Cirque du Soleil Auana launched its 10-year residency last month in Waikiki. Here’s how Outrigger closed the deal.
The Outrigger Waikiki Beachcomber Hotel has set the stage for a high-flying troupe of acrobats, comedians, talented hula dancers and other performers with the launch of the Cirque du Soleil Auana show, bringing a new era of entertainment to Waikiki.
The live entertainment experience marks the beginning of a 10-year Hawaii residency contract between Outrigger Hospitality Group and Canadian-based entertainment company Cirque du Soleil. The show itself, which launched last month, unfolds an eight-chapter narrative weaving in the signature acrobatics, dance, and circus performances that Cirque du Soleil is known for, while also paying homage to the Hawaiian culture that inspired the entire production of Auana, from costume designs to the storyline.
Auana breathes new life to Waikiki, fueling a need for more entertainment options in the state, Sean Dee, Outrigger executive vice president and chief commercial officer, said in an interview with Pacific Business News.
“We deserve to have more opportunities to provide world-class entertainment for our families, for kids and for the visitor industry,” Dee said, adding that he is hopeful for growth within the entertainment industry with the Kilohana Hula Show that premiered at the Tom Moffatt Waikiki Shell earlier in 2024, renovations to the Neal S. Blaisdell Center and opportunities within venues around the island.
Auana’s world premiere on Dec. 17 sold out, and Dee expects the show will sell more than 200,000 tickets a year, drawing in both visitors and residents looking for a new “world-class immersive experience.”
“While Outrigger certainly should benefit, and we’re proud to make the investment, we think the entire tourism market here, not only in Waikiki but also in the state, will benefit,” he said.
“Having a higher-end, world-class entertainment option is, by itself, positive,” said Dee. “It’s going to attract people to come visit and experience Hawaii in a new and different way.”
Behind the deal
Cirque du Soleil and Outrigger Hospitality Group first announced their joint partnership in April 2023, but the genesis of the deal goes back several years, when the two companies crossed paths during late 2018 and into 2019.
“We had a relationship with Cirque du Soleil’s group in Las Vegas, and we approached them, and ironically, at about the same time, a group from Montreal, from Cirque du Soleil, was exploring Hawaii,” said Dee.
“The business development head in Montreal, a guy by the name of Martin Boudreau, was really the one that kind of kept everybody connected,” said Dee. “I think I was calling him through the Vegas office at the same time he was calling other people in Hawaii.”
Outrigger’s search for an entertainment partner to take over its iconic showroom, which had gone dark for several years, occurred while the venue’s former 20-plus-year tenant Magic of Polynesia by Roberts Hawaii was nearing the end of its lease. As previously reported on by PBN, Roberts Hawaii ultimately made the decision to shut down Magic of Polynesia during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
The hotel explored ideas from live concert events to turning the showroom into a music hall with a top priority that it “had to be world class. It had to be state of the art,” said Dee.
“We keep hearing from our visitors here. We love the beaches. We love coming to Hawaii, but there’s not much to do at night,” said Dee. “So we knew there was a void in the entertainment landscape.”
According to Dee, Outrigger discussed options such as working with companies like Live Nation and AEG Worldwide, “but we kept coming back to Cirque.”
With Cirque du Soleil’s business development team from its Montreal headquarters exploring Hawaii, the two companies eventually crossed paths.
“They were looking at a lot of different locations, and did not know much about our locations back in 2018 and into early 2019,” said Dee. “So we started having discussions about the room. We did share a lot of information on the market itself, the competitive set, the luaus, the events that come here [and] the number of people that live here. The demographics were intriguing, a good local market that never had Cirque before, [and] a strong visitor market that was looking for new things.”
From Outrigger’s perspective during negotiations, Dee said he required that the show be responsible to Hawaiian culture and prove that a smaller scale Cirque du Soleil show could be successful.
“We weren’t convinced 100% that a small Cirque show could have the same impact as the larger shows that you see in Vegas,” said Dee. “I think the smallest Cirque shows are around 1,400 and some of them can be 5,000-plus. [Those shows have] much larger rooms, much larger production budgets, much larger cast, etc.”
