* * * * * * * * * * THE LAS VEGAS ISSUE * * * * * * * * * *

Stage and Cinema theater correspondent Tony Frankel checks out the City of…which city is Las Vegas again?

I would say it’s the city that REALLY never sleeps.   I’ve caught New York napping so many times, you wouldn’t believe it.   Not Vegas.   Las Vegas, that is.   Swimming pools.   Stand-up comedy stars.   Middle America.   Until The Recession came along, this was where people most often lost their life savings overnight.   Glitz, gambling, gold, glamour, girls girls girls, gaudiness, garrulousness, and — in the drive-through wedding chapels, perhaps — God(?).

Yes, yes, that’s all very well, but do they have “thee-uh-tuh?”   Well, of course they do!   There’s theater everywhere you look.   Oh, you mean on their stages and prosceniums?   That’s for Tony to know and you to find out.   Right now, I mean.   Whether you’re reading this on the publication date or way into the future, simply look at the navigation bar to the left and click on “Vegas Theater” (if it’s not there, you must be reading this much closer to the year 3000).

Or, just follow the little red arrows to the reviews.

We will be adding more Vegas theater in the future.   Do you wonder, as I do, if there is a small, independent Vegas theater?   An artistic voice struggling to be heard in the neon-flashing wilderness?   Someone whom Lady Luck herself has not permitted to drive five hours to Los Angeles to give “it” a go there?   What do the locals go to see?   Do their high school theater productions also have the theater built to accommodate the show (instead of containing the show within a rented theater)? Do the touring productions that the rest of the nation gets make stopovers in Vegas?   This issue will not answer any of those questions.     (Hey, give us a break; it’s our first report from Vegas.   It’s like going to Paris for the first time (the real one, not the hotel) without seeing the Eiffel Tower…you just don’t do it.)

No, baby, we’re talking impressionists.   Show girls.   Spectacle.   Sirk su Dougleil…uh, that is, Cirque du Soliel.   Main.   Streeeeeeeam.   The Strip.   What visitors to Vegas clutch to experience.   Trust me, if you were there, you would want it, too.   They know how to make you think that you want it, even if you know for sure you don’t.   Tony baby, he’s gonna tell you what you really wanna know.

Tell us, Tony.   Tell us now.

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Cirque du Soleil’s VIVA ELVIS

Cirque du Soleil’s KA

Vegas! The Show

Le Reve

Jersey Boys

Terry Fator & His Cast of Thousands

Phantom–The Las Vegas Spectacular

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT:   Exhibitions