Sunday, Dec. 3, 2006 | 7:42 a.m.
A $40 million theater and over-the-top special effects (including a searing pyrotechnic display) in the Venetian's "Phantom - Las Vegas Spectacular" are just enough spectacle for Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Lloyd Webber stopped in town for a quick overnighter last week, landing from London on Monday and moving on to Los Angeles and finally New York, where tonight he will be among those lauded by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts at 29th annual Kennedy Center Honors gala (scheduled to air tonight at 7 on CBS). Lloyd Webber will be honored along with conductor Zubin Mehta, Steven Spielberg, Smokey Robinson and Dolly Parton.
"It is quite an honor," said Lloyd Webber, who knows something about honors: He has won three Tony Awards, an Oscar, a Grammy and is an English knight. "But it rather implies one is finished working. I'm not. I'm looking forward to my next (production)." If that comment sounds familiar, "Phantom" co-producer Hal Prince said pretty much the same thing in May before accepting a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award.
Of the well-received "Phantom," Lloyd Webber said, "I'm very, very pleased with it. Apparently, it had its best week last week (the week of Nov. 19 through Nov. 25). What I was concerned about was that it stay true to the original piece, that we wouldn't have a spectacular just for the sake of spectacular. Some of the things they have done are really, really very effective. One of the things I like very mush, my favorite moment, is when the opera house appears. I think that is very clever."
Lloyd Webber mentioned that he would one day like to work with Steve Wynn. (The two have known each other socially for years.) "We've been talking, and one day we would love to do something together. It's really a matter of when or what. Working to this 90-minute formula (the standard for Vegas productions) is a different way of writing than I normally write. But I'd love one day to do something specific for Las Vegas."
NoteMart
More Wynn: The 1,499-seat Grail Theater, being prepared for "Monty Python's Spamalot," is almost ready. Seats are being installed, and previews of the show will begin in March, Steve Wynn told Sun columnist Jeff Simpson last week.
Wynn says he was concerned that the Beatles-themed Cirque du Soleil show "Love" would cut into the business generated by his own production show, "Le Reve." Not to worry. "We were drawing 12,000 to 13,000 people every week, making a couple of million (dollars) a month," Wynn said. "After 'Love' opened we're doing 14,000 people a week." ...
You know you've made it when your wife calls to tell you she's just passed a display bearing your likeness at Toys "R" Us. That happened to popular Harrah's comic magician Mac King, who is marketing a line of toys based on his Magic In a Minute comic strip and book series. "It's pretty exciting. My wife (Jennifer) was in Toys "R" Us and actually took a picture of our little rack with her cell phone," King said during an interview last week. King said he initially had no plans to turn his act into a multimedia experience. "I'm pretty lazy, to be honest. If it were just me, it would just be the little magic show." ...
Those not familiar with the comic stylings of Johnny Dark might not have been in on the tongue-in-cheek description summoned by longtime Riviera PR man John Neeland. who writes in a news release: "Stand-up comedy actor Johnny Dark brings his subtle, calm humor to the award-winning Riviera Comedy Club during the holidays, for seven hilarious shows, beginning Monday, Dec. 18." Subtle as a circular saw, Dark's high-volume act features a painfully descriptive bit about his most recent colonoscopy ...
Feb. 10 is the date for the year's largest fundraiser, the "Power of Love" benefit for Keep Memory Alive, the foundation for the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Last year 's event raised $20 million, a world record for money raised in a single charity event. February's dinner will be prepared by Wolfgang Puck, Mario Batali and Joel Robuchon in the Garden Arena's star-spiced kitchen ...
Think twice before flipping the bird: A reader checks in with a bright yellow VW Beetle with the vanity license plate "TWEETY."
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