Could holograms remake Las Vegas Shows and entertainment? Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston have performed in Las Vegas posthumously. And someday the biggest stars in Sin City might not even be real. So This Week in Gambling, we’re looking at past, present, and future holographic shows and projects headed to Sin City!
What people define as entertainment is changing. These days, artists who no longer perform live or are no longer with us can still fill concert halls. But let’s be clear, these shows are not actually real holograms created with split laser beams, even though that is how they’re being promoted. Instead, they are ghost images, movies projected onto sheer fabric or holographic bands.
Before anyone considered the technology for Las Vegas Shows, this form of entertainment debuted at the 2012 Coachella Music Festival when Tupac appeared on stage 15 years after his death. That same technology called a pepper ghost illusion was much improved by October of 2021 when Harrah’s opened An Evening with Whitney, which used a base hologram method called direct projection with powerful lasers beaming images onto transparent mesh.
The results were good but not perfect. Some described the show as off while others loved it saying that it made the hair on their arms stand on in. But if you’ve ever seen the Cirque show Michael Jackson ONE, then you know that today the hologram image of Michael Jackson looks much better due to updated CGI and high-powered projections making images sharper and more realistic.
Aside from these current and past hologram shows, there are plans to bring other performers back to Las Vegas soon, like ABBA and even Elvis. More on those shows in just a moment because holographic images are being used across Las Vegas in other ways right now, specifically at the Sphere where the Wizard of Oz is playing. After the show, holographic bands are used to create a giant interactive floating Wizard head in the atrium.
At the Rio, another of the Las Vegas Shows using holograms is the the Wow Vegas Spectacular, which uses curtains of falling water and high-powered 3D projections to create holographic effects of mermaids floating in midair. And a new attraction just opened in Las Vegas, the hologram experience, displaying what they call the art of holography, offering a hologram zoo and a hologram room as part of the experience.
Finally, this week, Elvis may have left the building, but there are plans to bring him back with the Elvis Evolution holographic show, but you might want to temper your excitement. This show opened in London in July of last year to less than enthusiastic reviews. People in the audience were not impressed as the show was more of a documentary than a concert. Some demanded their money back and even the BBC described it as atrocious and misleading, especially when costing over $400 a ticket.
However, ABBA Voyage received rave reviews for its custom arena and for employing industrial light and magic who worked on Star Wars to create what they call Avatars using motion capture with actual members of the group. While no opening date is set just yet, there are plans to bring ABBA Voyage to Las Vegas hopefully before the end of this year or perhaps in early 2027. With Resorts World being floated as a likely venue.
So, Elvis Evolution is being planned for one of the new hologram Las Vegas Shows… for what that’s worth. The Abba Show will hopefully arrive this year or early next year. And the MJ1 show that’s still playing at Mandalay Bay. Will holograms take over Las Vegas Entertainment? While impressive, they still have a long way to go. Perhaps in another five, maybe 10 years. But for now, I don’t think real live performers have anything to worry about. And hey, if you enjoyed this show, be sure to drop us a like and subscribe if you want updates whenever we publish new videos.
