‘The Silence in the Room Was Deafening’: Wynn Awakening Cast Member Reflects on Show’s Closure

^{The curtains will fall on Awakening at Wynn on Oct. 10, leaving cast members like Demetrius DeAbreu (inset) to look for another career in less than seven weeks. (Photo: Dan Michalski / Casinos.com; inset: courtesy of Demetrius DeAbreu)}

LAS VEGAS – Awakening show staff at Wynn Las Vegas were called into a sudden company-wide meeting with CEO Craig Billings in the middle of August. By the time the meeting ended, they realized they had only seven weeks left before the show would end forever. 

Awakening will give its final shows on October 10, ending almost four years in the 1,600-seat theater at the Wynn. The production cost was about $150 million to create in place of La Reve, and the resort had been losing around $150,000 to put it on every week. 

The news dropped the same week Cirque du Soleil announced the Sept. 5 closure of Mad Apple at New York-New York, farther down the Strip. Wynn has said a new production will debut in the theater sometime in 2027, but no other details have been released. 

In light of the closure, Casinos.com sat down with Demetrius DeAbreu, a dancer from Atlanta, Georgia, who has been part of Awakening since its beginning in 2022. He told us he vividly remembered the moment they were told they would have less than two months to find another job.

“We had that big meeting with the CEO, and it was very hard to hear that we have until October 10, only seven weeks,” DeAbreu told Casinos.com. “The shock and the silence were deafening. We heard the news on a Friday and had to go through the rest of the week just thinking, ‘okay, what's next, what are we gonna do?’”

Landing in Vegas from Months of Auditions

DeAbreu first heard about Awakening while in Georgia, through his talent agent, who submitted him for an audition in early 2021. He heard back much later that year and was confirmed to be part of the 2022 rehearsals. 

Several Awakening cast members stand with Sir Anthony Hopkins, the show’s narrator. (Photo: courtesy of Demetrius DeAbreu / Wynn Las Vegas)

He had never done a live Vegas show before and spent most of his career in music videos and live performances. In that type of environment, a day of work meant a few hours on set, compared to doing two shows a day, five days a week at Awakening.

The first week of rehearsals came with star treatment. The 60-person cast was welcomed to stay at the Wynn while they figured out where to live. 

“It was amazing,” DeAbreu said. “We all got to Vegas around the same time, and that very first week of rehearsals, they let us stay at the hotel. It was gracious of them to let us stay for a week while we were figuring out apartments and places to stay.”

At the start, the cast rehearsed in a warehouse until the Awakening theater was finished. When they finally got inside, the stage was different from what they had been preparing for, so they had to adjust the choreography. The theater was custom-built for the new production, but many changes were made to the setting in the post-Le Rêve era.

Awakening's Rocky Road After Le Rêve

Awakening’s success was dependent on understanding the issues with the previous production, Le Rêve. A former lighting technician at Wynn who worked on the show told Casinos.com directly that Le Rêve had undergone artistic changes and a new director to boost ticket sales, but it wasn’t enough to sustain the show in the end.

When COVID hit, Wynn used the shutdown as an opportunity to pull the show entirely to seek new investors, a move that eventually led to Awakening. That same technician argued that Awakening had issues catching on like the 15-year run of Le Rêve, especially since it took away many of the elements that kept people interested for so many years.

“Awakening just struggled to find its audience, so you saw the artistic team throw in things like random circus acts to tailor to circus fans,” the technician said. “The real killer was taking away the water – that theater was custom-built for the pool. I think if Le Rêve closed and Awakening opened but kept the pool, it would still be successful.’ 

The show changed significantly over its four years. The first iteration was very heavily dance-focused with acrobatic elements. Later editions brought in a strap act, a Russian bar, and performers suspended from the ceiling, as a result of the show's management wanting to compete more directly with the circus-style productions in Vegas.

About two to three years in, the show went dark briefly to tighten everything up. They brought in elite choreographers and made changes to make it easier for audiences to follow along. 

“The theater itself can be super overstimulating, so I feel like a lot of people couldn't focus on the story because there's so much going on around you,” DeAbreu said. “They tried to simplify the story and added the light monologue you see at the beginning.”

A Tough Friday Morning Meeting 

Despite the experience of being part of the production, the shock came for DeAbreu and his castmates when he learned the gut-wrenching news that the show was coming to a close in October. 

Wynn CEO Craig Billings walked the staff through what was coming and laid out the resources available to anyone who needed them. It was only hours after their meeting that the news had leaked on social media, and Wynn announced it officially on their website the same week.

Somehow, the cast and crew had to return to work and continue performing that day. Some people were already thinking of moving on (like DeAbreu) while others had built their lives around the show and had their futures mapped out for it. 

“It was a mixed bag,” he said. “I was looking to move on after October, but it was still a shock to me because I was looking forward to coming back and seeing the show.”

He did say he wished the timeline had been given with more notice. Although not as quick as Mad Apple's closure around Labor Day, the seven weeks can move faster than most might expect. 

 “I felt that they should have let people know earlier, like a few months ahead of time, so people could plan accordingly,” DeAbreu said. “But it's just one of those things you're never prepared for. You never think it's going to be you.”

Many cast members traveled to Las Vegas to be in the show from out of state or even across the world, and will now have to figure out what their next move is. Performers have been offered the opportunity to audition for Wynn's upcoming 2027 production, but no details about it have been released.

The Possibilities for Life After Awakening

DeAbreu took to social media when the news broke, saying that both Mad Apple and Awakening's closing so quickly was indicative of a pattern worth paying attention to. 

He heard about Mad Apple closing first, and his own show, which hit harder, was in the same week. DeAbreu sees the timing of both closures as part of a broader pattern he's concerned about,  in which Las Vegas schools and casino resorts are increasingly replacing live performances with digital alternatives.

“It feels like a piece of Vegas is missing now with these shows closing,” DeAbreu said. “It's really heartbreaking that there isn't enough effort being put into the arts.”

Though Awakening was an amazing show in its own right, it was a loss leader given the cost of staging the production. The economics that enabled casinos to offer ambitious live entertainment no longer work the same way, as evidenced by the closure of both shows. 

DeAbreu tells us that he is considering leaving Las Vegas after the show ends in October. He described it as moving “from a smaller pond to a bigger one” and seeking a market with more consistent opportunities in dancing, modeling, and acting.

Many cast members come from similar backgrounds and will have to decide whether to stay in Las Vegas and look for another job in the entertainment industry, pursue a different job, or move back to where they came from and seek out opportunities there. Especially for performers who look like him, the transition is especially thoughtful.

“As black people in the arts, we do so much with so little,” he said. “It's insane because we don't need all the flashy stuff to create a masterpiece.”

Awakening's final performances will be available through the box office at the Wynn and on online Ticketmaster.

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