Entertainment Vegas Style
When in Vegas . . .
TOMASZ ROSSA Celine Dion's Las Vegas show `A New Day' is a technological extravaganza. The show can be seen at Caesars Palace in the $95 million Colosseum.
Saturday, October 30, 2004City turns to big shows to draw tourists
By CHUCK DARROW Courier-Post Staff
As the television commercials constantly remind us, what happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas.
While this cheeky slogan ostensibly pertains to visitors' behavior, it also can be applied to a good deal of the city's casino-produced entertainment.
With the advent of legal gambling across the country, slot machines and gaming tables alone are no longer enough to lure people to the Nevada desert.
As a result, Vegas casinos have, with great success, turned to show business to bolster the tourist trade. The town teems with programs that simply cannot be seen elsewhere - or which play elsewhere on rare occasions. Clint Holmes, for example, has occasionally brought his show to Harrah's Atlantic City.
To be sure, Vegas has always had its share of long-running presentations. A production show called Bottoms Up just ended its run at the Flamingo and is, at least temporarily, without a home for the first time in 40 years.
But these "old Vegas"-style shows, while still popular, have been overshadowed by ever-more elaborate spectacles such as Celine Dion's A New Day at Caesars Palace, as well as resident headliners such as Harrah's star Holmes and impressionist Danny Gans at the Mirage.
It's relatively easy for solo acts such as Holmes and Gans to take their shows on the occassional weekend road trip. But it's not financially and logistically possible to do so with the multi-million dollar presentations that are Vegas' show business calling cards. That means you can't see them in Atlantic City - it's Vegas or nothing.
Here are four high-profile Vegas offerings: `A New Day'


This collaboration between French Canadian pop megastar Dion and veteran Cirque director Franco Dragone may be the most hyped Las Vegas revue of all time.
And why not? It's staged in Caesars' impressive, $95 million, 4,148-seat Colosseum built specifically for A New Day and it boasts an unusually large troupe of dancers and musicians.
But what makes this a must-see is Dragone's spellbinding staging.
There are plenty of Cirque signatures, such as the various objects (lamp posts and musical instruments) that float in midair and a couple of recurring characters (a bald man and a bellhop) whose purposes are never explained.
But what makes A New Day a landmark achievement is its amazing video presentations that create breathtaking, three-dimensional backgrounds for the various musical segments.
For instance, "I'm Alive" places Dion and her minions in the middle of a bustling Times Square, while "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" boasts a realistic-looking skyscape.
Technology aside, those who have found Dion's in-concert, sing-your-lungs-out-on-every-tune style tedious and annoying will be glad to know she has toned it down considerably.
Instead of doing every song as if it's her last, she nicely blends lower-key crooning with her trademark go-for-broke style.
There's a reason Caesars recently anted up another $50 million to keep Dion and A New Day there through 2007. See it and you'll understand why.
Where: Caesars Palace, 3570 Las Vegas Blvd.
When: Show dates vary. All performances at 8:30 p.m.
Admission: $225, $175, $127.50 and $87.50.
Phone: (877) 423-5463.
Online: www.caesars.com/Caesars/LasVegas/Entertainment/ANewDay/. `We Will Rock You'
"Catalog musicals," book shows created around the songs of an individual artist or group, are all the rage these days thanks, in large part to the outrageous success of the ABBA presentation, Mamma Mia!
At first glance, the songs of the quirky, bombastic English glam-rock band Queen seem an unlikely choice for the format. But somehow, this London import making its United States debut at Paris Las Vegas pretty much works.
We Will Rock You will never be confused with Les Miserables or West Side Story. And maybe it is, as the New York Times said, "dopey."
But author-director Ben Elton has fashioned a breezy, high-energy confection as entertaining as it is lightweight.
Set in the year 2304, the preposterous plot involves a group of youthful rebels who worship at the altar of 20th-century pop and rock, even though they're a little hazy on specifics. Each member of the clan has assumed the name of a real-life singer; one guy proudly goes by "Britney Spears."
The group eagerly awaits the arrival of an unknown savior who will find a long-hidden electric guitar and thus free "Planet Mall" (the orb formerly known as "Earth") from two scourges.
The first is Globalsoftcq , the planet's corporate overlord run by the cartoon-like villainess Killer Queen. The other is the bland, computerized pop music the corporation foists upon the sheep-like denizens it rules.
