More than a decade after it opened, Michael Jackson ONE is still being recommended as one of the Las Vegas shows worth seeing.
Forbes Vetted included the Cirque du Soleil production in its list of “The Best Shows In Vegas To See The Next Time You Visit The Strip.” The show has been running at Mandalay Bay since 2013, combining Michael Jackson’s music with dance, acrobatics, giant projections and elaborate visual effects.
But one of its most impressive features is something audiences may not even notice when they first sit down.
There are three speakers built around every single seat.
Cirque du Soleil says the Michael Jackson ONE theater contains 1,804 seats, with a left, center and right speaker for each one.
That works out to 5,412 seat speakers.
And those are not the theater’s only speakers.
Sound designer Jonathan Deans created a much larger surround system around the room as well. The idea was to separate different layers of Michael’s original multitrack recordings and position them around the audience, making instruments and effects seem to come from different directions.
For songs as layered as Michael’s, that changes the experience completely.
During certain moments, sound can seem to move behind, above and around the audience instead of simply coming from the stage. Cirque says the system was designed to create something closer to being surrounded by a live concert than listening to music through ordinary theater speakers.
Michael Jackson ONE Official Trailer
The official Cirque du Soleil trailer gives a glimpse of the production’s combination of Michael’s recordings, choreography, acrobatics and large-scale visual effects.
The technical numbers go even further.
When the production opened, the theater used 26 video projectors, hundreds of lighting fixtures and a massive LED wall, while performers could fly above the audience on overhead tracks.
The show itself runs for about 90 minutes and remains in residence at Mandalay Bay. Cirque describes it as a journey through Michael’s biggest hits using reworked versions of his original recordings while staying close to the sound fans already know.
That may explain why the production has lasted so long in a city where shows constantly come and go.
Michael Jackson never performed this production himself.
But the theater was specifically engineered to make his voice and music feel as though they are coming from everywhere.
At Michael Jackson ONE, you do not just have a good seat for hearing the King of Pop. Your seat is literally part of the sound system.