Sunday, July 2, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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I think my dear friend has left it all on the stage. And Las Vegas will be the better for it.
It was well over 40 years ago when a much younger Bernie Yuman came to my office at the Las Vegas Sun. I was much younger too! But I was not so young that I didn’t understand what this man, dressed in his unmistakable impresario’s uniform — black from head to toe with a bauble or two providing a little distraction from his nonstop and unstoppable banter — wanted. He wanted what at that time was the impossible.
Bernie was the manager of “Siegfried & Roy.” These were two people with whom I was not familiar at that time but two people who, because of their incredible talent and work ethic and Bernie Yuman the manager’s ability to make everything happen, would become a household name the world over.
A small part of that international recognition started in my office when Bernie wanted to buy an ad on the front page of the Las Vegas Sun for 365 days a year for a “million” years, or some such thing. He lost me when he said “ad on the front page.” In those days, that just didn’t happen. It was a small inconvenience for the irrepressible Mr. Yuman.
Needless to say, Bernie got his ad, we got a much needed financial boost — some things never change — and the legend of “Siegfried & Roy” began in earnest.
It didn’t stop until that fateful night on Oct. 3, 2003, when Roy Horn’s career — and Siegfried Fischbacher’s too — ended when their beautiful white tiger, Mantecore, bit into Roy’s neck, sending him near-death to the hospital and the award-winning, record-setting, crowd-pleasing show to the Las Vegas entertainment history books.
That was 20 years ago. But the world quickly forgot the third person whose magnificent upward-trending career was also put on life support that night. When Roy left that stage, ending the magnificence of the “Siegfried & Roy” show, Bernie Yuman’s dream of creating the Las Vegas entertainment spectacle was shattered.
But my friend Bernie was not. There is just no quit in him.
That’s what Muhammad Ali knew when he named Bernie, his lifelong friend and trusted adviser, to be his manager. Bernie represented The Greatest for the rest of his life.
That’s what Coach Don Shula of Miami Dolphin fame knew when he also made Bernie his manager. Bernie never let the coach down.
And I am not sure what two-time Academy Award-winning actor and human being extraordinaire Anthony Hopkins knew when he asked Bernie to be the best man at his wedding. But he knew something because they are still dear friends — meaning that Tony still answers the phone when Bernie calls and vice versa!
And that brings me back to today. It just took a little while to get here.
I remember being in New York for the opening of “On Your Feet,” a Broadway show that Bernie executive-produced about the lives of Gloria and Emilio Estefan. I was with him when he pitched a Las Vegas hotelier on his new idea for a Las Vegas spectacular.
That was eight years ago. Nothing happened except the irrepressible Mr. Yuman remained, well, irrepressible. Bernie pitched his idea to a few hotels after that, but the timing was never quite right for such a significant financial adventure in the middle of an economic meltdown and a worldwide pandemic.
And, then, the WynnLas Vegas heard his pitch. And got it.
This past Friday night — after an early start and a brief time-out to make it so much better — “Awakening” opened at the Wynn.
Together with his incredibly talented co-producers, Baz Halpin and Michael Curry, Bernie Yuman has brought to life what I believe will be the next bar-setting Las Vegas entertainment spectacle.
I am not a show critic. All I know is what I like and what I don’t. That’s why I took two teenage girls, members of the up-and -coming generation of Las Vegas showgoers to see “Awakening,”
I needed to know what they thought, whether this show with all of its incredible parts — music, dance, illusions, story-telling, set design, stagecraft and costumes — was compelling enough for them to recommend it to their friends.
Their answer was “yes!”
And then I asked my wife and fellow baby boomer what she thought. There was so much she enjoyed, but Myra couldn’t stop talking about the way our friend, Tony Hopkins, brought the whole story together in a way that everyone should want a story to end.
As for Bernie Yuman?
He has left it all on that stage. That stage at the Wynn. All of Las Vegas will be rooting for them both.
And I, for one, will await Bernie’s next act!
Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun
