Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
LAS VEGAS - Not so long ago, the big-name shows existed mostly to lure gamblers into casinos. Today's spectaculars are destinations in themselves, and the ticket prices can make Broadway look like a bargain.
The top ticket in town these days is Celine Dion's extravaganza, A New Day. Dion, surrounded by 58 dancers, musicians and acrobats, is under contract to do 200 shows a year for the next three years in the 4,000-seat theater built for her at Caesar's Palace.
Much has been made of the top ticket price of $200 for A New Day (cheap seats are $87.50). But in a town where people line up in desperate hope of snagging a last-minute, $121 seat to Cirque du Soleil's O, that price is not all that outlandish.
Clearly, Cirque is high on Vegas: In addition to O and Mystere, the Canadian entertainment giant is creating two more shows for Strip hotels. (According to Cirque's Web site, Zumanity, slated to open July 31 at the New York-New York resort, promises to be more risque than the usual Cirque fare. So risque, this "provocative and arousing display of human sensuality," is only for audiences over age 18.
The Strip's shows are a little bit Broadway, a little bit Branson, a little bit Riverdance - and plenty of that old razzle-dazzle you expect nowhere but in Las Vegas: Siegfried, Roy and the big cats are still holding court at the Mirage, Wayne Newton's still singing Danke Schoen at the Stardust, and showgirls abound.
But there's edgier stuff, too, such as Blue Man Group at the Luxor and a revolving roster of pop stars and top comedians at the Hard Rock Hotel.
Mind you, the whole city is a nonstop show. All the big hotels have some sort of free entertainment, whether it's the dancing fountains at the Bellagio, the pirate ship battles at Treasure Island, the amazingly weird Lost City of Atlantis robo tableau at Caesar's Palace, the Mirage volcano (flames and water!) or the Masquerade Show in the Sky at the Rio (we can't possibly explain this. You just have to see it.).
The best "ticket" you buy might be the cocktail that gets you into a lounge with a great but unknown band. One of the best shows we saw was the action in the Bellagio casino, for which a $10 beverage provided us with perches at a bar that afforded a fine view of the swells tossing away wads of cash without so much as a whimper.
That much said, we don't regret the $242 we paid for two tickets to O. First, it was great. Second, we're certain we won't see anything like it elsewhere.
This mesmerizing mix of music and movement pushes the stage into a new dimension, quite literally. At its center is a stage-size swimming pool that allows divers to fling themselves through the stage "floor." Yet the pool bottom moves up and down, so that at times it looks as if the performers are walking on water.
All of this is extremely cool. But more than being a wonder of technology, O's musicians, dancers and divers accomplish what good "serious" theater does, absorbing and provoking the audience's attention, thoughts and emotions.
But get your tickets well in advance. We had great seats, but only because a friend who works at the Bellagio (where O's theater is) intervened for us at the ticket office. (She advises us that a word with your hotel concierge, and perhaps a tip, can work wonders.)
If Cirque du Soleil and O are at the vanguard of the new Vegas, Jubilee is a stalwart of the classic feather-costume show. At Bally's since 1981, the lavish revue features scores of BEAUTIFUL GIRLS (as the opening song loudly informed us) and chorus boys dancing about the stage, the women in get-ups that managed to be spectacular yet scanty. (We went to the 10:30 p.m. show, in which the women are topless.)
We had heard unkind remarks about some of the dancers being past the first bloom of youth (Linda Green, the principal dancer, at 49 has been in the show all of its 22 years). But she and the other "girls" (many of whom were much younger) are fine dancers with great bodies, a real inspiration for those of us lurching into middle age.
Things were going along nicely, with the kind of Broadway Melody of 1931 production numbers we had expected and actually enjoyed. Then came the historical re-enactments. Really.
You just cannot appreciate a feather show rendition of the Samson and Delilah legend without seeing it. Sample lyric: "She's got the hots for a guy named Sam. He thinks the chick is wild."
And no sooner had we recovered from that, when Jubilee treated us to a version of the final hours of the Titanic. Yes, the one that sank.
Happily, the dancers had tops on for this 1912 catastrophe. But somehow they managed to work in a French trollop who entertained the doomed passengers with a lingerie show.
Very puzzling.
Was it worth $64 a ticket? Let's just say we are certain we'll not see this kind of spectacle anywhere but in Las Vegas.