Singers and dancers performed the ancient Japanese storytelling art at the Bellagio fountains with a massive watery movie screen behind them, and displayed animated scenes. In a classic tale of good versus evil, renowned Japanese actor Ichikawa Somegoro played a handsome samurai who falls in love with a beautiful maiden depicted by fellow Kabuki actor Nakamura Yonekichi only to discover she is actually a giant carp's spirit taking the form of a woman to seek revenge against humans for killing her carp lover. The 30-minute production culminates with a dramatic clash between Somegoro and the carp from an impressive 165-foot stage constructed on Lake Bellagio.
Shochiku, the world's premier Kabuki producer and global ambassador with artistic partners Panasonic, teamLab and WET and support from MGM Resorts International aims to raise worldwide awareness for the art by orchestrating an elaborate, high-tech performance unlike anything Las Vegas and traditional Kabuki have ever seen. Water screen projection by Japanese artists and masterminds teamLab, Panasonic's state-of-the-art digital technology and spectacular water effects by WET bring the historic Japanese narrative to life in a Vegas-style production.
- Music – New music was composed for this performance and recorded by musicians in Japan. As the scene transitions from spring and summer to autumn, the Fountain displayed a sweeping art form in sync with the beautiful melody of the Shamisen, a Japanese three-stringed musical instrument. Traditional Takemoto chanting brought the music to a dramatic climax for Somegoro's fight scene with the carp.
- Water Screen Projection – teamLab, a group of technology specialists from various fields of the digital society, projected delicate yet dynamic CG images on the vast Fountain screen that are based on original images drawn by Kabuki artists. The beauty of Kabuki unfolded over Lake Bellagio using teamLab's digital technology and Panasonic's 3-Chip DLP Projector PT-DZ21K, which realizes a brightness of 20,000 lumens.
- Fountains of Bellagio – The most ambitious, choreographically complex water feature ever conceived, the Fountains of Bellagio romance the senses with water, music and light thoughtfully interwoven by WET to mesmerize spectators. Set within the 8.5-acre Lake Bellagio, which for the Kabuki Spectacle was transformed into Japan's Lake Biwa, the attraction featured a total of 1,214 fountains that can soar to 460 feet and span more than 1,000 feet.
- The Kabuki Spectacle is part of MGM Resorts' larger commitment to celebrating Japanese culture and the arts, which also includes a recently debuted art installation at Bellagio by renowned sculptor Masatoshi Izumi and the first-ever Japanese-inspired display at Bellagio's Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.
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