a matter of time before our favourite recently deceased spectacle got together with our favourite French-Canadian spectacle and said, hey, let’s make an even more spectacular spectacle! No, it’s not a Patrick Swayze–Céline Dion YouTube mash-up; it’s the Cirque du Soleil Michael Jackson Immortal World Tour, touching down in Toronto next October 21.

The $57-million show will feature more than 60 artists in a “celebration of dance and spectacle.” Cirque says it will reinvent its signature style for this show, merging it with “rock ‘n’ roll/pop spectacle and touring it.” Spectacle, spectacle, spectacle.

The show will be directed by Jamie King, who has worked with such spectacle freaks as Madonna, Prince, Britney Spears and Rihanna. “We do it big, because Michael would have done it large, so we’re following that design, if you will,” King said. The stage will feature massive video screens projecting images of Jackson singing and dancing, while Cirque members do their thing in the foreground.

Immortal’s soundtrack will follow the formula created for Cirque’s Beatles and Elvis tribute shows, taking Jackson’s original tracks and giving them the remix and mash-up treatment. King says the theme of the show will be Neverland: “We get to go inside Michael’s head…inside this place of beauty and serenity and peace and learn all the secrets that are Michael—his loves, things that he believed in—and take this fantastic journey together. It really is based on things we all really know of Michael.” Well, maybe not all of the things.

Michael Jackson Cirque Du Soleil Tour Will Be ‘A Celebration,’ Says Director [Billboard]