AWAKENING, the grandest of the new shows testing a crowded market
34 | D E S E R T
C O M PA N I O N
.
F E B R U A RY 2 0 2 3
Shown Up E N T E R TA I N M E N T
Is the evolution of Vegas entertainment leaving big productions behind? BY
Mike Weatherford
cabs. Bat Out of Hell, the jukebox musical based on the hits of the late rocker Meat Loaf, was even more extensively advertised. But it lasted only three months at Paris Las Vegas before closing on New Year’s Day. Nonetheless, “Vegas without new production shows isn’t Vegas,” says Baz Halpin, producer and director of Awakening, the grandest of four recent entries which tested the new marketplace. “There hasn’t really
been a new permanent resident spectacle show. I thought it was really the time to bring those back.” The $120 million production opened in November to replace Le Rêve in the circular theater at Wynn Las Vegas. The Wynnbacked budget would be closer to $187 million in adjusted dollars for 2004, when Cirque opened its like-minded, $165 million epic KÀ. Awakening updates what’s possible in live
AWA K E N I N G : C O U R T E S Y W Y N N L A S V E G A S
S
uppose they opened a $120 million spectacle, and no one came? It’s a fair, if exaggerated, question: If Las Vegas is all about music stars and sports these days, what is the fate of the year-round show with wide appeal that defined the Cirque du Soleil era? There’s no disputing entertainment on the Strip has realigned around big names such as Adele. And every show now competes for attention and hotel guests with pro football, hockey, basketball, and other teams. Small wonder we haven’t seen much in the way of new shows built on variety or acrobatics when Carrie Underwood has sold out 18 times at Resorts World. Cirque downsized its ambitions to open the relatively modest Mad Apple last summer. But Amystika — a companion show to Criss Angel’s regular one at Planet Hollywood — closed before most people could look up the meaning of the title they’d seen all over billboards and