Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Las Vegas jockeys for Broadway shows

Las Vegas has been the wallflower in the dance of theater shows.

While cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco are frequently visited by touring Broadway shows, Las Vegas sits alone -- all prettied up for the party with no takers.

Oh sure, every once in a while shows such as "Cats" or the classic "Les Miserables" will take her roomy stages for a spin, but all in all, the city has been largely ignored by big Broadway productions.

But now there's something in the air.

"Chicago," which played at the Mandalay Bay Theatre for 17 weeks, tangoed with the city, found it pleasant enough, and spread the word to other suitors.

Now she is being courted by big-name Broadway producers who have settled down with long-term engagements at the Rio hotel-casino (with "Footloose,") and Caesars Palace hotel-casino (with "Smokey Joe's Cafe").

On Wednesday the touring production of the musical "Annie" takes the stage at the Mandalay Bay Theatre through Sunday -- in the same room where "Chicago" made its Las Vegas debut in March of 1999 before closing a year later.

Although musicals in Las Vegas showrooms are not a rarity, the number of shows playing in and around Strip theaters has doubled within the last six months.

Is this the beginning of a beautiful friendship?

Martin Charnin, creator and director of the musical "Annie" (which became a Broadway hit when it opened in 1977), hinted that Las Vegas has a climate complementary to theater.

"I would think Las Vegas is a good place to begin (a show)," Charnin said. "The capitalization would be there, the theaters themselves would be there and an audience is an audience is an audience."

Las Vegas' constant captive and international audience offers a unique pool of theater-goers, he said.

"Certainly now you could get a pretty good demographic idea (of whether) a show could work," he said. "You could run a show in Las Vegas for six weeks, work on it and get all the kinks out of it and ultimately bring it to Broadway or tour it."

What's missing is not desire on the part of the crowd. In fact, most of the Broadway shows opening in Las Vegas have had brisk business. (Except "Grease" at the MGM Grand hotel-casino, which closed its planned six-week run after two weeks officially due to technical difficulties.) What's missing is the money, Charnin said.

"It's a nifty place to do the work, but you would need somebody to bankroll it," Charnin said. "As far as I know there are a lot of Daddy Warbucks (the wealthy father figure in "Annie") in Las Vegas, more so per capita than any other city. You can become Daddy Warbucks overnight. You could finance a show based on a good roll at the craps table!"

New York's backstages were humming with the rumor that Las Vegas' own Warbucks, multimillionaire and gaming bigwig Steve Wynn, was in negotiations last year with famed Broadway producer Jerry Herman to create an original production, "Miss Spectacular," to open at the Mirage hotel-casino.

Herman, who created such legendary musicals as "Hello Dolly" and "Mame," was hand-picked by Wynn to write and debut the play, which was planned to open within two years. A 1,500-seat theater was to be built to house the show.

However, when Mirage Resorts Inc. (which owned the rights to the play) was recently bought by MGM Grand Inc. for $6.7 billion, the fate of the musical is up in the air.

"I was under the impression that Steve Wynn had a whole plan out there at one point, that he was even going to generate brand new musicals and I don't know whatever happened to that," Charnin said. "It was sort of floating around New York and we began having conversations and then it quieted down. But I think Las Vegas would be a very, very good place."

Some disagree with Charnin about the Las Vegas theater scene.

Barry Weissler, producer of the Las Vegas version of "Chicago" and the upcoming tour of "Annie Get Your Gun" with Marilu Henner (which is rumored to come through Las Vegas this fall), said the quality of the shows has become more upscale, but the audience may need a little schooling on how to appreciate the stage.

"We are trying to give the Las Vegas community, which has grown exponentially in the last 10 years, a taste of first-class Broadway fare," he said. "If anything, that is what has changed."

In the past Las Vegas audiences were willing to watch the event, he said, but they missed the whole picture.

"We are trying to educate them to listen as well as watch," he said. "That means you have to get inside the show. It's not just as simple as sitting back and saying, 'OK show me the colors, let me look at something beautiful on stage.' It means you have to commit to the story and the plot and the characters."

And slowly but surely that is happening, he said.

"When people go to Broadway they look and listen," Weissler said. "When people go to the theater in Vegas it's more looking."

And because of that, he said, Las Vegas is lacking in its appeal.

"It's not the place to start Broadway, because you are not giving a fair trial to your show," Weissler said.

Regardless, the audience approval -- and even a little local pride -- that "Chicago" received is a positive sign that more will follow, Bob Burgan, professor of theater at UNLV, said.

"We are getting more Class-A productions, we are a getting more productions of worldwide interest," he said. "But we've never had, for example, a production of 'Phantom of the Opera' or 'Miss Saigon' and yet those have been in existence for more than 10 years and have toured cities in the United States and around the world. We'll see."

Broadway and Las Vegas have tried to make a long-term commitment over the years but have fallen short of making a solid go of it.

"Annie" played at the Dessert Inn hotel-casino for an extended run in the late '70s and was very successful, Burgan said.

"It was a solid production although it was a condensed version, as I remember," he said.

The Desert Inn also sponsored the hit Broadway musical "A Chorus Line" for three years and rumors surfaced that the small casino with the big showroom would be the it place for Broadway productions. Those flitting rumors *sunk like a stone* CLICHE after the Desert Inn replaced hit productions with headline performers in the mid-'80s.

Hope is not far off, though, Burgan said. Wynn purchased the Desert Inn last month from Starwood Hotels & Resorts for $270 million.

"Maybe with Steve Wynn's leadership there (at the hotel) that idea will be returned," he said.

Theater expert Theodore Chapin, president and executive director of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, which promotes entertainment copyrights and furthers theater efforts, said Las Vegas' Broadway appeal is gaining as it grows.

"It's very much in transition. There is clearly a built-in audience in Vegas for something," Chapin said.

Chapin had heard from some people in the "Chicago" production that the Las Vegas audience was a bit different than those in other cities.

"An hour and 15 minutes, without an intermission, is what a Vegas audience wants," Chapin said. "They want to go back to the casinos."

At the same time they want some entertainment, and the musical genre has been a staple in the American amusement diet.

"I think we feel it in our bones," he said. "It's somehow an inherently American art form that appeals to us and we simply embrace it."

Because of the big musicals that have toured the United States in the last year audiences have become very sophisticated, he said. Big theaters, where once there were few, have sprouted up in places such as Orange County, Calif., and Pittsburgh, to house touring shows and the crowds that love them.

"They are all over the place, so you can really have quite a circuit for the tour," Chapin siad. "(Venues) are used to these extravagances, and there's a question of what is going to fill the void when the latest (large production) show leaves and the new one comes in."

A lot of people in theater are wondering if there's a way to capture that audience.

"It will be interesting to see if there are some shows that can catch on and stay (in Las Vegas) on a permanent basis," he said.

Permanent? That's music to a wallflower's ear.

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