Producers: ‘Awakening’ to reopen ‘when we feel like it’s ready’

It’s become a familiar conversation in the Vegas entertainment community. It goes something like this:

“What’s wrong with ‘Awakening?’ ”

“It’s hard to connect with the characters.”

“How do you fix that?”

Pause.

There’s the answer, and that’s where “Awakening” is, right now.

Short of a total tear-down and extensive rebuilding and rebranding, there is no obvious remedy for what saddles the stage spectacular at the Wynn. The show is taking an extended dark period after Saturday night’s performances.

Referred to as an “extended rehearsal period,” the hiatus from the stage will likely last at least until the first week of June, when Ticketmaster is again accepting ticket orders.

But “Awakening” is running under its own deadline and time horizon. Co-producers Baz Halpin, Bernie Yuman and Michael Curry enforced that sentiment, and an air of unshakable confidence, in a recent breakfast chat at Wynn’s Terrace Pointe Cafe.

“We’ll reopen when we feel like it’s ready,” Halpin says. “We will reopen it, and we don’t want to be closed for a terribly long period of time.”

Whatever anxiety is percolating behind the scenes, the stress is not evident with these entertainment icons. Failure is a foreign concept to this triumvirate.

Halpin currently has Katy Perry’s “Play,” which has totally sold out Resorts World Theatre for its past half-dozen shows; and the Maroon 5 ripping ‘M5LV” production at Dolby Live. Curry is the master puppeteer who enriched “The Lion King,” a Broadway hit for 25 years (and for 2 1/2 years at Mandalay Bay, ending in December 2011). Yuman was the impassioned manager of Siegfried & Roy’s groundbreaking, sold-out run at Mirage.

The team knows how to succeed, but “Awakening,” currently, is not.

The creative forces are dealing with a show that is underselling, being bashed by bloggers and undercut by some toxic social media pics revealing its meager audiences.

“Awakening’s” producers’ own post-show canvassing of audiences reveals the disconnect between the audience and the show’s principal characters. There are encouraging signs in the post-show, on-site reviews. Many ticket-holders leaving “Awakening” report that the effects are spellbinding. This is especially true of audience-members who have not seen this variety of Vegas production, such as anything Cirque has delivered in the past 30 years.

These comparatively new show-goers are swept away by “Awakening’s” spot-on choreography, lavish but functional costumes inspired, dazzling music score, and all-encompassing light and sound technology.

But most theater-goers are not especially interested in the early breakup of characters Light and Darkness. They are not always following along as Light is divided into three realms (Light of Water, Light of Earth, Light of Air). For them, there isn’t enough room for nuanced, textured, complex storytelling.

The result is damning. Frequently, scenes designed to set up rousing applause are received tepidly, with performers holding their positions for what sound like a golf clap.

“We’ve spent a lot of time trying to really tweak the show in a way that doesn’t change what it is, to make the story more digestible or simplified to give you a better connection with the characters,” Halpin says. “We need to put less work on the audience, and create a more fluid run through the entire show.”

After seeing the show three times, including twice after its original two-week “tweak” to open February, it seems the show’s scenes are too baked in, its infrastructure too entrenched, to make wholesale changes.

Not so, Halpin says.

“The show was designed to where scenes can be pulled out a new scene added,” Halpin says. “That is because we want the show to run for a long time, and we want to keep them fresh. So that that capability already exists.”

“Awakening” could use s laugh or two, too. This show just takes itself so seriously, it almost feels arrogant. You’re reminded of Sgt. Hulka’s line in “Stripes,” “Lighten up, Francis.”

The show is a lot of things, but funny, it ain’t. And humor can advance a story and move an audience. Halpin’s own “Play,” with the Perry Playland theme, being a lead example. And Curry’s puppet artistry can certainly elevate the mood.

“I want them to do more substantial storytelling, themselves,” Curry says. “This is why I made my career in in puppetry, they are their own form of magic. I’ve had great luck in comedic storytelling. ‘The Lion King’ is a good example, the way we have reinvented the characters comedically.”

As Curry noted, the night of this discussion, “The Lion King” was performing 99 shows around the world. His puppet work in “Awakening” is so strong, it could conceivably be spun off as its own production.

“Awakening” faces other structural challenges. One is, how to edit the narrative as delivered hauntingly by legendary Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins. If you’re going to adjust the way the story is conveyed, his voice-over needs to be reviewed, too. The producers say that is possible; it will likely be left to Yuman to coordinate all issues involving Hopkins, who is among his famous friends.

And advancing an idea from this side of the table, Halpin is not disqualifying the concept that pieces of the script could be projected around the theater or above the stage itself (“IO, Bandit and Boo sneak into Darkness’s ball, where a surprise awaits.”). The show certainly has the video technology; and anything to help keep audience members engaged would help.

The show has also, willfully, surrendered what could be a major selling point by not allowing any cellphone video or images to be captured during performances.

Cirque also restricts photo and video, but that company is not currently reworking a struggling, $120 million production. The reluctance to allow video, especially in the round, of some of the magic scenes is understandable. But setting aside specific segments of dance, costumes, puppetry and staging would generate a positive vibe across social media (some images and video has been shared surreptitiously, of course, and they illustrate the show beautifully).

The producers must be getting tired of what’s been posted so far, mostly a sea of empty, burgundy seats just before showtime; and hundreds of blue dots on Ticketmaster seat maps indicating unsold tickets. Thus far, the most obvious evidence of “Awakening’s” social media push has been Katy Perry’s endorsement of the show to her 108 million Twitter followers.

But nothing is off the table, nothing is sacred in “Awakening’s” break from the stage. Even the term “rehearsal” is not uniformly embraced. Yuman, for one, doesn’t like the “re” references. “It’s an evolution, it’s going to pick up again, soon,” the veteran producer says. “There’s no ‘re’ anything.”

Halpin says not to get caught up on the “rehearsal” description, for a show that spent three months in rehearsals during the pandemic.

“Rehearsal is everything from creation, to technical programming, to choreography, to putting it all together,” Halpin says. “We’ve all done a lot of different types of shows. It always takes time to see how the show performs and how it works.”

Halpin emphasizes, “Rather than making a lot of little incisions and little changes, when you make big ones, it takes time. For a show like this, you have to close in order to make these big changes.”

The acclaimed producer is confident. Without a hint of panic, Halpin says, “We’re going to go work. Check back with us in a couple weeks. There will be changes, and they’ll be for the better.”

Cool Hang Alert

Staying with this property, Eastside Lounge at Encore hosts 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”) hosts most nights. No cover. Dance floor is open.

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.