Henderson entertains itself

By Mike Trask

Monday, June 25, 2007 | 7:17 a.m.

When you're running an outdoor venue in Henderson tucked between a police station and a Cheesecake Factory, it's tough to compete with the Entertainment Capital of the World.

Let's face it, Elton John isn't playing too many venues that share a parking lot with a public library.

So you don't attempt the impossible.

Instead you try to provide an affordable, all-ages, family-friendly place - something there isn't much of in the Las Vegas Valley.

The five-year-old Henderson Pavilion on Green Valley Parkway has started carving that niche for itself. Earlier this month it set an attendance record when it sold out the facility's 2,500 covered seats for a Weird Al Yankovic show.

It was a first for Henderson: a full-scale tour stop, complete with tour buses, semi-trucks and video screens. Every other show at the amphitheater has been a one-time production. Weird Al, though, stopped in Henderson between stops in San Diego and Stockton, Calif.

OK, so it wasn't exactly the Rolling Stones at the MGM.

But Henderson doesn't want it to be.

With the Henderson entertainment pavilion being funded by hotel tax dollars, the city's Cultural Arts and Tourism department doesn't have to worry about turning a profit. It would be happy to just break even.

"Even if we don't break even, it's OK because we are trying to expose people to new and different things," program manager Bud Pico said. "We're not in the business to make money off our residents. We're here to provide them with a unique experience. Not everyone wants to go to the Strip."

So this spring the department brought in Weird Al and the pop-punk band Hellogoodbye, which drew about 1,800 people. It's also hosted the Henderson Symphony and a performance of "The Nutcracker."

"They are going after the tourist and using it as a loss leader to attract the gamblers," Pico said of the large entertainment venues at the Strip's big hotels. "They are also using it as a revenue source. It's rare to find a $25 ticket like we had for Weird Al."

Henderson also seeks to avoid competing with Ovation, a new venue at Green Valley Ranch, across the street from the Pavilion, or anything happening in The District. Pico even double checks dates so he doesn't schedule a similar act on the same night someone is playing at one of the nearby locals casinos.

But they don't let just anyone play the Pavilion.

"We need to maintain the quality as we move forward and have future events," Pico said.

This fall the schedule opens with Vince Neil of Motley Crue and ends with the Moscow ballet returning for another " Nutcracker " show.

In between there's a little something for everyone, including an R&B festival, Shakespeare in the Park and a Day of the Dead concert.

"I think we have assumed in this region that the arts community is substrata and that we have this competition that towers over us on the Strip," said Marie Acosta, director of the Cultural Arts and Tourism department. "I have found the opposite. There is a hunger for this ... whether we have a classical music performance or an art festival."

And there was certainly an appetite for Weird Al on a recent Thursday evening, as the 47-year-old jammed out hits like "Fat" and "White and Nerdy" while changing his attire a Britney Spears-like 29 times.

The concertgoers filled the seated area - beneath the huge circus like tent - and trickled up onto the lawn seats, from which can be seen the mammoth casinos hovering in the distance.

There was little chance of Yankovic cursing, smoking or getting naked. Henderson feels he's the type of act that will allow locals to come out, spend a night in the 100-degree dusk and go home without encountering traffic jams or having blown a mortgage payment to see a concert.

A city survey of more than 400 people who saw Weird Al showed it was the first Pavilion show for 77 percent of the group. But more than 96 percent said they would be back.

And that's music to Henderson's ears.