JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The secrets of an ancient Egyptian king will be on display in downtown Jacksonville this summer when “Beyond King Tut: The Immersive Experience” comes to town.
The Tutankhamun show will open June 9 for "a limited run" at the NoCo Center, the former First Baptist Church auditorium at Beaver and Hogan streets where “Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience” opened in September for what was supposed to be a two-month run. “Beyond Van Gogh” closes April 30 after selling more than 130,000 tickets.
Visitors to "Beyond King Tut" will travel through eight galleries, tracing Tutankhamun's life and his journey to the afterlife and learning about the mummification process and the preparation of the burial chamber. The main gallery features a 23-minute loop of images projected onto the walls, floors and people. A separately ticketed virtual-reality "Beyond the Tomb" experience is also available.
Tickets for "Beyond King Tut" will go on sale Thursday, April 27 at www.beyondkingtut.com. Tickets, which start at $33.99 for adults and $24.99 for kids, are sold in specific time slots and will be more expensive for peak times. It takes about an hour to see the whole show, but visitors can take as much time inside as they like. The venue and show are wheelchair-accessible.
“Beyond King Tut,” which was put together with the help of the National Geographic Society, made its debut in 2022 — the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Tut’s tomb — in New York and Boston. The show has also played in Los Angeles, Vancouver and Washington, D.C., and is scheduled to play in Atlanta later this year.
The Tut show was created by Paquin Entertainment Group, the same company that put together the Van Gogh show. Hidden equipment projects a constantly changing series of images onto the walls and floors of the exhibit space, immersing visitors in the images. The show in other cities has included interactive elements, games and a virtual-reality experience.
There are no actual King Tut artifacts in the show. The Egyptian government has reclaimed artifacts from around the world for the new Grand Egyptian Museum, slated to open late this year.
"I think that’s their right," said Justin Paquin, president of Paquin Entertainment Group. "Can’t be upset about that."
Paquin said it takes a lot of work to switch from Van Gogh to Tut. The Tut exhibit involves a lot of physical displays in addition to the projection show.
"We have to load a lot of it out. It’s not like changing a USB stick or anything," he said. "There’s a lot of physical scenery involved in the show and there’s a lot more to read and look at than the Van Gogh show. There’s a bit more to it with the King Tut show."
He said his favorite part, aside from the main projection room, is the King's Room, where visitors can learn about Tut's life and play games that date back to ancient Egypt.
Paquin said the show will remain in Jacksonville through the summer. The company also has a "Beyond Monet" show available and at least two others — "Dinosaur Discoveries" and "Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N." — in development.
What reviewers are saying about 'Beyond King Tut'
"More so than recent immersive experiences devoted to artists like Van Gogh or Monet, 'Beyond King Tut' tells a concrete story arc, with a beginning, middle, and end. As guests move through the exhibit, they will find rooms devoted to the mummification process and the preparation of the burial chamber. Then they finish in a giant room devoted to a visual creation of how Egyptians envisioned the after-life." — Kevin Slane, Boston.com
"The show features some impressively set-designed spaces that evoke tombs, caverns and the pharaoh’s burial chamber, complete with an oversized reproduction of his sarcophagus. The bulk of the exhibits, however, are constructed of nothing more substantial than sound and light." — Mark Jenkins, The Washington Post
"The Van Gogh show was mostly projections and music, but the King Tut show has several hands-on exhibits. There’s a large re-creation of a senet board (a board game found in Tut’s tomb) that visitors can play. There are stamping stations where people can stamp King Tut’s cartouche (a design of his name in hieroglyphics) and a separate-ticket 'Enter the Tomb' virtual reality experience that takes the headset-wearer through the tomb to see the items as they were first discovered. And where Van Gogh’s life story was told on written panels at the beginning of the exhibit, visitors to the Tut exhibit can use their smartphone and earphones to hear educational audio recordings in each room of the exhibit that can be accessed via QR codes." — Pam Kragen, The San Diego Union-Tribune
"Not a single golden treasure or artifact from the tomb is on view at 'Beyond King Tut: The Immersive Experience.' Instead, high-resolution digital projections of Tutankhamun's world are splashed along high walls and floors as visitors walk through nine galleries that chart his life, death and times. — Mark Kennedy, Associated Press.
