CIRCUS 1903 - The Golden Age of Circus Tickets

There was a cold draft down our necks from the air conditioning and couldn't enjoy the show as we were freezing.

We spend a lot of time in Vegas, and have seen most shows currently playing there. On our last trip, we had read some good things about this show, so we decided to try it out. "Absinthe", another show centered on the retro theme which is playing at Caesars, is one of our favorites in Vegas, so this prompted us to buy $99 dollar tickets for "Circus 1903" at Paris Hotel. We expected a similar experience. It boasted old time circus acts, elephants etc. If you think that a "Shrine Circus" experience is going to be relived at Circus 1903, it won't be. And for good reason. Firstly the show is on stage, not in a circus tent, so space is limited and acts are relegated to be shown in a much smaller venue. However part of the show is "erecting" a circus tent. All the performers dressed in garb of the day, come out and with some choreographed moves, and quickly begin throwing some props together to create the illusion of raising a tent. Once done, the Ringmaster announces the show and the acts are brought out, "under the Big Top". By the way, The Ringmaster, who hosts the show, was great, we have to say. The impromptu jokes and interaction with the show players and the people he brings up to help on stage with the act is a difficult thing to master. In particular when you have 4 and 5 year olds participating. When one of the little girls became afraid on stage with a prop he was using as a raccoon (not live, just a puppet) he handled it well when she began to cry. He gave her a nice little blow up elephant and sent her and her sister back to their seats, and replaced the two of them with less timid children. This was an example of how quick he had to think on his feet. He was just great and this was one of the highlights of the show for us. The acts, however, were so-so. They played into the theme of "Circus 1903" and this you can expect. For example, the high-wire act was good with the Lopez family from Mexico, although there was a similar one in "Absinthe" and was interlaced with a lot of humor and fun, which made it more enjoyable. In Circus 1903,they ran along on the highwire, rode bicycles on the wire and had one of the performers do a handstand on the handlebars while another managed the bike up on the wire. This among some other handstands etc. made for at least some "oohs" and "aahs" from the audience. I have to say the performers who did the contortions, another bicycle act on stage, the juggling and the see-saw, were all great, and it was fun to watch. There wasn't a lot of props, no laser show, no technology. If that's what is expected, there isn't any of this stuff, and as I say, its a basic show, with human talent on display as the primary thing. Just talented performers doing some amazing things and doing them well. The show is good for kids, as the ringmaster brought many on stage to participate, so it made it fun. Overall, this is a very basic show, about 90 minutes long and it really should be something held in the afternoon, and not a feature show in the evening, as it is reflected as an evening show price. In my view, this is not one of the "greatest shows on earth" and even though its playing in Vegas, it was somehow lacking in the glitz and glam, even in 1903! The Paris Theatre only was half full, and now we see the reason why. We had seats about 4 rows up from the stage and they were priced at 99$. Not sure where the $129 seats were, because we were almost at the front. Overall, if you want a fun time, with really just a basic show, with about 10 acts, you might enjoy this. Its not worth the $99 in my view, but there are much cheaper seats farther back and if this is what you want, then take the kids for the $49 seats. I'm not sure they would really like the acts that were shown anyway. Maybe older children would like them, not sure. For us two adults, we expected much more. Where was the bearded lady? How about the knife thrower? Lion tamer? High diver? We were particularly disappointed with the "prop" elephants (we expected real ones for some reason, however unrealistic as this was, being shown on stage) however the puppet elephants were masterfully controlled by the puppeteers. As I say, maybe this is something the kids would enjoy, however its only in the evening and the small ones would probably be in bed by this time. If you want to spend $99 on a show as an adult, there probably is better shows on the strip, and for this, it was a fun 90 minutes, but I probably wouldn't recommend it to our adult friends.

This show was one of the worst I have seen in Vegas. All of the acts are second rate at best. The theater was quite empty, so the word must be out that this show is not worth the time or money. Half price tickets are readily available.