The Las Vegas luau worth planning around this winter sits inside the hotel named after a Robert Louis Stevenson novel. MANA plays the ballroom at Treasure Island on the Strip one Friday a month, December 18, 2026 to April 16, 2027, and its story follows the man who wrote Treasure Island across the South Pacific to Samoa, where he spent his last four years.
MANA at Treasure Island: Dinner First, Then the Voyage
MANA: A Polynesian Revue & Luau is a 90-minute dinner show where the meal comes before the stage. The feast is built around a roasted pig, the pua'a, and then cinematic projections turn the ballroom walls into South Pacific coastline while dancers, drummers and singers carry the story through five island cultures: Tahiti, Hawaii, Aotearoa, Tonga and Samoa.
Where: Treasure Island Ballroom, Treasure Island, on the Strip. When: one Friday a month, five shows from December 18, 2026 to April 16, 2027. Run time: 90 minutes. Ages: guests under 21 attend with an adult 21 or older. Best for: couples, families and groups who want dinner and a show in one booking. Includes: the luau feast, the show, and two rum drinks for guests 21 and over.
Tusitala: Why Stevenson Leads a Luau on the Strip
Treasure Island opened in 1993 with its look borrowed from Stevenson's pirate novel of 1883. MANA's full title is The Final Journey of Robert Louis Stevenson, and it picks the author up long after the book, sailing through Tahiti, Hawaii and New Zealand before he settles in Samoa. Along the way the script takes in his welcome in Hawaii and his advocacy for Samoan chiefs against outsiders.
Stevenson bought land at Vailima on the island of Upolu in 1890 and died there in 1894, at 44. Samoans called him Tusitala, the teller of tales, and carried him up Mount Vaea to a grave that looks out over the sea. The show builds toward that Samoan chapter, which is why the evening ends where it does.
Kui Lee's Daughter and the Fire Knife Finale
Wailana Lee plays Queen Kapi'olani. She is the daughter of Kui Lee, the Hawaiian songwriter behind I'll Remember You, written in 1964, recorded by Don Ho in 1965 and sung by Elvis Presley on his Aloha from Hawaii broadcast in 1973. MANA's live vocals honor Kui Lee's music, and Samoan singer Atoa Ripley hosts and sings.
Runi Tafeaga, founder of Hot Lava Productions, directs the dance. The final scene lands in Samoa to honor Tusitala, and it closes with several fire knife dancers on stage at once, spinning knives set alight at both ends.
From a Pool Party to a Monthly Polynesian Show
MANA started as a single poolside luau at Treasure Island on July 24, 2026, then moved indoors to the ballroom. Its creator, High Chief Fonoti Reno Anoa'i, runs KnokX Pro Entertainment, a Samoan-owned company better known for professional wrestling, and he comes from the Anoa'i family whose relatives include Roman Reigns and The Usos. He told KLAS that the show builds the way a wrestling main event does.
The producers bill MANA as the only Polynesian luau-and-revue production on the Strip. The name is the Polynesian word for spiritual power, prestige and honor.
Mystère Is in the Same Building
The other nights of a trip can stay at the same resort: Mystère, the first Cirque du Soleil show to open in Las Vegas, has played its own theater at Treasure Island since 1993. Our ranking of the four Cirque shows shows how it compares. For a dinner show on a night MANA is dark, the Las Vegas dinner shows guide has five that run most nights, and our Las Vegas in December guide covers the week it opens.