Following an invitation to Cancun, Mexico, to see Cirque du Soleil Joya in a 650-seat theater, “That was a proof of concept that, OK, the Cirque show in a small space could be great,” said Dee.
“And I said, ‘OK’ and Martin and I kind of shook and I [added], if we can make the show about Hawaii, be authentically Hawaiian, and work with the cultural leaders … then we’ll make the investment. Outrigger will invest in the showroom.”
What it takes to set the stage
Featuring a massive voyaging swing propelling a high-flying super troupe of acrobats and an aerial hoop that sends a performer soaring over the audience, setting the stage for a Cirque du Soleil showroom demanded an intricate design and engineering team.
“It was super important to make that investment and hire the right people who understood how to make that investment pay off,” said Dee.
While Dee declined to share the cost of renovations into its Outrigger Waikiki Beachcomber Hotel showroom, he said it was a multimillion-dollar investment to build a 784-seat theater that met the requirements of Cirque du Soleil.
“We were able to make the room a little bit bigger [and] wider,” said Dee. “And then it was designed in a stage set that’s effectively a theater in the round. The old stage set was more of a traditional stage set and that would not have allowed us to get as many seats in.”
Over a one-year construction process that gutted the existing showroom, the renovation focused on main key points such as electrical engineering, rigging to support equipment and performer’s aerial acts and upgrades in lighting and sound.
The architect on the project was Honolulu-based G70, with Principal Katie MacNeil. Additionally, a range of local subcontractors were hired to do work on such things as plumbing, electrical and HVAC systems.
“At Cirque’s recommendation, we hired [Apeiro Design], after an RFP process, as the theater systems and equipment consultants,” said Dee. “They oversaw, in collaboration with the Cirque du Soleil creative/production team, all design, fabrication and procurement for the new systems in the theater.”
Under direction from Cesar Herrera, Outrigger vice president of design and construction, the project engaged Swinerton as the general contractor.
From the height of the ceiling to the curve of the seating, the venue was meticulously planned to create a multi-layered theater that allows every seat in the room to see different angles of the Auana narrative.
With Neil Dorward as the director and co-creator, the production of Auana was led by the guidance and vision of a distinguished group of Native Hawaiian creatives.
“We said, if we’re going to do a show, we need the show to be a special show about Hawaii,” said Dee. “It has to celebrate the culture, the language. … It has to be done with costumes from here, we have to hire the right people.”
That core cultural team included cultural creative producer Aaron J. Salā, who was hired before he became president and CEO of the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau; costume designer Manaola Yap, owner of the Hawaiian luxury lifestyle brand Manaola; choreographer Kumu Hula Hiwa Vaughan from Halau Hula Ka Lehua Tuahine; and Hawaiian linguist Keao NeSmith, an adjunct faculty from the University of Hawaii’s Department of Linguistics.
“Our collective — as a group of artists, designers and cultural creatives — has brought a fantastical and otherworldly journey to life through the songs, stories and traditions of our Hawaii, with heart-racing performances descended directly from the heroes and luminaries of Hawaiian traditions,” Salā said in a previous statement. “For so long, we have held Auana close to the chest and we are thrilled to share this project with Hawaii and beyond thanks to the grandeur of Cirque du Soleil.”
Additionally, auditions for singers, dancers and musicians for the Auana show were held in Hawaii in early November 2023.
Out of 32 Auana performers, nine of them are local to Hawaii, with at least two artists afforded the opportunity to come home to Hawaii for the show — Salvador “Sal” Salangsang, the trickster character in Auana, and Māhealani Kamau, a hula dancer.
The overall production of the show includes a staff of more than 100 employees, 60% of them from Hawaii.
Circling back to Hawaii
Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberté drew his inspiration for the name Cirque du Soleil, or circus of the sun, from a trip to Hawaii while he was still a street performer himself at the time.
“[Laliberté’s] inspiration was to basically create a circus about people, as opposed to a circus about animals. And his vision then coincided with the beautiful Kona sunset,” said Dee. “The actual Cirque du Soleil, the Cirque of the sun, that logo, was inspired by a trip here that he took many years ago. So there’s an interim connection between Cirque and Hawaii.”