Friday, Sept. 12, 2003 | 10:44 a.m.
One of Philip Wm. McKinley's first career stops was Henderson's Burkholder Junior High School, where his job just out of college was as a vocal teacher and bandleader in 1973.
On Monday "The Boy From Oz," starring Hugh Jackman, opens. It is one of most anticipated new shows of the Broadway season.
The director is one Philip Wm. McKinley.
"Las Vegas gave me my professional start and I will always be grateful to all of my friends there," McKinley told VegasBeat over the phone Thursday during a break from rehearsals at the Imperial Theatre, smack dab in the middle of the Great White Way.
"Oz" is the musical true story of late entertainer Peter Allen, who was a protege of Judy Garland, and for a while also her son-in-law; Allen was married to Liza Minnelli from 1967 to 1972.
On top of all that, McKinley is also a descendant of the 25th president of the United States, William McKinley.
"I got my professional start in Vegas," McKinley said. "I had been teaching in Henderson for about a year and a half when one of the teachers dared me to audition for Donn Arden's 'Lido de Paris' at the Stardust.
"Amazingly enough, I got the job. After a year I started dancing at the Dunes, and also did some Vegas theater over the years," including productions of "Godspell" and "Don Quixote" at Judy Bayley Theatre.
After 10 years in Southern Nevada, McKinley "packed up my tap shoes and took a bus to New York."
And today, after spending nearly 20 years in the New York theater, and a long stint as the director and choreographer of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus, McKinley is on the verge of being an overnight success.
He was most recently in town when the circus was at The Orleans Arena in late June. "I also come back from time to time to see old friends like Breck Wall -- I was once in 'Bottoms Up!' -- and Siegfried & Roy."
New York Post gossip Liz Smith recently wrote that McKinley "will become a household name" after "The Boy From Oz" opens, and that "word-of-mouth is already hot."
Charity match
Talk about an all-star match.
According to the current edition of Sports Illustrated, Andre Agassi is hosting a $1 million doubles challenge match for charity on Dec. 27 in Las Vegas. Agassi will team with Pete Sampras. On the other side of the net will be old-time court kings Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe. Losers split $500,000.
To make up for the age difference (Agassi and Sampras are 33 and 32, respectively, while Connors and McEnroe are 51 and 44), the younger team would get only one serve, unless they lose a set.
Calls to Agassi's office seeking info on a location or ticket prices were not immediately returned.
Fight plan
ESPN2 will broadcast its "Friday Night Fights" studio show live from ESPNZone at New York-New York tonight. It will air the Heriberto Ruiz/Cristobal Cruz fight from MGM Grand Garden Arena.
The scheduled in-studio/restaurant guests include Hasim Rahman, Floyd Mayweather Sr. and Jr. and Mike Tyson.
The event is open to the public.
But the big fight this weekend will be elbowing into all of the parties after the featured Oscar De La Hoya/Shane Mosley match Saturday night.
Downsize
The Las Vegas bureau of American Media Inc. -- publishers of the supermarket tabs the Star, Globe and National Enquirer -- was abruptly shut Wednesday night, and Kevin Lynch, the one-man Vegas bureau, was let go.
The company slashed 70 jobs around the county, and also closed its Miami bureau.
The company has been in the news lately for its luring of Editor Bonnie Fuller from Us Weekly -- for a reported $3 million per annum -- to try to remake the Star into a more respectable competitor for Us and People magazine.
Both Us and People retain freelance Vegas correspondents to cover all the celebrity doings here, as do several other national publications.
"The newsstand market is difficult," American Media Chief Executive David Pecker said in a statement. "It's down 13 percent and we thought it was wise to make cost reductions now."
Language barrier
David Copperfield was one of the stars at a big party at New York hot spot Brasserie 8 1/2 Wednesday night celebrating the release of the new Nicole Kidman and Anthony Hopkins movie, "The Human Stain."
Copperfield, who returns to the MGM Grand Sept. 25, told celebrity reporter Baird Jones that Vegas was not a typical American audience.
Since there are so many international tourists, Copperfield told Jones, he ends having to "cut back on words and make my way through the show relying more on gestures" than in other cities, "which is very tough."
VegasBits
Live!: Original "Saturday Night Live" cast members Garrett Morris and Laraine Newman have confirmed they will be at the Palms for Wednesday's celebrity-filled bash introducing a series of "SNL" slot machines ...
Moving out?: Magician Steve Wyrick, who left the Sahara on Aug. 31, is telling friends that his next stop is Atlantic City or Branson, Mo. ...
Honor: There is a new street sign hanging from the stop light on Flamingo Road in front of the Palms. It says Hugh Hefner Way. Playboy's 50th anniversary weekend is being feted at the hotel the weekend of Sept. 19 ...
Idea: Washingtonian Magazine has a story in its September issue detailing how Republican pollster Frank Luntz was the main person who helped Steve Wynn decide to change the name of his new hotel from Le Reve to Wynn Las Vegas. The casino mogul and political insider have had a long professional relationship ...
Payoff: "Sixtiesmania," the musical show that played for no admission cost at Castaways earlier this year, has landed a new gig at Greek Isles and will charge $34.95 for tickets. The inventive Australian group performs as various bands, from the Beatles to the Beach Boys.
From Sun wires
David Letterman had better start thinking up a top 10 list of baby names -- he's about to become a father.
While taping the "Late Show" episode that's scheduled to air tonight, Letterman, 56, told the audience Thursday that his girlfriend, Regina Lasko, is about six months' pregnant.
"I have an announcement to make and I'll be honest with you, I'm a little bit nervous. I have some trepidations about this. I feel a little silly because it's one of those things where I thought never in my life this would happen," he said.
After the cheers and applause from the audience subsided, Letterman joked about the upside of becoming a father for the first time at his age: "By the time the kid's out stealing cars, you know, Dad will be dead a few years."
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