We saw “Enter the Night” shortly after it replaced “Lido de Paris.” Vladimir was top-billed but not the official star of the show yet. IIRC, the rest of it was still “standard Vegas.” Cirque may have started but hadn’t completely taken over yet. “O” was still on the drawing boards.
As for Cirque, we saw “Mystere” at Treasure Island, also shortly after it opened. All I remember is a big guy crawling around in a diaper, and waiting what seemed like hours while they set up the safety nets for the trapeze act finale. Never bothered with any of the others. At the time it was described in the show listings as “un-Vegas-y.” Little did they know.
Also saw the one at MGM that was later replaced by “Ka,” with Tommy Tune and his planted groupie in the audience; the huge opening blow-up of James Earl Jones’ face; and the 3-D glasses.
Good times.

Your Dad was correct Steve, my first Vegas show was Wayne Newton at the Sands, my Dad is a Orthopedic Surgeon and he took care of a pit boss who got us comped, full two hour show, Wayne hustles… The Frontier always had picket lines in front…

I have no idea what happened to Vladimir, I bet he went back to Russia… I used to get the $5.99 New York Steak dinner at the Silver Slipper, I was a young buck and would order two of them…

My first Vegas show was Siegfried and Roy at the Frontier. Was with my parents and Dad tipped the guy who escorted us to our table. He said if you don’t tip you wind up sitting behind a pole????

You bet your sweet bippy I remember Enter The Night, it starred Vladimir, The Man Who Flies, getting airborne when you are sporting a kielbasa in your shorts like Vlad is quite a feat, my wife obviously loved that show more than I did… Vladimir was the main attraction in traveling Cirque shows before that, I was friends with the massage trainer who traveled along, I got to meet Vlad and the founder Guy, it was about 33 years ago, when Cirque was a small operation. I think the show depicted in the movie Showgirls was a loose depiction of Enter The Night, and I think Enter The Night was one of the first Las Vegas shows that had reserved seating, prior to that you had to slip the usher a twenty dollar bill to get good seats, getting that usher job was plumb, the mafia was in charge of giving those jobs out…

I nearly fell over when I read it went 17 years. Zumanity and Ka did nothing for me. Vegas needs the variety whenever COVID ends, so still hate to see shows close.

Over 7,700 performances across 17 years is impressive. While they have had plenty of failures, I don’t think Cirque du Soleil gets proper credit for creating many of shows that last decades.

For comparison, there are only 3 Broadway shows that have more than 7,700 performances: Phantom of the Opera (13,000+), Chicago (9,600+), and The Lion King (9,300+). Wicked will undoubtedly hit that mark once theatre returns as they are at 6,800+ performances right now.