-> ''WELCOME TO ZARKANA -- Where the ground rains up and love falls from the sky.''
--> -- '''From the souvenir program (pre-retool)'''

Creator/CirqueDuSoleil's 29th production opened in 2011. It was originally a tour visiting New York City, Madrid, Moscow, and N.Y.C. again in turn -- with the return engagement receiving a LighterAndSofter retool that included most of the song lyrics getting changed from English to [[Main/SingingSimlish "Cirquish"]]. The plans for the touring rotation to persist were changed when ''Theatre/VivaElvis'', which had struggled at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, was forced to close. Cirque was asked to bring in another show to occupy the showroom; with no time to create a production from scratch (in part because ''Theatre/MichaelJacksonONE'' was being prepared for the Mandalay Bay resort down the street), ''Zarkana'' was relocated to the Aria in late 2012. Another LighterAndSofter {{Retool}} arrived in early 2014, completely altering the ExcusePlot. This ran until April 2016, when the production was closed permanently.

The first two versions were as follows: In a decrepit, abandoned theater, the magician Zark pines for his lost love Lia. His grief proves powerful enough to reveal that the place houses a MagicalLand, and with a troupe of the theater's ghosts (white-clad circus performers known as Movers) serving as his companions, he ventures through it to find her again. Our hero faces curious, sometimes sinister "Mutants" and a dark night of the soul before finding a happy ending for himself, his true love, and his troupe -- [[Main/RockOpera singing all the way]].

The final version retained the concept of a haunted theater, but had the two clowns (Hocus and Pocus) elevated to the protagonists journeying through the MagicalLand to help restore it to its former glory, while Zark and the quasi-musical trappings were dropped.

!!Tropes specific to the original versions (2011-13):
* AllThereInTheManual: Since the first {{Retool}} changed most of the lyrics to Cirquish, a viewer needed to read up on the premise and characters beforehand (Wikipedia, the souvenir program, etc.) to have any sense of the story. Once the story was effectively eliminated, this was no longer a major concern.
* CapeSwish: As a lovelorn, melodramatic showman, Zark did this a lot.
* TheGrotesque: Poor Pickled Lady...
* PimpedOutCape: Zark's rose-image based one.
* ThePowerOfLove: Zark's magical powers could only be restored once he was reunited with Lia.
* TheQuest: The original premise, as Zark sought to be reunited with his sweetheart.
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: Kundalini the snake woman.
* RockOpera: Cirque's publicity materials couched the show as this combined with their traditional format. This became less obvious when the first retool changed the lyrics from English to Cirquish, but even by this company's standards, there was ''a lot'' of singing in this show -- primarily by Zark and the Mutants, whereas in most of the other shows (''Alegria'' and ''Quidam'' being the key exceptions) the singers are simply part of the band and only occasionally join the action. This trope no longer applied as of the 2014 relaunch.
* SatelliteLoveInterest: Lia, who only appeared in the final scene, was this for Zark.
* StageMagician: Zark, who was also a case of MagiciansAreWizards.
* TheTragicRose: Zark's costume was based on this trope. At the end, it became SomethingAboutARose.
* TheVamp: Kundalini and Tarantula both qualified; in the 2014 version they became FemmeFatale creatures, alternate forms of a good character.

!!Tropes specific to the 2014 retool:
* LighterAndSofter: Rather than a lovelorn magician's quest to regain his love and the challenges he faces along the way, it was now about two clowns helping to bring a rundown, magical theatre back to its former glory. Characters that were villainous in the original versions became CreepyGood.
* ReimaginingTheArtifact: While the original quest storyline and Zark were dropped, the SatelliteLoveInterest Lia and three of the Mutants, all of whom are played by the same actress/singer, were rethought. They became ''the same character'': Lia was the shapeshifting spirit of the theatre itself, initially appearing in grotesque forms but emerging as beautiful and gentle in the finale with the MagicalLand restored by everyone's efforts.

