Las Vegas Spotlight: April 2007
Carmen Electra makes her Las Vegas stage debut in a magic show! No, seriously! The former Baywatch star will appear alongside illusionist Hans Klok in The Beauty of Magic at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino (April 19-22). Holland native Klok is already a sensation in Europe, and, with the assistance of Electra, he’s poised to show people in the States why he’s known as “the fastest magician on earth.”
April is a big month for Vegas’ dedicated local theater companies. Already on the mainstage at the Las Vegas Little Theatre is Jake’s Women (through April 8), Neil Simon’s comedic drama concerns a novelist whose daydreams about the ladies in his life interfere with the reality of his troubled marriage.
The premiere venue for newer and more cutting edge works, Stage Door Entertainment presents David Auburn’s acclaimed play Proof (April 6-22). The Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway drama is about the daughter of a brilliant mathematician who may or may not be following in the footsteps of her father, in more ways than one.
Vegas locals will get the chance to see a show by one of their own when the Performing Arts Center at the Community College of Southern Nevada produces Mark Wherry’s It’s Only Business (April 13-22). Wherry, who is a vocal music professor at CCSN, will also be starring in this bio-musical about gangster legend Bugsy Siegel, who is thought by many to have spurred the creation of Las Vegas as we know it when he opened his own hotel/casino complex “The Flamingo” in the 1940s.
Charles Schulz’s adorable Peanuts characters take the stage of the Judy Bayley Theatre this month when UNLV’s Nevada Conservatory Theatre puts on a production of Clark Gesner’s You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown (April 20 -May 6). This is the 1999 revival version, which includes new dialogue by Michael Mayer and additional songs by Andrew Lippa, such as the one that made Kristin Chenoweth famous, “My New Philosophy.”
Before Charlie Brown bows, from April 6-15, NCT will be producing Masks of Rioclora, the winner of the Morton R. Sarett National Playwriting Competition in its Black Box Theatre. The competition, which is funded by Gwynneth and Robert C. Weiss, has been premiering original plays since 1988.
As we reported last month, Stomp Out Loud, a new version of the Off-Broadway smash Stomp is at the Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino. The show’s creators, Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas, have reinvented their percussive movement-based entertainment, much in the same way that Phantom of the Opera was re-worked for its Las Vegas run. So Vegas audiences will be getting twice the bang for their bucks in this show, which has a cast double the size of the original, plus some brand new sequences and choreography.
Finally, Stage Door is also offering the kids show, Uncle Brando’s Saturday Morning Storytime on Saturdays through April 15. Yep, there really are shows just for children in Las Vegas!
