Vegas Popular

This is my 40th year and 5th decade writing about Las Vegas. During the entire span the city has been referred to as "the entertainment capital of the world." Making a rare drive along the famed Strip the other night, I started wondering it the phrase meant the same today as it did when it was first coined.

I don't think so.

The entertainment of the bygone Las Vegas was the entertainers, the names on all the hotel marquees that are virtually gone today. Names such as Frank, Sammy, Dean and Joey, or Anthony Newley, Juliet Prowse, Joel Grey, Shecky Greene or Johnny Carson. The headliners and co-headliners performed two-shows-a-night, seven-nights-a-week for two, three or sometimes four weeks at a time. They started exactly at 8PM and midnight with a dinner and drink show, respectively. There were lines weaving through the casino prior to the performance with your reservation guaranteed, but your seat location depended on the toke you gave the maitre d' or captain seating you. It was part of the Las Vegas excitement that old-timers miss.

You were also dressed to the nines; no jeans, shorts or t-shirts. It was like everyone was ready for a fashion shoot. It was class all the way. And, the prices were reasonable meaning that a visitor could afford to attend two or even three shows.

Hotels today featuring rotating headliners include the MGM Grand, the Luxor, the Orleans, the Hilton, Caesars Palace and the Suncoast, with the Luxor about to join the Cirque du Soleil family of shows. And, the majority of the headliners are comedians or high-tickets acts. The remaining hotels feature Broadway productions or Cirque productions. And, with escalating tickets costs, the tourist usually can only afford one show during a weekend visit. All of the headliners only do one show a night and do a maximum of five a week.

Entertainment today is much more than what or who appears on stage. It is the mega resorts, themselves; it is the shopping malls; it is pirate shows, volcanoes, free attractions offered throughout the city. It is also the fine dinning, the ultra lounges and every other business vying for a piece of the visitor's dollar.

"We'll never see the old entertainment days of Las Vegas again," said a hotel entertainment director. "Corporate says that every department has to make money, so you can't experiment and take chances. That's the bottom line. Today's performers feel that they don't need Las Vegas to sell records or to be successful. What I mean by that is that they don't have to perform a few nights at a hotel. They can do a concert and that's enough. Or, they can get paid to make an appearance at an ultra lounge and get just as much publicity."

The agent for a couple of up and coming acts said that "playing Vegas can help an act as long as it is the right venue. Years ago it meant something to headline a hotel, but times have changed. Playing the House of Blues or The Pearl helps, most of the others places could hurt an act."

It may be the 'Year of the Boar' in the Chinese calendar, but for the Las Vegas Strip, it's the Year of the Comedian. Comedy has always been part of the local scene, but never with the amount of comics whose names will adorn hotel marquees (for those that have them) in 2007. Today, comics are everywhere: main showrooms, cabarets, comedy clubs, event centers and festivals. Most of them night be considered weekend warriors for they perform one show Friday and Saturday nights. The trend started in the custom-built Danny Gans Theatre at the Mirage. The room's limited stage area isn't conducive to bringing musical acts to perform, but it's ideal for a comedian.

"We've been doing it for along time and selling it out each weekend," says MGM Mirage President of Entertainment & Sports Richard Sturm. "It's certainly an easier production. It also gives our patron a choice of how to spend their entertainment dollar especially with the high cost of the production show ticket. This way they can afford to see one of our Cirque shows and then choose from one of our many other shows."

Sturm books the MGM Grand's Hollywood Theatre which has Howie Mandel, Drew Carey & The Improv All-Stars, Lewis Black and Rodney Carrington. Also, The Mirage features Jay Leno, Brad Garrett, Kevin James, David Spade, Ray Romano and Dana Carvey. He's also responsible for the Mandalay Events Center where Edie Griffin, Kathy Griffin, Vince Vaughn and Ron White have or will appear. Louis Anderson and Carrot Top have permanent homes at the Excalibur and Luxor, respectively, and the Luxor's Spotlight Series has included Carrington.

Tom Jones and David Copperfield are regulars in the Hollywood Theatre, but Sturm says that it's "not easy finding emerging talent. Newer performers today play it safe by being the opening for a major concert artist, so it's difficult to find anyone willing to take a chance." When asked how many Cirque du Soleil show is too many, Sturm replied, "to be fair, it's a question I can't answer. It's mind-boggling and it sure beats doing risky Broadway shows. They're a great marketing tool for hotels. They're the preeminent show producers with the most talented people willing to spend unbelievable amounts of money. You can't ask for more."

Monday's Tease: So the brave new unexpected successful world of nightclubs has become Vegas entertainment in it's own right and TAO is one of the clubs that rocks, rules and reigns in our desert kingdom. Take one given week and just look at its star power. Mike Snedegar takes us behind the velvet rope for a 5-day rundown of the superstars!

Also Pop-ular in Vegas Right Now:
- LUXE LIFE: Vegas Is Still Magic Mecca
- LUXE LIFE: Why I Love Vegas by George Wallace
- AOL Vegas: Pussycat Dolls Casino in Vegas

Share This Little Slice of Vegas:
Subscribe to Vegas Pop RSS Feed
Digg! This Story
Add to Netscape
Add to del.icio.us

Technorati Tags: las vegas celebrity las vegas shows frank lieberman old-school vegas vegas shows