!!In all versions:
* AllAsiansWearConicalStrawHats: The Chinese Cook, a member of the troupe, has one.
* AudienceParticipation: Hocus and Pocus dragoon a woman in the audience to serve as the test subject in an ''electric chair'' demonstration. Wackiness ensues! (In the 2011-13 versions, this act reflected Zark's DarkestHour mood at that point in the storyline.)
* CityShoutOuts: A subtle example. The first image the sand painter creates is that of the city the show is being performed in, marking the theater as specifically located in it.
* CostumePorn: Particularly for the Movers and Mutants.
* ClockPunk: The backdrop for the wheel of death act -- as the wheel is spun by the acrobats, the gears turn -- and spark with ''electricity''.
* CreepyGood: The Movers (particularly the Mad Scientist) may look freaky but they're actually friendly and playful, if prone to sniping at each other. And the Mutants are actually the shapeshifted forms of the beautiful theatre spirit.
* DisappearingBox: Hocus is trying to stage a HumanCannonball act when Pocus interrupts him with this act, and eventually the two acts come together...(In the original versions, Zark tried to accomplish this trick with Pocus as the person who will disappear in it and Hocus as an assistant.)
* EinsteinHair: Several members of the troupe have this, including The Mad Scientist.
* EtherealWhiteDress: The Movers, the musicians, and the handbalancer are all in white, reflecting the detail that they are the theater's ghosts.
* EvilLaugh: Two of the Mutants, Kundalini and Tarantula, have evil laughs -- though, since the 2014 retool, they aren't actually evil but CreepyGood forms of the theatre's spirit.
* FacelessEye: Myriad floating eyeballs provide a backdrop to the transitional segment that leads into the climactic banquine act.
* GrayRainOfDepression: The curtain goes up on the crumbling theatre as a gray thunderstorm is in progress beyond its walls. This also reflected Zark's initial mood in the original versions.
* GreatBallsOfFire: Kundalini's singing is punctuated with pillars of real flame -- a prelude to the high wire acrobats who perform their act as a flaming pendulum swings back and forth over their wire. (A similar act appeared in director Francois Gerard's previous show for Cirque du Soleil, ''ZED''.)
* HumanCannonball: Pocus winds up being one -- and winds up traveling to another planet as the transition to the cyr wheel/aerial hoops act.
* HumanoidAliens: The Jovians have blue-green skin with coloration that resembles camouflage. From this skin there grows many large, bubble-like protrusions. A posed group photo in the program adds webbed hands to them (absent onstage because the gloves used for this effect are incompatible with the performers' act, cyr wheel/aerial hoops).
* InstitutionalApparel: The troupe member known as Camelion Convict (a prominent figure in the preshow) wears a variant on the "old school" version of this trope: a white and gray vertically-striped jumpsuit with a matching pillbox hat.
* MagicalLand: The program explains that the theater has housed this "dormant world" for some time, and now it's awakened once more.
* MadScientist: One is part of the troupe.
* MonstrousHumanoid: Two of the Mutants appear to be half-human, half-another creature. Kundalini, from the waist down, seems to consist of writhing serpents. Tarantula is a spider woman who onstage appears more human than arachnid, but the sand painting suggests her "true" form resembles that of a [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons Drider]] or the [[Series/DoctorWho Racnoss Empress]]. (In her onstage form, she resembles [[WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty Maleficent]] -- though where that villainess's headdress suggests horns, Tarantula's suggests fangs.)
* {{Mutants}}: The catchall designation for the three (originally four) strange, singing creatures. All are at least half-human, and a tribute to the days of circus freak shows.
* NoFourthWall: As per usual for Cirque.
* NonIronicClown: Hocus and Pocus.
* PeopleJars: One of the Movers winds up floating in one for a while (in the 2011-13 version, this transformed her into the Pickled Lady, a Mutant).
* PimpedOutDress: Lia's gown in the finale appears to be made out of roses, both petals and full blossoms.
* PlantPerson: Mandragora, a Mutant. The [[AllThereInTheManual press material (and from there Wikipedia)]] explains that she embodies the flowering ivy growing in the old theater.
* {{Portmantitle}}: Of ''bizarre'' and ''arcana''.
* PreviouslyOn: A rare stage version of this trope! The sand painter's images recap the entire show up to that point and then lead into the next act. This made more logical sense in the original two-act version, as there the sand painting act came at the beginning of Act Two, and thus after an {{Intermission}}.
* {{Recut}}: To help bring the show down to 90 minutes plus preshow from the 135-minute original version, the Las Vegas staging dropped the rope duet (an aerial act) and the {{Intermission}}.
* SceneryPorn: Elaborate scenery setpieces are augmented with computer-generated imagery projected onto the backdrops and proscenium arches.
* SeriesMascot: Tarantula, once the show reached Vegas. There are even cute little plush dolls of the (quasi-, since the 2014 retool) villainess sold in the gift shop!
* SomethingAboutARose: The finale goes ''nuts'' with this trope (after playing TheTragicRose trope for most of the show in the original versions).
* SpectacularSpinning: The cyr wheel/aerial hoop segment takes this conceit to heart.
* TackyTuxedo: Pocus wears a white one.
* TrueBlueFemininity: The Oracle (a sand painter) wears blue and even uses blue sand to create her images of the past, present, and future.
* WalkingShirtlessScene
** The handbalancer. ''Technically'' he has a shirt, but it's so short it leaves his midriff bare, and his contortions quickly expose the rest of his chest. By his act's end, it's off completely for a few moments.
** The aerial strap performers introduced with the 2014 retool, who previously appeared in the original cast of ''Theatre/{{Varekai}}'' and the short-lived Los Angeles resident show ''[=IRIS=]''.
* WorldOfHam: The show ''was'' initially Creator/CirqueDuSoleil meets RockOpera, so this was bound to apply. It's most obvious in the original versions when one compares the ultra-dramatic Zark with other Cirque central characters, who tend to be much less ostentatious than their supporting casts.