About 'O'

Cirque du Soleil (French for "Circus of the Sun,") is an entertainment company, based in Montréal, Québec, Canada. At the Bellagio Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip, Cirque created its tenth production and second resident show. Once again working with hotel entrepreneur Steve Wynn, Cirque du Soleil and Wynn financed a $100 million theater within the hotel. As the company was getting more comfortable with theater productions, they wanted to create a show performed in the water, a concept not tried in a theater before. "O", which is derived from the phonetic spelling of the French word for water, took more than 400,000 man-hours of production and pre-production work to assemble.

The costumes used by the performers were needed to be made of material that resisted the effects of the chlorine and bromide in the water. The makeup that had been used in past shows was also unsuitable for the performers being submerged, requiring a new waterproof formulation before the show could be started.

The 1,800-seat theater itself was centered around a 1.5 million-gallon tank of water for the performers to work in and around.

Cirque's creations have been awarded numerous prizes and distinctions, including Bambi, Rose d'Or, and four Primetime Emmy Awards.