Like the Roman and the British empires before them, though, exponential growth brings its own set of problems, and Cirque has no shortage of them. Banana Shpeel, which previewed in Chicago in late 2009, received horrible notices there, with a Variety critic terming parts of it “neither creative commentary nor inspired execution” and an “unfunny dollop of shtick.” Likewise, the early buzz for previews of Viva Elvis hasn’t been great either as it suffers in comparison to the unanimous praise for Beatles-scored Love up the street at the Mirage, Cirque’s first foray in centering a show around a music icon. (Time magazine, however, raved about Viva Elvis in its current issue.)

These rough patches come amid the roughest patch of all, the disastrous Criss Angel Believe magic show that opened to miserable notices at the Luxor in 2008 and such weak ticket sales that it has been discounted sooner than any Cirque show in history. Also, by allying with a current pop star for the first time, the company has had to repeatedly apologize for such antics as the time he threatened to blind a local gossip columnist or shouted expletives at attendee/nemesis Perez Hilton from the stage.

Even 16 months after Believe bowed, Lamarre admitted the show remains “not on par with the quality of Cirque du Soleil,” and that once they add a set of new magic tricks in coming months “Believe will deliver at the same level as the other shows.”

What these three shows all have in common is that they have little in common with the traditional Cirque that made the company famous. Those spectacles were known for stunning aerials and acrobatics set against a surrealist construct and scored by live, original music. A no-acrobatic magic show, a vaudevillian comedy, and a dance-centric tribute to Elvis are new, uncertain territory, and that has many wondering if they’re overreaching.

“If you ask me if I would have done the same thing, I would have told you, non,” said Franco Dragone, the Belgian creator of six Cirque shows, including Mystere, O, Saltimbanco, and Alegria, before departing upon Lamarre’s arrival at the helm in 2001 and who then created Celine Dion’s spectacle at Caesars Palace. “If they fill seven houses in Las Vegas at 60 percent, they’re filling the house 60 percent, and we know what that means. There will be a limit.”

Lamarre won’t reveal the occupancies of his seven Vegas shows except to note that the 12-year-old aquatic spectacle O—one of Dragone’s—still sells out virtually every one of its 10 shows a week. It is, Lamarre declares, “the most important ticketed show in the world,” meaning that there is no other live production as durable or profitable.

While the CEO is admittedly unhappy with Believe, he remains confident that Banana Shpeel and Viva Elvis will be tweaked and improved by the time they open. And to keep growing, Cirque had no choice but to push into other genres.

“The pressure is on us to make sure that every single show is distinctive,” he said. “My party line is that I will produce as many shows as there are theaters available to us with the caveat that I have to make sure that whatever we produce has to be very, very different than the others.”

Just how many theaters that may be is unclear. MGM Mirage, the casino conglomerate for which they have an exclusive deal in Las Vegas, has no expectations of any vacant showrooms or the $100 million-plus to spend on transforming one for Cirque for the foreseeable future. And the concept behind Laliberte’s sale of 20 percent of the company to Dubai World in 2008 was that Cirque could create new shows for each new development around the world. That, Lamarre said, is on ice with Dubai’s highly publicized financial woes.

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For now, the focus is next year’s move into the Radio City Musical Hall, where an as-yet-undefined production would occupy the famous venue six months of the year after the Rockettes season is over, and the Kodak Theatre. That one will have a cinema theme to it and involve 10 shows a week for 11 months of the year, Lamarre said.