13-04-19

One may not like entirely the new ‘Las Vegas-prototyped’ Macau city but her present offering of diverse entertainment shows with assorted flavours is surely a redemption for her damage to the former mesmerizing, tranquil and nostalgic Portuguese colonial town.

Among all casinos, Melco Resorts & Entertainment has made an appreciable contribution to Macau by producing great shows to attract visitors. They firstly presented The House of Dancing Water―part singing and dancing in the rain, part Chinese folktale, part circus acrobatics and part stunt show. It is utterly unique and truly spectacular―though it is slightly out of place to add a vehicular stunt show to the romantic water performance.

In 2015, Melco Crown put up another show Batman Dark Flight―a movie theatre for a 4D flight simulation adventure ride with Batman. It is a short experience for only 10 to 15 minutes. One critic said, “Worth the money, definitely recommended if for a one-time experience.” Another commented, “I had an expectation that the ride will be state-of-the-art, meaning greater than Transformers show but it is not. It is much more inferior in terms of screen resolution and rendering…”

This year, the company would like the audience to check out Elekron, the electrifying new stage production at their Studio City. Elekron delivers ‘high-stakes’ stunts alongside dazzling effects. The stunts, including everything from wing-walking and pyrotechnic displays to parkour and aerial arts involving dancers, cars, motorbikes, bicycles and buggies, are performed by an international cast and crew.

However, a little surprise of dismay and boredom is probably the reaction of some audience like me after watching such a super-budgeted production. There is nothing impressive, exciting or spectacular about the show. Gimmicks and skills are usual and repetitive. The storylines are scattered and have no charm or human touch. No wonder why the show was not well attended when I went. They also marketed the show too aggressively as a stunning masterpiece and failed to understand the risk of word of mouth when the product disappointed. This show took years to produce and millions of dollars to mount; but the performance, hopefully, will not bleed red ink.

Casino resorts in Macau nowadays integrated gambling with entertainment hoping to bring a wide range of leisure and excitement together in one place. However, after years of such an operating model and business strategy, the visitors have become too accustomed to and tired of watching the ‘second-hand’ or copy shows from Hong Kong and overseas. Shows like concerts of Hong Kong and Taiwan pop singers, Cirque du Soleil, Crazy Horse Cabaret and Celine Dion Concert etc. soon may not run away from the destiny of ‘familiarity breeds contempt’. The blind alley ahead is obvious. The next evolution of stage shows must be how to create and produce ‘made in Macau’ performances which can generate a world standard but at the sometime make Macau entertainment a brand of splendid myths and legends. Most importantly, it should bear relevance for the art and culture of Macau and contain ‘cultural proximity’ to the Chinese. Casinos in Macau are profitable and influential. They have ample resources, human and capital, eastern and western, to build up a collaborative team which will engender great performing work that can give rise to a sense of pride among the Macau people who may surpass the limitation of a population of 600,000!

For the art critics, they may not in future any longer harbour doubts about the value of casino performances which are often classified as ‘junk food’ when Macau can produce her great local contents.

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