What’s new in Las Vegas: ‘The Wizard of Oz’ at the Sphere, Omega Mart and more

Hitching a ride with Zoox, a driverless robotaxi in Las Vegas.

LAS VEGAS – The wind whipped, the seats vibrated and apples fell from the sky.

This was no ordinary “Wizard of Oz.”

Yes, I balked at paying $150 to watch a film I’ve already seen at least a half-dozen times. I justified it by reminding myself that the experience was less about the movie and more about the venue.

But the film itself was spectacular too.

The Sphere was one of several new attractions I sampled last month in Las Vegas, a city that continues to evolve in a never-ending effort to keep pace with the whims of contemporary travelers.

Visitation to Las Vegas was down 7.5% in 2025 compared to the year before, a notable drop attributed both to economic uncertainty and a decline in international travelers to the United States, particularly from Canada.

The guitar-shaped Hard Rock Hotel and Casino under construction in Las Vegas.

This was my first trip to Las Vegas in a half-dozen years, since before the Covid-19 pandemic. I had a lot to catch up on.

In addition to the Sphere, also on my agenda in Vegas: Omega Mart, the fantastical and interactive art installation in the entertainment complex known as Area 15; the John Wick Experience and Interstellar Arc, also at Area 15; and the new Fontainebleau Hotel, open since late 2023.

I also strolled past the rising guitar-shaped Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, set to open in 2027, and scoped out the future home of the city’s new Major League Baseball team, the relocating Oakland Athletics, who will occupy a new stadium on the site of the former Tropicana Hotel in 2028.

The massive Fontainebleau Las Vegas, on the north end of the Strip near the convention center.

I’ll be back for baseball in a few years. In the meantime, here’s what stood out:

A waste disposal van outside the John Wick Experience in Las Vegas.

The Wizard of Oz at the Sphere

The Sphere, if you haven’t been paying attention, is the massive new arena shaped like a globe, 366 feet high by 516 feet wide, with space for 20,000 spectators inside. The $2.3 billion entertainment venue debuted in late 2023, with a residency by U2.

Since U2’s departure, the Sphere has hosted Dead & Company, Phish, the Backstreet Boys and the Eagles, with many more acts to come.

To fill dates between live performances, Sphere programmers turned the arena into the world’s most spectacular movie theater, complete with a remade, wider version of “The Wizard of Oz.”’

Flying monkey puppets inside the Sphere after "The Wizard of Oz."

“Our standard on this was not to modify the film at all but to try and bring you into the film as if you were in the studio when it was shot,” James Dolan, CEO of Sphere Entertainment, told CBS Sunday Morning last summer. (Dolan, who also owns the New York Knicks and Rangers, is the first cousin of Guardians owner Paul Dolan.)

You've never seen "The Wizard of Oz" like this; the Sphere seats more than 17,000, although only the center areas were available during a recent showing of the film.

The film’s 4D effects include bubbles, fog and paper leaves that fall from the sky, plus monkey puppets that fly across the screen. The theater is tricked out with other special effects and activities before and after the film, including movie props and photo ops.

The Sphere, open since late 2023, has added to the entertainment options in Las Vegas.

In addition to numerous visual enhancements, the film score features re-recorded instrumentals, while preserving the vocals of Judy Garland and the rest of the cast.

It’s like you’re seeing it all over again, but for the very first time.

Was it all worth the $150 ticket price (and by the way, that’s the price for the cheap seats in the 400-level)? I don’t need to go again, but I’m glad I went.

“The Wizard of Oz” is scheduled through the end of 2026 at the Sphere, which is located just east of the Las Vegas Strip, connected to the Venetian Resort.

Upcoming Sphere performances include No Doubt, Metallica and the return of the Backstreet Boys.

Over to Area 15

Area 15 – a reference to Area 51, the top-secret Nevada military site famous for UFO sightings – opened in 2020 and has expanded since. There’s an indoor zipline here, an escape room, Five Iron Golf and lots more.

