Anemic sales, bad buzz, and a rumored revamping suggest that the $150 million LE REVE replacement is sinking fast.
When Wynn Las Vegas announced the permanent closure of its signature production LE REVE (The Dream) in 2020, it sent a shock wave through the industry. Two years later, the decision still seems bizarre and premature. Never quite a breakout smash, the award-winning aquatic spectacular maintained a solid reputation and was considered by many to be the best of its kind in Vegas. Now it appears as though the dream may have been replaced by a nightmare.
The purpose-built LE REVE theater was retrofitted last year to accommodate a new show. Shrowded in the usual Wynn secrecy, the incoming production was finally unveiled in early November 2022. Entitled AWAKENING, the high-tech dance fantasy has been plastered on taxis, billboards, magazine ads, and television commercials throughout the city and across the United States. The advertisement budget for this $150 million show is so massive that you’d have every right and reason to expect a full house nightly. And that’s where you’d be wrong.
LE REVE’s custom-built theater was stripped out to accommodate AWAKENING
Regular followers of our VEGAS 411 Facebook page know that I’ve been tracking the ticket sales for AWAKENING the same way that I did for AMYSTIKA. That ill-fated show, fronted by Criss Angel, was the final production from LE REVE creator Franco Dragone.
As with any new casino or attraction opening, industry watchdogs observe and report the public response. This is especially critical in our post-pandemic tourism landscape, where the rules are being redefined. The pandemic killed over twenty resident shows, so new offerings in the “City of Entertainment” are a big deal.
Despite a similar amount of hype to what AWAKENING is receiving, AMYSTIKA never caught on. It limped through six months of empty seats before finally throwing in the hat. Sets were disassembled, costumes placed in storage, and cast members were sent on their way. And nothing was done to attempt to salvage a very expensive investment.
LE REVE featured elements of fire and water in a mystical landscape of music and dance. So does AWAKENING
LE REVE always faced comparisons to Cirque du Soleil. Many thought that it was indeed one of their productions. It did share Cirque’s DNA by way of Dragone, who created MYSTERE and Bellagio’s O. When LE REVE premiered, it was met with a tidal wave of negative reviews and indifferent audience response. So the creative team regrouped, scaled back performances, and reworked the concept into something more audience-friendly. The show then caught on and played for fifteen years.
These days, ego-driven artists are reluctant to admit failure. At the same time, investors have to decide if a product is worthy of a cash infusion and downtime. Franco Dragone wasn’t cut from that cloth. Always a perfectionist, he revamped LE REVE and reworked his production design for Celine Dion’s A NEW DAY. He could have done the same with AMYSTIKA if given the chance but passed away on September 30th. That show’s closure was announced exactly two weeks later.
Cirque du Soleil faced a similar dilemma in late 2019. Their latest Vegas show, entitled R.U.N, debuted at Luxor to a horrific critical response. Ticket sales, which I regularly tracked, were equally frightening. Entire sections of the theater got covered in black canvas to reduce seating capacity, thereby increasing the sell-through percentage for accountants. That move only served as an emergency flare.
My own review for R.U.N suggested ways to salvage the violent action thriller, which had several marketable elements that deserved to be reimagined. Instead, the Canadian troupe decided to eat their $60 million investment and shuttered it permanently after only five months.
There are a number of problems swirling around AWAKENING, aside from the obvious (inflation, show fatigue, holiday season). One is the matter of intellectual property. Contemporary audiences are likely to avoid choices that aren’t familiar or don’t have a brand association. That’s why Disney spent billions to acquire STAR WARS and MARVEL rights…and why sequels and remakes fill the cinemas.
AWAKENING has nothing to hook the ticket buyer. No famous names in the cast, no Cirque-type branding to lend familiarity, and no recognizable story to tell. Is it intended for families? Does it appeal to wild Vegas partiers? Is it a musical or a play? Despite all the millions in advertising, those answers aren’t clear.
Then let’s examine the prices. A ticket for AWAKENING starts around $150 after taxes/fees, all the way to $600 per seat. That’s a lot of commitment for an unproven commodity. Visitors with only a few nights on their agenda are unlikely to plunk down hundreds or thousands of dollars for a show they know nothing about. So, AWAKENING is crawling out of the gate as barely a blip on the radar.
Let’s take a look at sales for the December 14th, 7 pm and 9:30 pm performances of AWAKENING versus the same nights and showtimes for Cirque du Soleil’s “O‘:
The colored dots on each chart represent unsold seats. As you can see above, both performances of “O” are approaching the sell-through point, while AWAKENING has barely sold any tickets at all. While the above example is by no means scientific, my tracking of sales for AWAKENING has revealed that nearly every performance is carried out to mostly empty seats.
The above photograph was provided by a writer colleague (who also works in the show ticket industry). It was taken five minutes before the 7 pm performance of AWAKENING on December 2nd. It’s obvious that the house isn’t even one-third filled. That same situation plays out for nearly any date that you enter on the Ticketmaster site. See for yourself by going here.
My tracking of AWAKENING‘s poor sales on Twitter caught the attention of the show’s associate producer Sydney Yuman. Obviously trying to downplay facts, she accused me of providing misinformation and subsequently posted a screenshot of Saturday night’s sales to represent what she thought was supporting evidence of the show’s success:
What Yuman neglected to point out is that 1) Vegas is always busiest on Saturdays, 2) I was informed by an insider that a large number of tickets for that performance were made available to attendees of an Amazon Web Services conference (for which Wynn was a host hotel), and 3) a fellow journalist was phoned and offered free tickets for that same evening, This would suggest that Wynn was “papering” the house with comps for the sake of appearance. If none of that were true, the fact remains that one strong evening per week does not keep a production of this magnitude afloat.
Vegas visitors usually don’t decide on which shows to see until they arrive. That’s why our airport baggage claim is wall-to-wall advertisements and video loops. So if a savvy buyer learns about AWAKENING and then heads to TripAdvisor or Yelp! for user opinions, what would they find? A rude awakening, most likely.
TripAdvisor readers have given AWAKENING 2.5 stars out of a possible five, and Yelp! fares even worse with two stars. Here are sample quotes from disappointed guests:
“Don’t bother! At two points in this show, I almost fell asleep. The stage and lights alone don’t make up for the boring storyline and lack of performance.”
“Based on the number of people that walked out during the show, others must have felt the same as I did.”
“Wynn really dropped the ball with this new show. LE REVE was amazing while AWAKENING is a total flop. There is no way the show will last in its current form and it really needs to be reworked.”
Frequent complaints include an unnecessary and lengthy orgy, pre-recorded applause being pumped through the sound system, and a convoluted storyline. There’s also confusion as to why a massive Vegas production includes knockoffs of TV’s “Steve Urkel” and “Leeloo” from THE FIFTH ELEMENT.
