Wynn Magazine - Las Vegas
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/725934
48 The firsT Time iT happens, iT's sTarTling. The gleaming wall panels slide silently open, revealing a darkened stage. next, the music starts—a full-throated french chanson, perhaps, or r ichard Burton and Julie andrews performing their duet "What Do the simple folk Do?" from Camelot. Then the lights go down and the show begins. But at Wynn palace's sW steakhouse, don't expect conventional dinner theater. instead, the fully equipped stage (complete with f ly loft and wings) presents a variety of amusing vignettes, each lasting several minutes—just long enough to give diners a diverting pause—in a cutting-edge fusion of computer animation, puppetry, and animatronics. some are playful, others lyrical. see K ing Kong besotted by a mystery object that's no screaming fay Wray, or a huge vase that shimmers with pen-and-ink animations based on Chinese folk tales and projected as if they're happening in real time, or a pair of 10 -foot-high playing cards (a king and a queen, of course) dancing and singing in a lush garden. a vignette is revealed every 30 minutes in the secret theater hidden in the walls of sW steakhouse, so that a diner lingering over a meal might experience three or four different playlets. "i call it immersive dinner theater," says production Designer michael Curry, the creative mastermind of this mold-breaking attraction. When Wynn palace was in the planning stages and steve Wynn tasked him with designing a dinner show, Curry admits that he shook his head. "i hate conventional dinner theater," he says, "because you feel compelled to give performers your attention and so feel rude enjoying your dinner." so he suggested a more creative approach. he said, "'let's do it without human performers but still create musical theater.' mr. Wynn loved that idea." The result is this groundbreaking entertainment combining commedia dell'arte, marionettes, and custom computer programs (the program that coordinates the movement and music for those playing cards is also used in Le Rêve—The Dream at Wynn las Vegas). such showmanship is integral to any Wynn project—after all, this is the hotelier who named two resorts encore and a restaurant il Teatro. But the sW steakhouse show may be the ultimate expression of Wynn's commitment to grounding his hotels in performance. "When you walk into one of mr. Wynn's resorts, you're already onstage," Curry explains. "he doesn't think about creating little pockets of conventional performance. it's about seeing the entire experience, as well as your interaction with it, as an extension of the performance. it's the ultimate interactive environment." The same sense of theatricality is subtly incorporated into Wynn palace's new Wing lei Bar, a mirrored hideout serving 50 handpicked teas and a selection of fine Cognacs, among other beverages. Topped by a vintage cr ystal chandelier, the space evokes in ever y guest the feeling that he or she is the jewel in a precious box, or a songbird in a birdcage (as you might imagine, there's no better place to tweet a photo). even at mizumi, the ultraluxe sushi restaurant whose interiors were fashioned by minimalist designer Vicente Wolf, the focal point of the dining room is showmanship—in the form of a gilded 500 -piece blossoming cherr y tree. as the room darkens, it pulses through four seasons in a few minutes PhotograPhy by barbara kraft