The culture of Las Vegas is inextricably linked to the artists and technicians behind the Strip’s vibrant live entertainment industry, so any time a show closes, it hurts. We know it’s the very nature of a show to eventually end, but it still always hurts.
Cirque du Soleil’s The Beatles LOVE, which wrapped in 2024, ranks No. 1 in my mind as the all-time most tragic loss; it closed because the Mirage had been sold to make way for a new Hard Rock Hotel. It always felt like it could continue forever.
Cirque closed its newest production, Mad Apple, in September, weeks before Wynn closed its large-scale spectacular Awakening this month. Both had impressive runs considering they launched four years ago, when the post-pandemic Strip was already contracting in several areas. Both were dynamic, creative takes on different types of production shows that have served as the foundation for live entertainment in Las Vegas.
While significant—and despite clickbait headlines—these closures do not signal the end for Vegas shows. It’s true that The Wizard of Oz at Sphere, the continued growth of big-venue music and sports events, and the economic malaise slowing tourism all contribute to this shift in entertainment, but it’s a different path, not the end of the road.
“It’s just the continuing evolution of a wonderful market for entertainment that is constantly developing new and fantastic ways to entertain people that come to this wonderful town,” says Ross Mollison, founder of Spiegelworld.
He had to close one of his company’s Vegas projects, DiscoShow, in January of this year after it debuted at the Linq in 2024. Spiegelworld also closed OPM in 2023 after almost six years, but is still going strong with Absinthe at Caesars Palace (since 2011) and Atomic Saloon Show at Palazzo (since 2019). Absinthe is without a doubt one of the Strip’s most popular shows, and Atomic Saloon “is doing better now than it has any time since it launched, which is extraordinary to me,” Mollison says.
Atomic Saloon Show
Las Vegas grows and changes so fast, it’s truly unbelievable that any single show can last longer than a few years. Many of us like to nostalgically lament the loss of the “showgirl” productions, but I could make a case that Jubilee lasted 35 years because things weren’t moving as fast back then. That’s not disrespect, but it is a testament to the greatness of Mystère (32 years) and O (28), and while we’re at it, how about Tournament of Kings (36)? Remarkable.
As Mollison points out, in any other entertainment market, four or five or six years is an incredible run—including Broadway. “We took an enormous swing with DiscoShow, trying to create a new style of entertainment, and it did pretty well but not well enough. We gave it everything we could, and you have to do that. You have to take big swings. You’ve got to come out and do something everyone is really excited to see, something that’s got a buzz about it.”
Absinthe had that buzz. Several Cirque shows have generated that kind of excitement over the years, becoming that thing you have to go to Vegas to see. And obviously, it isn’t easy to conceptualize and execute on that big, buzzy idea. It seems impossible, yet it’s happened time and time again.
“Of course, that’s what [James Dolan] did. He created a new category with the Sphere,” Mollison explains. “It doesn’t exist anywhere in the world. Everywhere I go, people ask, ‘Can you get me tickets? I gotta go see this.’”
A time of change can be sad, when you’re thinking about what might be lost, but it’s also a time of opportunity. It only takes one new hit to start a different wave, a new breed of Vegas productions that captivate audiences, and you don’t have to spend billions of dollars and build a Sphere or get the rights to the music of the Beatles in order to create that.
“Of course there’s opportunity, but here’s the rub—you’ve got to have the idea, see the opportunity, and have the chutzpah to get out there and put it on, and be ready if it fails,” Mollison says. “We were an overnight success over the course of five years. It took us years to get [Absinthe] really going and that’s the hard thing about Vegas and doing something that’s not branded somewhere else. Sphere doesn’t need a brand, because U2 is the brand, The Wizard of Oz is the brand.
“If you do something you’ve created new for Vegas, that’s where the greatest return is, but it’s also the greatest difficulty.”
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