Time for the Strip to think Broadway again?
In “Rock of Ages,” our ’80s rock-rattled narrator Lonny tell us his show is no “Andrew Lloyd Sondheim.” That may be a good thing when it comes to it sticking around Las Vegas a while longer.
The campy musical based on ’80s rock hits ended a three-year run at The Venetian this month and reopens Jan. 25 in a smaller, but more clublike 650-seat showroom at the Rio.
“Million Dollar Quartet” will mark three years at Harrah’s Las Vegas in February. Like the reigning Broadway champ “Jersey Boys,” it’s a “jukebox” musical rooted in real history and songs known beyond show tune addicts.
Now that The Smith Center for the Performing Arts hosts most of the original-song, story-driven Broadway tuners, it makes sense that the casinos still have three jukebox musicals that reach beyond fans of traditional musical theater.
Still, entertainment trends on the Strip run in cycles, and it’s been more than a decade since national “parachute” journalists hyped the Broadway-to-Vegas trend. Remember, the one that ended up producing more Vegas trivia questions and memory-testers — “The Producers,” “Avenue Q” — than solid hits?
And we’ve seen activity pick up on what you could call (if not officially) the “off-Broadway” front: smaller shows with plenty of attitude and lower budgets than a big musical. “Puppet Up!,” which mixes improv with adult humor from the Jim Henson Company, was just announced for The Venetian last week. (It will share the Sands Showroom with Human Nature, and the “Lipsthick” stand-up headliners will move to the Palazzo’s theater.)
And two producers had the same idea to stage comic variety shows blending sketch comedy, variety and musical parody. David Saxe is prepping “Spoofical” for the V Theater next month, while Westgate Las Vegas last week announced “Twisted Vegas” will open the same month.
“Twisted” will be headlined by French television host and headliner Alex Goude, whose fame hasn’t really jumped the pond but who may pull in European visitors. The cast includes Las Vegas’ homegrown Kristef Brothers, who competed on “America’s Got Talent.”
But, yeah, I know. If you also have teens at home, you’ve maybe daydreamed about “Hamilton” as a sit-down here. And any time there’s a new Broadway hit with “crossover” potential — “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” or “On Your Feet,” the Gloria Estefan bio co-produced by Las Vegan Bernie Yuman — some of us will wonder on which side of the line they would fall: multiple weeks at The Smith Center a la “Book of Mormon,” or full-blown casino editions like the not-so-old days?
The latter is where I think it might be time to jog the memories of producers and casinos. Instead of bringing up spectacular failures such as “Surf the Musical” or “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” — crap, I just did — let’s do a list of Broadway shows that ran longer than you might remember.
If the home runs were outnumbered by the disappointments, they collectively add up to enough years on the Strip to argue the biggest common enemy was unreasonable expectations.
1. “Jersey Boys”: Come April, it will have run for eight years, split between two Las Vegas casinos. Like “Rock of Ages,” it has an appeal that extends beyond Broadway, in the surprising story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Unlike “Rock of Ages,” it’s a well-written show. No good thing lasts forever, but like Valli in the show, “Jersey Boys” keeps on truckin’ at Paris after trimming its schedule to a modest six shows per week.
(1a.) “Defending the Caveman”: I know it’s not a musical, and a one-man show sure pencils out cheaper. But the longform comedy was an official Broadway hit, and I always hear from star Kevin Burke if I leave him off these lists. He does have a point, keeping the show in town for eight years and counting.
2. “Phantom — The Las Vegas Spectacular”: An impressive longevity with a buzzkill asterisk for this custom-Vegas version of the blockbuster. “Phantom” was an artistic triumph but was as upside down as the housing market during its years at The Venetian. Original director Hal Prince trimmed the fat from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical and pumped up the production spectacle. But it opened with what turned out to be lopsided overhead just as the bottom fell out of the economy. Still, it ran six years and two months, from 2006 to 2012.
3. “Mamma Mia!”: Weird story here, in which a success story was tarnished by a bizarre, embarrassing footnote. The Abba musical phenomenon racked up another bragging right by going a month shy of six years at Mandalay Bay, before it closed just after New Year’s of 2009.
But in 2014, the Tropicana was in need of “a sure thing” and brought the show back. It lasted only three months. Why is still a bit of a mystery, beyond the producers’ gut-punched reaction to the first time the show opened in the red anywhere in the world.
4. “The Lion King”: I know, I know. You remember this one as a bad fit. Vegas is no place for Disney, even cool, Julie Taymor-ized Disney, right? But “The Lion King” played 31 months at Mandalay Bay from May 2009 to the end of 2011, ages after the excitement of its 1997 opening. One could argue the real problem was that summers and weekends just weren’t long enough here; Simba had to roar on school nights in January, too.
5. “Monty Python’s Spamalot”: Steve Wynn did everything right when Wynn Las Vegas hosted the Eric Idle hit. It was smartly trimmed and featured a familiar, yet affordable star in John O’Hurley. It probably didn’t have to close in 2008 after 15 months, but it turned out Wynn was giving the room to late impressionist Danny Gans.
And “Spamalot” was a victim of its own national success, killing the golden goose by touring hard while parked at the Wynn. “One of the things that suffers when you have a Broadway hit is that it tours all over the United States,” Wynn said he found out the hard way.
So remember, producers and casino hosts: When you’re at the table to barter for “Hamilton,” be willing to settle for a year with options to extend, but insist on that West Coast exclusivity.
Disclosure: The Review-Journal is owned by a limited liability company controlled by the Adelson family, majority owners of Las Vegas Sands Corp., which operates The Venetian.
— Read more from Mike Weatherford at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com and follow @Mikeweatherford on Twitter.
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