Broadway shows destined for Vegas
Melodrama. Mythology. Superheroes. Corporations. Stray thoughts rattle in my head a week after seeing three shows in New York; two of them locked for Vegas and one that I’m just rooting for.
Here are some brief, thought-sorting preliminaries.
“Zarkana”: Cirque du Soleil’s Radio City Music Hall opus will land at Aria to replace “Viva Elvis.” Though it’s been described as a “rock opera” and “edgy,” it struck me as “Mystere 2.0.” How the pioneering Treasure Island title might look if created today.
But why would Cirque, or MGM Mirage, want both on the Strip? Wouldn’t the new one diminish or compete with the original?
Head-smack. MGM Mirage doesn’t own Treasure Island anymore. It wants a new “Mystere.”
And Cirque? It just wants a post-New York home for “Zarkana.” One more title to choose from instead of some other company’s show. A win-win, I guess.
“Rock of Ages”: When Broadway musicals first started landing on the Strip, I was a consumer’s advocate on length: If you charge people the same (or more) as you do on Broadway, give them the same show.
Now I take it case by case. And of “Rock of Ages” I say: Please, please cut this show to 90 minutes when it hits The Venetian.
The live version of this ’80s-rock spoof diverges from the movie. But both run out of story to tell long before they run out of songs. When you think it can get no sillier, the filler one-ups itself. (The developer’s son and the hippie chick? Help me forget.)
“Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark”: When I was a kid, “melodramas” were the same thing as “camp.” The only way Victorian or 1900s-era American theater was performed at all was with actors spoofing the material. They winked at you. You threw peanuts at them. “Rock of Ages” preserves the winking asides, if not the peanuts.
But the wider definition of melodrama is a heightened storytelling, played straight, that very much encompasses today’s superheroes. The Broadway Spidey publicly evolved from an overstuffed commentary on Greek mythology and pop art to a more straight-ahead version in keeping with the movies.
Granted, it’s still a bit schizoid; if only they took the villain and his threat as seriously as the love story.
But big Vegas shows don’t just quit and walk away. “Spider-Man” followed Cirque’s lead of working until you get it right. Maybe it will come to town not just as a clone or tour, but as a bigger, better version 3.0.
Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.