Last night I joined a group of out-of-town visitors to watch Franco Dragone’s 250 million US dollars production of “The House of Dancing Water”. The show is a resident program of City of Dreams, across the street from the Venetian. Being an employee of the latter, and having been back and forth in Macau for business countless number of times including attending a few similar entertainment programs, I admit I wasn’t having too much hope when I entered the theatre.
Boy was I wrong. For those of us not new to Vegas-style productions and Cirque du Soleil’s shows, I can’t say there are too many original elements in Dancing Water. However, the physical setup of the theatre is an art of itself. Every audience seems to be participating since we are all seated in a sports auditorium setting instead of a traditional movie theatre seating. The stage constantly evolves from a 26-feet world’s largest swimming and diving pool to solid flooring onwards to a sea of 5 storey high water fountains. The 90 minute show was filled with cheers, applause and gasps from the audience. The motor bike stunts were simply amazing and truly Vegas-inspired. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
The ticket prices aren’t exactly inexpensive to Hong Kong’s standards. However, unlike the Zaia show across the street, while exiting the theatre I overheard a number of fellow audience members exclaiming that this new Dancing Water show is “definitely worth every penny”. It is by no means a modest compliment since Hong Kong people are known to be spoiled. It just seems like nothing can excite us anymore. The two shows really can’t be directly compared this way. One is slightly geared towards European taste while the newest Franco Dragone’s show incorporates more Chinese elements, and he frankly admitted that he has taken advantage of Zaia’s “failures” while planning this number. Asians in general feel that they better be excited paying a hundred US dollars per person for a show, and Franco gives them non-stop sky diving, motor bike jumping, acrobats and gymnastics. I remember people telling me that Zaia is the most boring circus show they have ever seen. Little do they know that Cirque du Soleil never proclaims it is a circus performance!
To me, last night was a pleasant surprise, and a truly happy ending to my love/hate affair with Macau. It will be a while before I come back to this not-so-quaint city, a place that is so near but also at the same time so different, from Hong Kong.
So long, farewell.
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