"The thing about 'Phantom' in Las Vegas is the theater becomes a part of the show," architect David Rockwell says of his wrap-around theater design at The Venetian. Those side boxes aren't occupied by ticket-buyers but by mannequins in Victorian garb. Photo by Jane Kalinowsky. David Rockwell Hands in many projects Cherry nightclub at Red Rock Resort continues Rockwell's penchant for carrying theatrical ideas into other kinds of public spaces. Photo by Ralph Fountain. Mesa Grill at Caesars Palace creates atmosphere with an open kitchen as well as hammered copper and custom wood. "It's designed to feel good as well as look good, so it encourages touching," David Rockwell says of designs that aim to "engage all the senses." File Photo

Everyone's a star now in Las Vegas, as formal entertainment is challenged by clubs and restaurants that enable visitors to take center stage in their own show.

David Rockwell is well-positioned to influence both worlds.

Rockwell is one of the "star-chitects" whose work is reshaping the ever-changing Las Vegas skyline. But he draws a thin line between the stage design he has done for Broadway plays and the larger stage of public space, from restaurants to the airline terminal he designed with input from his "Hairspray" collaborator, choreographer Jerry Mitchell.

His theater for "Phantom -- the Las Vegas Spectacular" becomes part of the show. After the story's prologue, side drapes fall to reveal Victorian-era mannequins in side boxes, and the story's fabled chandelier assembles itself from four pieces with the help of 32 winches. "It takes you from memory to kind of being in the moment," Rockwell says.

But the Cherry nightclub Rockwell's firm designed at Red Rock Resort is a stage as well. "It's inspired by theater in the round. But instead of performance, it's the dancing that's the performance," he says.

And Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill inside Caesars Palace creates "a sense of theater by putting the fire and the cooking in the center."

Rockwell is one of several architects working on the biggest new stage on the Strip, MGM Mirage's $7 billion CityCenter. He is designing public spaces within a retail and restaurant district for the new development targeted for November 2009.

"I'm not convinced people are coming to Las Vegas for gambling or theater or food or music," he says. "I think they're coming for everything that connects all of those. I think they're coming for a total social experience around the idea of pleasure."

As if Rockwell isn't busy enough running the 200-strong Rockwell Group, he found the time to co-author a book. "Spectacle," due in stores Oct. 15, traces the history of spectacle and public gatherings such as the Olympics, with a major stop in Las Vegas. The book, co-authored by Bruce Mau, includes interviews with casino developer Steve Wynn and Cirque du Soleil head Guy Laliberte.

Rockwell says the book aims to "hold a lens up to the world of larger-than-life participatory events from a design point of view. To see what creates memories, what turbocharges reality, what brings people together. Why do we still need to come together in a world of so much technology and so much virtual connection?"

Rockwell was drawn to Las Vegas for many of the same reasons as Mark Fisher, whose wrap-around theater environment for Cirque du Soleil's "Ka" parallels Rockwell's work for the "Phantom" theater.

"This is stuff that you can only see here," says Fisher, who designed such major rock tours as U2's "PopMart" and the Rolling Stones' "Bridges to Babylon." "The thing that is true about live entertainment of any kind is that when it's at its strongest, it doesn't transfer to DVD."

"If you've not actually seen the show and been in the theater, you don't really have that experience, and you can't replace it with anything else," Fisher adds. "In the end it has to do with memories. It has to do with spacial experience. It has to do with a lot of the very primitive things about being human that you only get by being somewhere when something is happening."

The 50-year-old architect says he was initially reluctant to touch "Phantom," because the original production design by Maria Bjornson was "one of the most amazing physical productions for Broadway I'd seen." However, "I was intrigued by the idea of extending that into the audience, to create the part of the show in the audience that supports that vision onstage."

Rockwell's first transformative experience was seeing the original 1964 production of "Fiddler on the Roof" on Broadway. Before he could take in more shows, however, his stepfather abruptly moved his family from New Jersey to Guadalajara, Mexico.

"I was just immersed into this new world. So my interest in theater morphed into an interest in public theater. Because of the marketplaces in Mexico, the bullrings, the sense of public space in Mexico was more theatrical than any theater."

Rockwell "does have a sense of architecture as theater, a stage for people to perform publicly," says Alan Hess, an architecture critic whose book "Viva Las Vegas: After-Hours Architecture" is the definitive history of the Strip's development. "A sense of drama is an advantage. That is what makes great public spaces."

The next wave of casino-resorts, CityCenter and Boyd Gaming's Echelon Place -- which will replace the Stardust -- are mixed-use developments that blend hotel rooms, condominiums, casino and retail space into an environment that mimics the randomness of a real city.

"It's a kind of accelerated city," Rockwell says of CityCenter. "The scale of it is a whole new prototype, and the fact that there's multiple voices is a whole new prototype."

Rockwell's interior "streets" will be part of a larger building designed by Daniel Libeskind, who is perhaps best known for a project he is no longer involved with: the Freedom Tower memorial at the World Trade Center site in New York. Rockwell's area also connects two condominium towers designed by Helmut Jahn, whose buildings include One Liberty Place in Philadelphia.

Las Vegas is more open to experimentation than many cities, Rockwell adds. "There's not much context. ... Designers always talk about context. I think the context in Vegas is amazement."

But that freedom requires a balance. "Being able to go crazy and having no ground rules is not always helpful," Rockwell notes. "I think the natural evolution of a city like Vegas is to build on the public realm, to build on the streets." But "overorganizing or overplanning street life doesn't allow for the magic of unexpected meetings."

There also is a lesser danger that Las Vegas would lose the over-the-top whimsy that makes it so unique. Already, some newer casino projects such as the Palms seem to be playing catch-up with the hip W Hotels, another Rockwell client.

"That's not gonna happen with me," Rockwell promises. But he does believe the Strip has seen the last of its movie-set themed casinos, such as New York-New York and The Venetian.

"I think the challenge with a literal thematic approach is there's not much room for interpretation," he says. "If you give people too much visual information it doesn't allow them to dream or imagine or connect pieces."