O

O Review

More than $70 million was spent on Cirque du Soleil's theater at Bellagio and it's the liquid stage that takes over as the real star of the show. It was money well spent: O marked its 10th anniversary in October 2008 and remains one of the best-attended titles on the Strip. The title is taken from the French word for water (eau), and water is everywhere—1.5 million gallons of it, 12 million pounds of it, contained by a "stage" that, thanks to hydraulic lifts, can change shape and turn into dry land in no time. The intense and nonstop action by the show's acrobats, aerial gymnasts, trapeze artists, synchronized swimmers, divers, and contortionists takes place above, within, and even on the surface of the water, making for a stylish spectacle that manages to have a vague theme about the wellspring of theater and imagination. Even if the deeper themes elude you, so much is going on that you may be exhausted from trying to see everything.