Las Vegas Weekly

January 14, 2012 · 1:08 PM

As always, Madonna and Cirque hope to surprise with halftime show

By John Katsilometes

Madonna and her daughter Lourdes at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party at the Sunset Tower Hotel in L.A. on Feb. 27, 2011.

Photo: Erik Kabik/Retna/ErikKabik.com

When the NFL announced that Madonna was teaming with Cirque du Soleil to perform this year’s Super Bowl halftime show, we all thought the same thing:

Madonna cavorting with Spandex-clad gymnasts hooked to bungee cords.

But that will not be the nature of the show when Madonna makes her first Super Bowl halftime appearance. Just how Cirque is to be incorporated into the show bears some explanation.

In short, don’t expect Madonna to share the stage (or the 170 million TV viewers) with actual Cirque performers.

“Our involvement is a very different kind of thing,” said Jacques Methe, Cirque’s executive producer and general manager of events and images, during a recent phone conversation. “We’re bringing some of our creative people to the process of the staging.”

Which is something of a downer for those expecting to see a lineup of Spermato characters from “Mystere” dancing in line behind the 53-year-old pop adventurist.

The Super Bowl airs at noon Feb. 5 on NBC.

Director/choreographer Jamie King, who helped produce “Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour,” heads the team. Music director Kevin Antunes also is in the mix, so to speak. He was instrumental (also, so to speak) in the “Immortal” arena production. King and Antunes worked on Madonna’s most recent live project, the “Sticky & Sweet” world tour.

The Moment Factory, a Cirque creative partner, is involved in the production, details of which are a closely guarded secret.

“This is really about Madonna,” Methe said. “There will be incredible staging around a new song, and something we have never done before. But don’t expect a flurry of acrobats. That is not really what it’s all about.”

Reportedly, Madonna’s “new song” will be “Give Me All Your Love” off her upcoming release, “M.D.N.A.” The song is a collaboration with Nicki Minaj and M.I.A.

Methe wouldn’t confirm the song choice, though “new” seems to disqualify almost all of Madonna’s hits.

“I can’t say,” Methe said. “It’s top secret. But it will be very, very Madonna.”

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWithTheDish.

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