Ros Reines Gossip » Cirque du Soleil Varekai Opening

August 11th, 2006

Cirque du Soleil Varekai Opening - Thursday

Forget the other celebs in the opening crowd including Mischa Barton, who came with her sister, Hania and tried to slip in just before it started (she didn’t even budge from her seat to enjoy the A-list hospitality in the lavish Rouge Tapin tent at interval), Varekai’s premiere at the Entertainment Quarter was like a feel good exercise for Nine’s embattled staff lead by chief cheerleeder Eddie McGuire with his wife, Carla. Eddie Everywhere absolutely ate it up - clapping to the beat. (Note to future, first night hosts - you couldn’t ask for a more appreciative guest). The Nine boss sat behind some of the remaining survivors from Torvill & Dean’s Dancing On Ice including Lara Bingle who took a girlfriend along and sat in the front rown. Then there was Jane and Mark Ferguson, Christopher Dean and Jayne Torvill (who came with separate dates, sat in different sections and hardly made eye contact in fact Jayne Torvill looked mostly po faced), and Mr Personality - Jake Wall with Jennifer Hawkins, who sat across from Michael Slater.

No one could compete with the NIne gang when it came to sheer numbers although there were plenty of other well known faces in the crowd including John Symond, Wayne Cooper, Ita Buttrose and Swans’ star, Adam Goodes, who was given a hard time by the clown ushers when they pretended not to be able to find their seats.

As for the show itself? Varekai is quite spectacular but after you have seen at least one Cirque du Soleil show, they can seem a little drawn out and predictable And it wasn’t quite as fluid as we have come to expect - but perhaps we can put that down to first night nerves.

Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean really get on each other’s nerves