The hero shows up in the form of Galileo Figaro, a young man who dreams centuries-old song lyrics that are inexplicable to him. With the help of the female lead, Scaramouche, Galileo ultimately vanquishes the evil-doers and restores the kingdom of good old-fashioned rock 'n' roll.
Queen songs such as "Somebody to Love," "You're My Best Friend," "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Radio Gaga" (whose lyrics have been updated to reference the Internet) work surprisingly well in a theatrical context.
And Elton's jokey script, which takes plenty of funny potshots at such contemporary pop culture totems as Spears, Janet Jackson and Celine Dion, keeps the chuckles coming.
Throw in a young, exuberant cast and plenty of let-the-good-times-roll choreography performed to the sounds of a kicking rock band and you have all the ingredients for two hours of fun.
Where: Paris Las Vegas, 3655 Las Vegas Blvd.
When: 9 p.m. Mondays and Fridays, 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 7 and 10:30 p.m. Saturdays and 5 and 9 p.m. Sundays.
Admission: $113.50, $97 and $80.50.
Phone: (702) 946-4567.
Online: www.playcaesars.com/paris/lasvegas/splash/WWRY/default.htm. `Zumanity'
Subtitled Another Side of Cirque du Soleil, this is the "new age circus' " attempt to keep up with Vegas' increasing dependence on sex as a tourist attraction.
Unfortunately, it succeeds neither as adult entertainment nor as a Cirque extravaganza.
The show, which runs at New York, New York, offers a series of variations on the theme of carnal activity, including tableaux featuring suggested homosexuality of both the male and female variety. There are some fleeting glimpses of nude breasts along the way, but nowhere near what you would see in traditional casino "topless" revues.
However, there is something oddly unerotic about the show, despite the presence of a slew of attractive, provocatively clad bodies simulating many of the ways human sexuality manifests itself.
Neither is it a traditional Cirque fantasia of psychedelic costumes and spacy music, either. Sure, there are the obligatory contortionists and acrobats and you can guess what they're up to. But they seem to be an afterthought amid all of the naughtiness that comes off as too contrived and self-conscious to be truly sexy.
That Zumanity is murkily lit doesn't help. Plus, the soundtrack is forgettable.
If Cirque and sex are your Vegas pleasures, you'd do better seeing O at Bellagio, Mystere at Treasure Island or KA (which opens Nov. 26) at MGM Grand, then hitting one of the city's many strip bars.
Where: New York, New York, 3790 Las Vegas Blvd.
When: 7 and 10 p.m. Fridays through Tuesdays.
Admission: $125, $85 and $65.
Phone: (866) 606-7111.
Online: www.zumanity.com. Clint Holmes
Atlantic City expatriate Clint Holmes has established himself as one of the strip's biggest names. And he has done it the old-fashioned way.
There is no state-of-the-art gadgetry during his 90-minute turn at the Harrah's theater that has been renamed in his honor. Nor are there blinding pyrotechnics or a small army of dancers in outrageous stagewear.
Instead, there is just the man and his music, played by a crackerjack 10-piece band led by Holmes' longtime conductor, Bill Fayne, and Holmes' warm, engaging and energetic stage presence.
Retro? To be sure. But not in a winking, campy way. Instead, Holmes is a classic entertainer who gives his all to please the audience. He does so with interesting interpretations of pop standards, a few original tunes and plenty of between-song banter, usually of the self-deprecating sort.
Of course, none of this would matter if Holmes didn't deliver the vocal goods. But his expressive, versatile baritone, which has improved with age, performs well in the service of songs such as Steve Winwood's "Higher Love," Bobby Darin's "Dream Lover" and The Shirellescq "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" which he reinvents as a silky, rhythm 'n' blues workout.
Amid so much dross in Las Vegas, Holmes is pure gold.
Where: Harrah's Las Vegas, 3475 Las Vegas Blvd.
When: 7:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.
Admission: $59.95.
Phone: (800) 392-9002, ext. 5222.
Online: www.harrahs.com/our_casinos/las/entertainment/clint_holmes. html.
Reach Chuck Darrow at (856) 486-2442 or cdarrow@camden.gannett.com.
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- posted by Michael P. Whelan @ 11:57 AM