Las Vegas Spotlight: December 2007
Experience Infinite Joy (December 15) at a special benefit concert being put on by the Las Vegas Rape Crisis Center and Playhouse West. Infinite Joy — The Songs of William Finn will feature lots of local talent, including Spamalot‘s Harry Bouvy, Justin Brill, Reva Rice, and Steven Strafford, Mamma Mia‘s Nadine Roden, The Producers‘ Daniel Herron and Jessica Sheridan, and soon-to-be Phantom of the Opera star Tina Walsh. They will all be singing songs by the incomparable composer/lyricist of the Falsettos trilogy, regional favorite A New Brain, and the current Broadway musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. The benefit, which will be directed by Playhouse West’s artistic director Adam Fitzgerald and music directed by Spamalot‘s Robert Moffat, will take place at Krave Las Vegas.
Watch out, there’s a new kid in town! The Atlas Theatre, which began life in Seattle but is rebooting in Vegas, takes its first local bow with a production of Yasmina Reza’s Tony-winning play Art (through December 15). The poignant comedy concerns three men whose friendship is shaken when one of them buys a white painting. Produced in conjunction with SEED Entertainment, Art will play at Threshold Dance Theater.
John Stark Productions’ Sylvie (December 6-22), which is just off a run at the Odyssey Theatre in L.A., comes to the Onyx Theatre. Written by Jovanka Bach, the play is a psychological drama about four men who meet in a hospital waiting room and discover their shared connection to the title character, a young woman with a mysterious past. Sylvie is directed by John Stark and stars Gillian Brashear, John Combs, Danny Dolan, Brian Knudson, Joe Morrissey, Jaret Sacrey and Tanya Starcevich.
On the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Las Vegas Little Theatre will begin performances of Purple Hearts (December 7-16), a play that takes place in the aftermath of the tragedy. Burgess Clark’s intense drama imagines what happened immediately following the attack to three sailors whose bodies were later found in the sunken battleship USS West Virginia (it is believed that the men survived for three weeks before they ran out of air). Scott Ast, Scott Jenkins, and Matt Jordan play the sailors, while Tressa Bern, Mary Foresta, and Mary O’Brien are their grieving loved ones.
