Life after ‘Alegria’ on horizon for Beau Rivage

Wednesday, July 12, 2000 | 8:58 a.m.

The Cirque du Soleil Theatre at the Biloxi casino has 1,500 seats, three-quarters in the round. The stage, which was specially built for the show, features trampolines embedded in the stage for the acrobats, with a steep upstage rake for the musicians' platform.

"Alegria" will move on after its run in Biloxi to tour Australia, New Zealand and Singapore and other Pacific Rim countries.

The Biloxi theater will be renovated. It will lose seats on the sides, but others will be gained by eliminating the peninsula that juts into the audience. The casino anticipates the capacity to remain the same.

Terry Burden, director of entertainment at Beau Rivage, said it will take two to three months to reconfigure the theater. Officials haven't decided yet if the complete renovation, expected to take six months, will be done in two-month phases over three years, or all at once.

The advantage of doing it in phases is that it could be done in November and December, usually slow months for the casino business. Closing the theater for one six-month period would cut into the casino's convention business, which requires entertainment as a draw.

"We will be tripling the amount of headliners we bring in from last year to this year," said Sandy Zanella, Beau Rivage publicist. "Our entertainment department is looking at two or three touring Broadway shows, and we're in discussions with Las Vegas producers about a wide variety of production shows."