Las Vegas Spotlight: December 2005
The Las Vegas theater scene is bursting with holiday surprises in December. Elves, improv, and a little bit of pornography make for a very Vegas-y Christmas!
The racy stuff is usually on the Strip, but right now you can see Ronnie Larsen’s Making Porn at the Las Vegas Little Theatre, which is renting out the space to Larsen until December 18. Primarily a comedy with some dramatic twists (and nudity, of course), Making Porn is about the making of gay skin flick Cops. At the heart of the play is Jack Hawk, an actor who resorts to starring in blue movies when he can’t get his legitimate acting career to take off. Meanwhile, as Jack and his pals make porn on the mainstage, LVLT presents an alternate take on a holiday classic in its alternate space, the Fischer BlackBox. From December 2 to 18, Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol will reveal Charles Dickens’ famous tale from the point-of-view of Ebenezer Scrooge’s equally miserly business partner.
Also in the LVLT BlackBox, The Second City presents Student Experimental Theatre (S.E.T.) every Monday night at 9:30pm. After the students finish their sets, regular Second City performers do longform improv, and after that is “The Roulette,” a kind of open-mic hosted by Craig Uhlir that any aspiring improv-ers are welcome to participate in.
If that doesn’t satisfy your craving for comedy, head over to the Community College of Southern California on December 16. For one night only, The Usual Suspects (aka Finley Bolton, Rick Ginn, and Jeff Granstrom) return to perform an evening of comedy improv in the style of Whose Line Is It Anyway? at CCSN’s Performing Arts Center.
‘Tis the season for helping the less fortunate, and Theatre in the Valley is doing a benefit production of KNOL, Noel Radio! for one weekend only, December 16-18, to help Toys For Tots. Rick Bindhamer’s play takes place at the radio station KNOL, located at the North Pole and run by (who else?) elves. On Christmas Eve, as Santa is preparing for his annual trip around the world, a new station manager comes into KNOL and threatens to ruin Christmas. The cost of admission to the show is one new (unwrapped) children’s toy, which will then be given to a disadvantaged child through the USMC Toys for Tots program.
Amidst all of this holiday cheer, count on The Test Market Theater to offer something completely different. Test Market, which unfortunately had to shut down the Social Experimentation and Absurd Theater (S.E.A.T.) branch of its organization this summer, is now presenting its signature event, the Samuel Beckett Festival. In its fourth year, the Beckett Festival is featuring Endgame, as well as Edward Albee’s Play About the Baby and Sartre’s No Exit.
