Family Entertainment: Steve Wyrick

Monday, May 7, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.

Who: Steve Wyrick

When: 7 and 9 p.m. Saturdays through Thursdays, dark Fridays

Where: Steve Wyrick Theatre, Planet Hollywood

Tickets: $59.95 to $79.95; 777-9974

Rating: ****

Magician Steve Wyrick has a new room, a new show and a new outlook.

Sure, he's still hooked on aviation, making jets and helicopters materialize and walking through a spinning turbo jet blade without so much as a nick.

But the show at his recently opened $34 million theater at Planet Hollywood is more appealing, more theatrical, a more pleasing experience than earlier versions.

"What I'm striving for in the new show is not to just roll out a box and do a magic trick," Wyrick said. "I do have a couple of box tricks, but what I'm trying to do is to do a tribute to the family."

He says he was always family-oriented and the revitalized show reflects that.

"I pull what's inside of me out to share with people," Wyrick said.

There is a new cohesiveness to the production, which also has more passion than past shows, although it could use a little more - as well as some better banter with the audience.

Generally, his earlier productions were technically OK but void of emotion. They had all the warmth of an airplane hangar, which the theaters resembled.

Now, before the curtain goes up, a replica of a post-World War II living room decorates the stage - a Philco TV, sofas, coffee tables, a lamp, a console radio on which a model airplane is on display.

The set goes away, the curtain rises, four dancers perform a routine in a hangar like setting and when they finish, a helicopter appears and Wyrick steps out.

One of the best new aspects of the show is the choreography. It gives a new energy to the show.

There are several new tricks, including one that involves an assistant materializing in a tank of water barely large enough to hold her.

If you are more impressed with close-up magic than the big tricks, Wyrick has plenty of those. He makes liberal use of hand-held cameras that put the small tricks on a big screen for everyone to enjoy.

It's amazing to watch him collect three rings from the audience, put them in a wine glass and appear to link them, then unlink them.

His 654 Club card routine is another fun bit to watch on the screen.

The show closes back in the old living room setting. Wyrick makes his "grandmother" appear out of a blanket , and then a boy - a young version of Wyrick - appears out of another blanket.

The boy is holding the model airplane seen earlier. In the finale he places the plane on the stage and a full-size Lear jet appears in its place.

"I'm still working on a couple of more pieces that I think will change the show even more dramatically," Wyrick said. "Change is good. That's what I'm striving for, to go in a different direction, creating magic with meaning.

"My goal is to overhaul everything in the show."