Las Vegas Spotlight: October 2005
Last month, all of the Las Vegas theater community’s attention was turned toward Avenue Q, which opened to great fanfare (and glowing reviews) at the Wynn. But there was another opening on the Strip as well, as Larry G. Jones – Man of 1002 Voices started doing his act at Fitzgeralds Showroom on September 1st (after closing at Plaza Hotel Casino August 25). Unlike most impressionists, Jones specializes in singers, and in his show he guides the audience through five decades of popular music, impersonating artists like Ray Charles, The Temptations, Johnny Cash, the Bee Gees, and Michael Jackson. And his talents don’t stop there – Jones also gives voice to great female singers like Aretha Franklin and Cher. Jones’s show, which is a whirlwind of parodies, impressions, and props, is described as “clean” fun, so people looking for something appropriate for the whole family should take note.
There is another re-opening this month too, as The Blue Man Group begins performances at a newly-built theater in the Venetian Hotel & Casino on October 1, with an official opening on October 10. The blue men first landed in Vegas in 2002 and enjoyed a successful run at the Luxor until their recent relocation. Back in New York where Blue Man Group originated (and still plays) Off-Broadway, the show is considered small, experimental fare. But with the expanded Las Vegas production, they’ve been able to bring their quirky blend of music and performance art to even bigger audiences.
But, as usual, if you want drama you need to cash in your chips and head for the smaller theaters. Starting October 14, the Community College of Southern Nevada will be presenting Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics. After winning the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Anna came to Broadway, but only lasted a few months. However, despite the mixed reviews, Cruz’s play about love and jealousy among Cuban Americans working in a Tampa cigar factory deserves a second look. A take-off of the literary classic Anna Karenina, it is passionate and often funny, and there is a poetic quality to the playwright’s writing that is rare in the modern theater. Anna in the Tropics plays at the CCSN Performing Arts Center until October 23.
From October 21-30, as a part of their blackbox series, the Las Vegas Little Theatre is producing The Turn of the Screw. Playwright Jeffrey Hatcher has adapted Henry James novel about a young English woman who encounters the supernatural in her new job as governess at a manor where she watches over two children. The production is directed by T.J. Larsen and stars Katrina Larsen; tickets are just $10.
