how the stage works
The theatre and the water stage
The Dancing Water Theater is built around a working pool rather than a fixed stage floor — here's what that actually means for the room you'll sit in.
Choose your seats ↗The theatre, by the numbers
| Figure | |
|---|---|
| Seating | Roughly 2,000, arranged through 270 degrees around the stage |
| Water volume | Roughly 17 million litres — more than five Olympic swimming pools |
| Original opening | 17 September 2010, under creator Franco Dragone |
A 270-degree bowl, not rows facing a stage
The Dancing Water Theater seats roughly 2,000 people around the stage through 270 degrees rather than in rows facing a proscenium — every seat looks across the pool rather than down a single sightline.
The pool that isn't always there
Hydraulic elevators and advanced water systems, as Melco's own account of the technology describes them, let the stage floor sink away and refill to hold roughly 17 million litres at full depth — the mechanism is as much a part of the show as anything performed on it.
Built in 2010, rebuilt inside in 2025
The theatre and its water system opened with the original production on 17 September 2010, built at a cost Melco has put at over 2 billion RMB. The 2025 relaunch kept the physical theatre and refitted the stage technology, lighting, lasers and projection around a new production.
A show that outgrew a quiet reopening
Before Covid-19 closed it in 2020, the original production had run close to 4,000 performances since 2010 and been seen by an estimated 5 million people, including a 2012 Thea Award for outstanding live spectacular — a scale that's why Melco rebuilt rather than retired the venue.
Who's behind the 2025 rebuild
Artistic director Giuliano Peparini led the new production, working with producer Our Legacy Creations, picking up an idea Melco's chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho had commissioned at the resort's outset. Franco Dragone, who created the original show, died in September 2022 and did not see the reopening.
What it means for your seat
Because every category faces the same pool and the same 270-degree stage, the categories GetYourGuide offers for your date change your distance from the water rather than which part of the show you see — useful to know before paying extra for a higher one.