Have you ever wanted to know what it really feels like to be trapped in a giant twister? Now you can, when the Sphere sucks you up and drops you into a world of gleaming technicolor in its new, “fully immersive” Wizard Of Oz experience. Your house probably won’t come with you, so you may need to buy a plane ticket.
As of this writing, the extent of this immersion—and how it will affect audiences’ experiences of things like the poppy field or melting scene—is not immediately clear. However, the venue promises that it will use “cutting edge technologies to enhance the film,” and the production “will maintain the integrity of the original while pushing the boundaries of Sphere’s experiential medium,” per Variety. Maybe the whole audience will be inside of Glinda’s bubble.
The Las Vegas orb’s upcoming slate also includes an immersive, extreme sports-focused production called From The Edge, which features athletes like free diver Alenka Artnik, skier Markus Eder, rock climber Alex Honnold, BASE jumper Katie Hansen Lajeunesse, and surfer Kai Lenny. Still, this writer would argue that surviving a whole tornado (or an inter-dimensional hot air balloon trip, for that matter) is far more X Games-worthy than anything that production could hope to offer. Pair it with a sing-along version of Wicked, and you may as well be Dorothy herself.
The Wizard Of Oz At Sphere opens August 28.
