Las Vegas Spotlight: June 2008
Comedienne Rita Rudner and her producer husband Martin Bergman have penned a play, Room 776 (June 13-29), which will be on the mainstage at Las Vegas Little Theatre this month, under Bergman’s direction. The play about two strangers accidentally given the same hotel room had a developmental reading at LVLT earlier this year and is now receiving its fully-staged premiere. A Vegas regular who currently has a standing engagement at Harrah’s, Rudner has written screenplays and teleplays with her husband, but this is the couple’s first stage play.
Colabo is presenting three very different shows at the Family Music Center in June, starting with An Evening with Billie Holiday (June 1-22), starring Genevieve as the legendary jazz songstress and playing on Sundays. Next up will be the Jim Morrison bio-musical Light My Fire (through June 27), playing Fridays all month. Colabo’s third production, rocking out on Saturdays, is the John Cameron Mitchell/Stephen Trask musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch (June 14-July 5).
The Super Summer Theatre, which annually enchants Las Vegas theater fans in the lovely setting of Spring Mountain Ranch, starts its 2008 season with Disney’s magical musical Beauty and the Beast (June 4-21). Based on the animated film about a kind young woman who brings out the best in a beastly prince, Beauty‘s Alan Menken/Howard Ashman score includes the memorable title number and the lively “Be Our Guest” (featuring dancing silverware!), plus several other tunes not in the film.
Looking ahead, Shear Madness, the whodunnit that already has insanely long-running productions in cities all over America and the world, is finally adding Las Vegas to the list. It’s expected to start driving audiences wild in the neighborhood-y Town Square Las Vegas this September. Also, there’s a new impression king in town, and his name is Terry Fator. The winner of NBC’s America’s Got Talent, Fator is unthroning 10-time “Las Vegas Entertainer of the Year” Danny Gans, whose self-named venue at The Mirage will be re-dubbed the Terry Fator Theatre when the reality TV winner begins performances in February 2009.
