Fodor's Expert Review Awakening

This successor to the long-running Le Rêve is one of the biggest investments in year-round, general-interest shows since the peak years of Cirque du Soleil. Wynn spent $120 million dollars for an in-the-round fantasy about three characters who visit the realms of Water, Earth, and Air on a quest to appease some sort of queen who keeps yelling stuff like: “No one rests until my magic is returned to me!” If not entirely coherent in its early incarnation, Awakening is certainly beautiful. The aquatics of Le Rêve have been replaced by a “floating” hydraulic stage in pieces, state-of-the-art video projections, and colossal puppets (by Michael Curry, best known for co-designing the original puppets for The Lion King). Performers make their way down to the stage in giant translucent chutes. Personal stereo speakers in every seat guarantee there's no problem hearing Anthony Hopkins as the recorded narrator. And yet a lackluster opening raised questions of whether audiences have seen it all before in the likes of Cirque's KÀ or shifted their interest to star showcases. The show's main producer Baz Halpin (who also staged Katy Perry's Play) maintains that it's a work-in-progress.