Panda! takes a giant step in Las Vegas in a visually 'stunning' production

Panda! debuts in Las Vegas and wows audiences with a combination of Chinese magic, opera, dance and martial arts. Photo provided to China Daily.

Bao Bao's debut kicks off Chinese New Year festivities

Chinese show set to debut in Las Vegas

The Venetian and Palazzo Las Vegas debuted Panda!, the first Chinese show to take up residency in Las Vegas, earlier this month. The 47-member troupe, led by acclaimed Chinese director Zhao An, opened to worldwide audiences just two weeks before the Lunar New Year.

Produced by China Jingwen Records and Global Panda Entertainment and directed by Zhao, who helped produce the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Panda! is a spectacle combining high-flying acrobatics, thrilling martial arts and Chinese music and dance.

"It's an authentic Chinese show with Chinese magic, Chinese opera, Chinese dance and choreography. But we put in a lot of Western cultural concepts so that audiences from both East and West can enjoy it as great entertainment. Our cast of world-class performers will also prove to everyone that talent is borderless," Zhao says.

The show was put together in five months by acrobats from the China National Acrobatic Troupe. The martial-arts performers spring from the birthplace of kung fu, Shaolin Monastery Kung-fu Monks Troupe, while the dancers are from the China Da Qing Dance Group.

"If you were awestruck by the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, this show is for you," says John Caparella, president and chief operating officer for the Venetian, the Palazzo and Sands Expo. "It's an amazing show, very authentically Chinese, and the elements of acrobatics and technology are very different."

Wang Hui, producer of the show and president of Global Panda Entertainment, says he and his team members put the show together piece by piece across continents for two years, with a total investment of $12 million.

"The show is the best thing that ever happened to Vegas, bringing the spirit of Chinese culture onto a mainstream stage in the United States. There are about 60 circus shows in town but never a show that is completely done by the Chinese. I believe it's extremely important we present Chinese culture on a global stage," Wang says.