Friday, Dec. 27, 2002 | 8:56 a.m.
What: "EFX Alive."
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 8 p.m. Tuesday, dark Monday.
Where: MGM Grand's EFX Theatre.
Tickets: $55, $75; children (ages 5 -- 12) $40.
Information: (702) 891-1111.
Rating (out of 5 stars): **** 1/2
The curtain closes for the last time Tuesday on one of Las Vegas' most creative productions.
If you haven't yet seen "EFX Alive," you should do so before it is too late. If you have seen it, it's worth seeing again.
"EFX," a $40-million-plus spectacular debuted at the MGM Grand in March 1995. During the past eight years (almost) there have been four leads in the production, with the show changing slightly each time to accentuate the assets of each star but losing none of the magic of the special effects that make the show special.
Michael Crawford, best known for his lead role in "Phantom of the Opera," was the first to ride the flying saucer out of the rafters.
David Cassidy, who won the hearts of teenyboppers in the 1970s' TV sitcom "The Partridge Family," replaced Crawford in October 1996. Crawford was forced to leave "EFX" because of a hip injury.
Tommy Tune, a 6-foot, 6-inch Broadway hoofer with nine Tony awards to his credit, replaced Cassidy when Cassidy's contract expired at the end of 1998.
Rocker and soap opera star Rick Springfield took over the helm Jan. 30, 2000. Springfield's hits include "Jessie's Girl," "Don't Talk to Strangers" and "Affair of the Heart."
At a recent performance, Springfield and a cast of about 70 performers seemed not to have lost any of their enthusiasm for the show, even though it will be closing in a few days.
"EFX" is a series of wildly imaginative journeys through the worlds of the great wizard Merlin, legendary showman P.T. Barnum, illusionist Harry Houdini and time-traveling author H.G. Wells.
The production is billed as a surrealistic spectacle of music, magic, illusions and high-tech special effects. It is all of that, and more. It is theatrics at its best.
More than 250 special effects keep the audience mesmerized.
You can feel through your theater seat the rumbling of a space ship as it lands onstage. You can feel the heat from giant, fire-breathing dragons. Wearing 3-D glasses, you can almost reach out and touch H.G. Wells' time-travel machine as it comes toward you.
Each separate journey involves a storyline, but the story is secondary to the special effects and to the dancing and to the music. The show's musical director is Don Grady (who played Fred McMurray's eldest son, Robbie, on the TV series "My Three Sons").
Springfield is five different characters in the show: the EFX Master, who guides the audience through strange worlds; Merlin, the mythical magician and sorcerer from King Arthur's tales; Barnum, the circus master; Houdini, the greatest illusionist of all time; and Wells, the time traveler.
More than 100 computers coordinate special effects and scenery. Ten tons of scenery make up an ancient, primitive, underground world. Two huge dragons do battle onstage. A giant 3-D screen puts knights, fish and other objects almost at the audience's fingertips.
Springfield (who appeared in the soap opera "General Hospital" in the '80s) has made the show his during his two-year run. He wrote a number of the songs, including "Rhythm of the Beat."
"EFX" begins while the audience is still being seated, with a 15-minute bit by singer/dancer Sal Salangsang (Springfield's understudy). Salangsang plays the part of an inept stage hand during a comedy routine that also features Steven Dietrich as the stage manager. Dietrich is one of eight stuntmen in the production.
After the pre-show, a giant head of Springfield appears, much like the Wizard in "The Wizard of Oz." Then there is an explosion, a blinding flash of light and Springfield soars around the stage standing on a flying saucer as he sings and plays the guitar.
The stage is set for a memorable experience in the theater, which will include sprites, acrobatics on giant spheres, Houdini-like escapes and a journey to the land of the Morlocks, an underground cavern in Wells' "The Time Machine."
One of the highlights of the evenings for me was a kind of tip of the hat to "Lord of the Dance" (a popular production of Irish dancers now at The Venetian). "The Cosmic Jig" features Irish dancer-types dressed in costumes from outer space.
This delightful production will be replaced in 2004 by a show being created by the geniuses at Cirque du Soleil, responsible for two of the most successful production shows in Las Vegas, "O" at Bellagio and "Mystere" at Treasure Island.
"EFX" is closing now so that the theater may undergo extensive renovation.
MGM MIRAGE Chairman J. Terrence Lanni announced in June that Cirque du Soleil would develop new shows at New York-New York (to debut in 2003) and at MGM.
Although specific details of the new production coming to the MGM are not available, officials said it "shake the spectator's perception of space, conception of the law of gravity and comprehension of the world in three dimensions."
I thought that was what "EFX" did.
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