The anchor attraction is Omega Mart, a surreal, interactive art experience that begins in what appears to be a bizarre grocery store. On the shelves are items you won’t find at any ordinary market, including dehydrated water, nut-free peanuts, aspirational carrots and an air-freshener called Who Told You This Was Butter? (Yes, some items are actually for sale.)

But the real adventure begins when you step through a hidden passage – which might be a refrigerator door – into a vast, neon-lit world of secret corridors and strange environments.

“If it looks like a crazy entrance, it probably is,” one mart employee advised.

Plenty of Omega Mart visitors simply wander around the 52,000-square-foot space and soak up the scene. But for guests who want a more challenging experience, there’s a narrative here that involves the corporate owner of Omega Mart and its missing CEO. Participants perform tasks, solve puzzles and follow instructions in an effort to determine what’s really going on with the company.

“There’s no wrong or right way to do it,” one of the workers assured us as we worked our way through the story.

We spent three hours here and could have stayed longer.

Omega Mart is one of a half-dozen creations by Meow Wolf, an arts and entertainment company that creates large-scale immersive art experiences. Other installations are in Denver, Sante Fe, New Mexico, Dallas and Houston.

Admission ranges from about $45 to $60 per person, depending on the day. Or buy a multi-experience pass, like we did, which provided entry to numerous Area 15 attractions.

Other highlights:

The John Wick Experience, which opened last year, is an interactive hourlong adventure based on the film series starring Keanu Reeves as a retired assassin.

Participants, 12 to a group, are guests at the Continental Las Vegas who stand accused of helping Wick and are forced to escape.

The experience leads players through a series of rooms, solving puzzles, shooting guns, evading capture. It’s part escape room, part theater, part role play.

It probably helps to have some basic understanding of the “John Wick” plotline before signing up – I watched the original film for the first time in advance of my trip to help me prep. But it’s not necessary.

There’s a bar, open to the public, with themed drinks after you’ve safely eluded capture.

Interstellar Arc offers a different kind of immersion: a virtual reality journey to a distant exoplanet. But the voyage to Arcadia, 11 light years away, is only the start of the adventure.

After arriving, participants are given a tour of the alien landscape, guided by a glowing fox, led past mountains and along pathways, with floating orbs and butterflies to collect. It sounds strange, but it’s mesmerizing.

Provided headsets allow participants to communicate with other members of their group and take photos of this future world.

The journey ends after guests remove their headgear and get a real-life view of the landscape they just explored. You won’t soon forget it.

Other attractions at Area 15 include Universal Horror Unleashed, a collection of four year-round haunted houses, themed dining venues and live entertainment.

There’s also virtual dodgeball, flight simulators, dueling axes, a laser maze and Liftoff, a 16-seat rotating bar that elevates riders 130 feet off the ground.

We spent a full day here and could have returned for more.

Admission to the attractions can be bundled or paid separately and vary based on the day. We paid $129 per person for access to three signature attractions, plus numerous smaller ones. For details: area15.com

Getting around and what’s next

From Area 15, we took our first ride in a driverless robotaxi, compliments of Zoox.

Zoox, a subsidiary of Amazon, has been offering free rides to and from a half-dozen locations in Las Vegas since last fall. The company recently announced it would expand its roster of destinations in the city this spring to include the Sphere, the Las Vegas Convention Center and Harry Reid International Airport.

Also new in Vegas: Fontainebleau Las Vegas, the five-star resort on the Strip, open since 2024, a sister property of the acclaimed Fontainebleau Miami Beach.

The Vegas version features 3,644 rooms, 36 restaurants and seven pools, plus 150,000 square feet of gambling space. It’s located a bit off the beaten path, just north of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Meanwhile, farther south, construction continues on the new Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas on the site of the former Mirage, which closed in 2024. The new Hard Rock features a 600-room, 700-foot-tall guitar-shaped hotel tower and is expected to open in late 2027.

Farther south still, the city’s new Major League Baseball stadium is under construction on the site of the former Tropicana Las Vegas. The stadium, with 33,000 seats and a retractable roof, is scheduled to open in 2028 and is the future home of the Oakland A’s.

The baseball park will be about a mile and a half northeast of Allegiant Stadium, which opened in 2020 and is home to the Las Vegas Raiders.

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