Las Vegas Gets a New Dinner Theater From the Creators of ‘Absinthe’ | Eater Vegas
"Debuting on Thursday, July 10 with space for just 50 guests a night, this two-hour, $150-per-person supper-club experience runs Wednesday through Sunday with a 7 p.m. start time and is designed to celebrate "birthdays, weddings, divorces, or anything that calls for a party." It pairs a three-course Italian prix fixe menu prepared by the neighboring kitchen — appetizers like tuna tartare or salad with Calabrian ranch dressing; mains such as seared mushroom gnocchi with black truffle or a six-ounce prime filet with roasted bone marrow sauce; and desserts of tiramisu or rice pudding with blueberry compote and lemon curd — with jaw-dropping circus acts from Spiegelworld’s acrobats and artists. As guests dine, the show unfolds: classic circus acts — like "one acrobat balancing impossibly atop another" — share the spotlight with more unexpected moments, including a soap bubble performance by Denis Lock, who "turned bubble-blowing into a hypnotic spectacle using smoke and straws to create bubble cubes and shimmering orbs." Lock’s act "is my favorite in the world," says Ross Mollison. "It’s a 10-minute act. It was just too long for the pace of that show. But in this environment, it’s just glorious." Another highlight is the return of the Circus Automaton, a custom-built tableau mécanique featuring two-dimensional circus scenes that glide and rotate across a tabletop stage in precise, whimsical choreography. After Spiegelworld closed OPM (formerly Opium) in late 2023, Mollison said "OPM never really matched," and he adds context for the new project: "I’ve always had the feeling that Vegas didn’t want dinner theater," recalling five-hour dinner-and-a-show marathons he experienced in Germany; "Maybe I was wrong and Vegas is actually the perfect market to put entertainment together with dining." Tickets are available online." - Janna Karel
