See here. “The Legend of Angkor Wat: When History Come to Life.” December 5, 2008, to January 31, 2009.
If anyone is in the neighborhood, this should be well worth your while. (Angkor Wat is well worth your while anyway, show or no show.) We’ve heard nothing but praise for previous shows, although we’ve only ever heard of one-off performances before. Pavarotti sang there once.
Alas, I’ll just miss it–I will be in Siem Reap in early February.
No worries. Angkor Wat is still very worth your while. 
I’ve been once and look forward to going again this winter. This time I’ll also get to help out at a non-profit or two in Siem Reap.
Just came back from Siem Reap last week. Beautiful place but a bit over-touristed sometimes.
It’s been awhile since I’ve been to Siem Reap, but a Hollywood production with lights and fireworks would seem to gild the lily. Also, the place is crowded enough on a regular day. You say you know people that have enjoyed the show though? Maybe it would be worth a weekend visit.
Not this particular show, since it’s not been performed yet, but the one-offs. Pavarotti singing there was indeed someting to behold by all accounts, and I’ll always regret we didn’t make the effort to go hear him. This one is the first show of it’s kind that I’ve heard of there, being performed regularly for almost two months.
Just to reassure you, the present trouble with the old 10th- and 11th-century Hindu temple Preah Vihear, which is on the border between the two countries, will not affect Angkor Wat. There have been reports that tourists are actually canceling trips to Angkor Wat because of fears about this conflict, but the two places are far away from each other. It would be like, say, not going to New Orleans because of reports of trouble in Houston.
Preah Vihear is inside Cambodia, high up a cliff, but the entrance is in Thailand. The cliff makes it completely inaccessible from the Cambodian side. In a 1962 ruling, the International Court of Justice in the Hague ruled the temple itself was in Cambodia. The controversy flared up again recently, because Cambodia just had it listed as a World Heritage site, and a lot of Thais are pissed off. The Thai government has accepted that it’s in Cambodia, but a group called the People’s Alliance for Democracy, a motley rabble-rousing crew who have been holding a perpetual street protest in Bangkok since late May, is trying by any means it can to provoke another military coup and has now seized on the temple issue. They tried to travel there yesterday (Thursday) but were blocked by local villagers who didn’t want them there causing trouble.
Three Thai protesters did manage to sneak into the temple grounds, which have been closed by Cambodia until the situation cools down, on Tuesday and were briefly detained by the Cambodian army. Despite the Thai government’s agreement that the temple itself is indeed on Cambodian soil, soldiers of both armies have begun gathering on the border, and the Thai army started deploying artillery yesterday. So far, the only casualty has been a Thai soldier who stepped on a landmine while helping negotiate the release of the three Thai boneheads who sneaked over into Cambodia. He lost a leg. (The mine was probably a holdover from the Khmer Rouge days.) You can see an update on this here.
Anyway, Siem Reap and Angkor Wat are completely safe and unaffected. There is no need to cancel a trip there because of this dispute.
Thanks. I’ve been following it in The Phnom Penh Post. What do you think of their coverage, by the way? Are they a credible and balanced source of information, generally speaking?
I think it’s a good newspaper, a lot better than most people would expect for Cambodia. Not as good as the Bangkok Post, but good and shows a lot of promise. There’s an Australian who works on it whom I used to know, and he’s a very good and conscientious person. I still see his brother and, especially, father here in Bangkok, and they tell me that while the pay is low, he enjoys the work atmosphere and that the Cambodian journalists on it are these young go-getters who really believe in what they’re doing, which is nice (even if that does tend to get you killed in Cambodia).
Another good source for Cambodian information is the Tales of Asia website run by American journalist Gordon Sharpless. He’s a very nice guy who also owns and operates the Two Dragons Guesthouse in Siem Riep with his Thai girlfriend. The Siem Reap section of his website is here.
Thanks, that’s helpful.