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

The story is about a heroic panda trying to win back his love, the peacock princess, after she is kidnapped by a demon vulture. He gets help from a Shaolin martial-arts master who teaches him kung fu.

The climax of the show is when Shaolin kung fu fighters take acrobatic tumbles with swords, knives and three-jointed pikes. They break bricks in half with their heads.

According to Keith Salwoski, publicity chief at the Venetian and the Palazzo, the show will take up the Cirque du Soleil slot for an open-ended run, changing its content every few months based on audience response.

"The feedback from the audience has been superb in the last few days and we are very pleased to have invited this fantastic team to perform at the Venetian. Everyone is already talking about the show in town and it definitely has word-of-mouth potential," Salwoski says.

Livia Wu, director of operations at Global Panda Entertainment, says Panda! is the first show in Las Vegas that can admit children under 6.

"We've witnessed so many touching moments of children lining up with their parents, anxious to watch the show and eager to hug a 'panda'. I believe we will capture the market and audience in Las Vegas," Wu says.

Xiao Xiayong, culture consul at the Chinese consulate in San Francisco, says a Chinese show being presented on a mainstream US stage has symbolic meaning to the Chinese, Chinese-Americans and Americans.

"The cultural phenomenon is so encouraging that we hope to see more of it," he says.

Jeff Civillico, an American who watched the show, calls it visually "stunning".

"A lot of the acrobatic movement is so difficult that it makes you feel you need to hold on to your chair to watch it," he says.