‘Awakening’ delivers powerful performance in Wynn premiere

Weeks after moving to Las Vegas, I attended my first big production show on the Strip. This adventure was filled with costumed humans flying across the theater, climbing up poles 40 feet high, slamming oversized taiko drums, and bounding over the audience on bungee cords.

I tried to figure out the message of this show. What’s the story here? About halfway through I just gave up. I was happy to watch the blue-costumed performers vault to the sky from their magic teeter-totters.

I walked away stunned, impressed at what these artists had achieved. It didn’t matter that a lot of it went over my head, metaphorically and for real.

Twenty-six years on, “Mystere” remains a personal favorite. And I’ve not felt that degree of sensory overload again in Las Vegas.

Until Monday.

“Awakening” has opened at the Wynn. This show is set up to blow your mind. Mission accomplished.

This is the show supplanting “Le Reve” at the Wynn, a show that ran for 15 years, more than 6,000 performances and — in a noble achievement — continued to improve. All that was wrong with “Le Reve” was its uninvited guest, COVID-19, that halted production and provided Wynn execs an opening to try something new.

“Awakening” is the original, $120 million show conceived and co-produced by the Wynn. The resort is represented by CEO Craig Billings and Entertainment General Manager Rick Gray. A host of live-production superstars have joined this pandemic-created project. The “Awakening” crew is lined with:

* Bernie Yuman, the former Siegfried & Roy and Muhammad Ali manager and master of hyperbole.

* Baz Halpin, the cagey director behind Katy Perry’s “Play” at Resorts World (another show that toys with your mind), Harry Styles’ Coachella appearance, and Cher’s original production at the Colosseum.

* Michael Curry, behind the live-action puppets in “The Lion King” on Broadway and (from 2010-2011) Mandalay Bay, and also the crab monsters in “Ka” at MGM Grand.

* Brian Tyler, the composer behind “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and Iron Man 3”; costume designer Soyon An, who has dressed Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez for the stage, among other stars.

* Kelly Sue DeConnick, the comic-book visionary who invigorated the 2019 “Captain Marvel” movie.

New tech, too

The former Le Reve Theater bursts with new technology. The round, 60-stage is made of dichotic glass, pulsating with colorful LED images. Its five segments rise and drop, separately, throughout the show. Tyler’s original soundscape seeps through a 3D sound system, with a new feature — a pair of speakers set on every seat, delivering Tyler’s whimsical compositions on either side.

These speakers are not adjustable, there is no equalizer or means to move their position on the seats. But if you lean to either side, you can catch some wonderful detail in the sounds. The effect restricts a theater-goers ability to converse with a seat mate; the speakers are kind of in the way.

But it does open the possibility of advancing in-seat theatrical experience. (Maybe one day we’ll outfit the entire audience in VR headsets for “Awakening 2: The Sony PlayStation Experience.”)

An’s costumes are sensational, and also functional, flowing with color-splashed beads, rhinestones, crystals, lace, gold flaking and feathers. It’s as if An and her team raided the Liberace collection, and went on an alteration binge.

Dance, magic in the story

The show cast its dancers for all genres, and we see why. The dance numbers in “Awakening,” headed up by lead choreographer Nolan Padilla, impressively mix traditional styles with the show’s powerful light-and-sound technology.

Magic acts figure prominently into the plot, featuring several advanced but familiar disappear/reappear routines (characters vanish from cloaked boxes, then reappear in the audience, for instance). These numbers are intertwined in the central story line of the characters Darkness and Light, who separate at the top of the show.

Their saga is a journey, following central figures IO, Boo and Bandit through the fantasy portals Water Realm, Earth Realm and Fire Realm. Their objective is to reunite these two.

I think.

Hopkins to the fore

Even with legendary actor Anthony Hopkins’ smooth, authoritative narration, this is where “Awakening” comes loose. There is so much activity exploding on the stage, in the wings, on the LED screens around the room, through the speakers just inches from your head, no mere mortal can effectively make out the story line.

This is not a function of basic human intelligence. It is a function of basic human brain capacity.

Example, during the Earth Realm scene, an imposing puppet-monster called Nymph ascends from the center of the stage. Nymph glows green and has a scowling face and is operated by about six mostly unseen performers. Amazing. But you don’t process Nymph’s towering presence and wonder, “How is this Nymph thing going to get Darkness and Light back together?”

Or, as one of Curry’s other lifelike puppets lumbers onstage during, you wonder, “Is this an elephant? Wildebeest? Some unknown, fantasy creature?” You’ll be forgiven for not being concerned where the story line is at that moment.

But wow is it impressive.

There is water

Another scene throws anyone who saw “Le Reve.” Producers have made it clear that “Awakening” is not a water production, the theater’s lake stage drained as the show closed. But there is an aquatic effect, the Water Realm, that feels as if the entire theater is submerged.

Starfish, choral and a host of oceanic creatures seem to swim around the theater, and not a drop of water is used. (I imagine how Cirque would spend a few million bucks to overhaul the similarly inspired “Octopus’s Garden” scene in “Love.”)

Afterward, in the customary WDYT (What Did You Think) session, I approached Curry. I started with, “Congratulations …” And just stopped. We work with words around here, and I had none.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Curry said.

He should. “Awakening” is an adventurous, generous evens risky spectacular. You might need to see it more than once, but you won’t see it anywhere else.

Cool Hang Alert

On the topic of Wynn, and also Encore, Eastside Lounge animates the scene with dueling pianos from 9:30 p.m.-1:30 a.m. Sundays through Thursdays, and 9:30 p.m.-2:30 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Keyboard great Chris Lash (“Jersey Boys,” “Baz,”) is the primary performer performer most nights. No cover. No tank tops, either.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.