By Joe Brown (contact)

Wed, Oct 29, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Chris Morris

Just days from now, our long national nightmare will finally be over.

We’ll finally know the answer to the question that’s been burning in our hearts, minds and Twitter accounts:

Will “Criss Angel: Believe” live up to the hype and hate and save Las Vegas?

(What did you think we were talking about?)

When the long-awaited, much-discussed show officially opens Friday — Halloween night — the fortunes of extreme magician Criss Angel and the venerable circus Cirque du Soleil will converge. More than $5 million in advance tickets have been sold, and Angel is contracted for a 10-year-run — two shows a day — at a purpose-built, 1,600-seat theater at the Luxor.

Cirque has become an international phenomenon, with a steady upward trend and nary a misstep to its name. Angel has built his bad boy reputation with a string of self-endangering stunts and a trail of tabloid-bait dates. Their merger on this magical enterprise is seen by many as a risky venture, and the past few months leading up to the opening have certainly been rocky, pocked with postponed openings and reports of walkouts and refund demands. As these two distinct sensibilities prepare to combine — or collide — we thought we’d take a look at the career trajectories, the highs and lows, of Angel and Cirque over 20-something years.

By the way: We just noticed that the elaborate invitation for the show’s opening typographically emphasizes the word “lie” at the center of “Believe,” and the lie shows up on Cirque’s official Web site. What do you think Angel — or Cirque — is winkingly telling us?