Los Angeles, California (CNN)<\/strong> — Cirque du Soleil and Michael Jackson’s estate have struck a deal to bring the late pop star’s music to the big tent starting next year.<\/p>\nThe show will go on tour near the end of 2011, and a Las Vegas, Nevada, show will debut the following year, according to Cirque du Soleil President and CEO Daniel Lamarre.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The circus company first talked to Jackson six years ago about the possibility of a Jackson-themed show, Lamarre said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
“Having attended Cirque du Soleil performances with Michael, I know he was a huge fan,” Jackson estate administrator John Branca said.<\/p>\n
The shows will be based on Jackson’s\u00a0music and dance, Lamarre said.<\/p>\n
The project is the latest major deal announced by the estate, which recently signed a long-term contract with Sony Music to distribute the music of Jackson, who died in June at age 50.<\/p>\n
The partnership — in which the estate and\u00a0Cirque du Soleil are equal partners — has been long rumored.<\/p>\n
Members of the Jackson family have been critical of the handling of Jackson’s estate since a probate judge gave Branca and John McClain control last summer. In this case, however, the matriarch of the family gave her blessing.<\/p>\n
“Our family is thrilled that Cirque du Soleil will pay tribute to my son in such an important way,” said Katherine Jackson, the singer’s mother.<\/p>\n
Cirque du Soleil is legendary for its creative and acrobatic performances, but Lamarre said it will be a challenge to live up to the imagination of Michael Jackson.<\/p>\n
The MGM Mirage has signed on to host the Las Vegas residency. The hotel also will open a nightclub based on the Jackson show, the hotel said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Associated Press Date:\u00a0Tuesday Apr. 20, 2010 1:33 PM ET LOS ANGELES \u2014 First the Beatles and Elvis, now Michael Jackson. The acrobatic troupe Cirque du Soleil announced Tuesday that it will put on a live touring show featuring the songs of the King of Pop starting late next year. That will be followed by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[3928,3934,910,3929,3930,3938,4102,3935,143,563,3933,3942,3940,3936,3937,3931,589,3944,3927,3138,4087,3943,3946,3939,3932,3941,3945,1922],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3C0LX-1iG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5002"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5002"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6646,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5002\/revisions\/6646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conradaskland.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}