Las Vegas trip hopefully will educate theater critics

There are about 130 theater critic-types from across the country roaming our city this week, and there’s one major reason I’m glad they’re here.

Every time I go to any kind of critics’ gathering outside Nevada, I get the same reaction. "You’re from Vegas? They have theater in Vegas?"

At a recent Los Angeles seminar, a well-known Seattle reviewer, who should have known better, declared in a speech that there is no theater in Sin City. When I asked her privately what research she had done to come to that conclusion, she said she had visited here about five or eight years ago and found no evidence of any anywhere on Las Vegas Boulevard. I guess it never occurred to her that there might be life beyond Las Vegas Boulevard, or that Vegas might have changed, or that not all theater is meant for tourists.

So now we have the American Theatre Critics Association checking us out. I have no idea if they’ll wind up liking our city, but judging from the communications I’ve had from some prior to their arrival, they at least will experience an education. One East Coast gentleman told me he was worried about having to spend the entire week wolfing down inedible $1.99 buffets.

Another, when told that we’d be seeing a show that had Broadway hopes (Clint Holmes’ "Just Another Man" at the Nevada Conservatory Theatre), complained that every Ma & Pa Kettle in America has Broadway hopes. The idea that Vegas might house Broadway-level talent seemed inconceivable to this man, whom you’d expect to be somewhat knowledgeable about a major entertainment port.

It has amazed me to learn in the past few months just how little theater writers in major outlets seem to know about modern Vegas. I get the feeling most of them think we’re still all about Eddie Fisher and Lola Falana.

Many also don’t realize how heavily our community-theater scene is influenced in a positive way by the Strip. I see about a hundred shows a year, and I seldom see a production that doesn’t have at least one former or current professional attached to it. Vegas’ talent pool is on a higher level than many cities, and even though we’re certainly not Chicago, Seattle or Minneapolis, local community theater, when at its best, goes way beyond what some might call "the community level."

If you happen to run into an out-of-town critic in the next couple of days, tell him that, will you?

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at DelValle@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.