Las Vegas Spotlight: February 2009
Headliners coming to town in February include several “blast from the past” acts that will delight those who remember the ’80s and early ’90s with fondness. On February 6 alone, Heart is at the Hilton, comedienne Paula Poundstone yuks it up at the Boulder Station Hotel & Casino, and Michael Bolton croons at the House of Blues (Styx will be in the House on February 15). For the less nostalgic, popular R&B artist Ne-Yo comes to the Palms on February 5, and one of country music’s newest stars, Jason Michael Carroll, sidles on up to the Suncoast Hotel & Casino on February 20-21.
UNLV’s Nevada Conservatory Theatre presents its latest mainstage production, The Diary of Anne Frank (February 13-22). Based on the writings of a Jewish girl who attempted to live in hiding during the Holocaust, the play by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett appears in a new adaptation by Wendy Kesselman for this staging at the Judy Bayley Theatre.
The Rainbow Company, Las Vegas’s premiere youth theater group, would like to introduce you to Mark Twain’s Nevada (February 6-15). Music, history, and plenty of Twain’s signature wit run through this revue, which plays at the Reed Whipple Cultural Center.
Twelfth Night (February 6-7) is the latest Shakespeare-in-the-Schools production from the Utah Shakespearean Festival to make its way to the College of Southern Nevada’s Nicholas J. Horn Theatre. Later in February, Eugene O’Neill will be the featured dramatist at CSN’s BackStage Theatre as it presents The Sniper (February 20-March 1), a World War I drama set in Belgium, paired on a double-bill with a one-man biographical sketch of O’Neill starring Brian Kral.
John Guare’s The House of Blue Leaves (February 13-March 1) comes to the Las Vegas Little Theatre this month. Directed by Walter Niejadlik, the dark comedy stars Stephen McMillan as Artie, a wannabe songwriter who’s trying to juggle domestic troubles while contending with visitors as varied as a Hollywood producer and the Pope.
Insurgo Theater Movement brings added dimension to the world of animation at the Onyx Theatre with its production of Steven Yockey’s play Cartoon (February 13-March 14). In this twisted comedy, Yockey uses violence and power struggles in the toon universe to comment on culture and politics in flesh-and-blood society — plus there’s singing and dancing!
Finally, the Shear Madness official opening at Town Square has been pushed back again, apparently due to delays in getting the theater ready. A new opening date has not been solidified yet, but word is that mid-February is when the Madness will finally begin.
