Curtain to go up in May for mega-theater

Five years after reaching a partnership with a Chinese real estate developer for a permanent show in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, Cirque du Soleil announced on Wednesday that the show will premier in May in what it calls "the most expensive theater ever built".

The theater, in a renovated factory on the outskirt of the city, was built with an investment of 1.5 billion yuan ($220 million) by Hangzhou Xintiandi Group, a privately owned developer of tourism and cultural projects across China.

This project is also the biggest investment so far by the company, which was founded in 2008 and has total assets of 30 billion yuan.