Priscilla closing in Vegas 4 weeks early. - Page 3

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/7/13 at 11:25pm

I'm not surprised that even these blockbusters mostly end up losing money. People do not think of Vegas as the place to see a Broadway show. They think of it as the place to see Cirque.

Besides which, most of these huge shows have already played everywhere else in the country multiple times on tours. What exactly is special about seeing these shows in Vegas?

"We saw it in Vegas, where it was shorter!"

[BenjaminNicholas2]

Posted: 7/7/13 at 11:49pm

Not shocked. It's Vegas after all... A city geared towards middle America, Americana, overweight yokels and spectacle without thought.

Priscilla was likely too 'in their face' and not minstrel enough. It's one thing to be a flaming queen, mincing around the stage, but quite another if you're a mincing queen who's comfortable with it, wants normalcy and sings about it. Vegas isn't nearly progressive enough to handle that.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/7/13 at 11:55pm

Are you for real? Your post is offensive on half a dozen levels.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 7/8/13 at 12:04am

If they had cast CHER in the Tony Sheldon role, it could, it could have been a hit.

[darreyl102]

Posted: 7/8/13 at 1:11am

BenjaminNicholas2, As a Middle American, I find that offensive. I am not overweight, Nor am I a yokel, OR without Thought.

Updated On: 7/8/13 at 01:11 AM

[DAME]

Posted: 7/8/13 at 1:31am

Kindly leave CHER out of it.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 7/9/13 at 1:08pm

Lizzie, Jersey Boys is the regular length show. The only thing that was shortened was the intermission. It's 8 minutes with projected countdown timers!

I mentioned this before on the other Priscilla thread, but I had a feeling this wouldn't do well, as much as I love the show. "Gay" is fine when it comes to drag shows, it seems, but not when there's actual story lines in which gays (and trans!) have emotions, feelings, families, etc. Tourist crowds are just not up to that. The can drink and f*ck and gamble their lives away, but watching gays with feelz? Hell no!

Add to that the lovely parental advisory on the Venetian's website:

Recommended for ages 13+ due to explicit language and mature situations and no children under the age of 5 will be admitted.

...and you can see why tourist families would be staying away.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 7/9/13 at 1:09pm

Lizzie, Jersey Boys is the regular length show. The only thing that was shortened was the intermission. It's 8 minutes with projected countdown timers!

I've seen Jersey Boys in Vegas about a dozen times. And I LOVE the timer. And the cow.

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 7/9/13 at 1:51pm

I'm with Pal Joey. Drag just doesn't drag 'em in the way it used to, especially in summer when Vegas attracts more families. (Let's not ponder choosing Vegas for a family vacation.) If they'd opened this on New Year's Eve, they may have eked a few more weeks out of it.

[newintown]

Posted: 7/9/13 at 2:18pm

Until I visited, I thought that Vegas was supposed to be a classier version of Atlantic City. But it's not. It's just another showcase for the Fellini-esque grotesquerie that is suburban America.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/9/13 at 2:25pm

Yes, that's exactly it. When Vegas was developed, they said, "We're going to make a classier version of Atlantic City with its bustling casino life."

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 7/9/13 at 2:30pm

I HATE both Atlantic City and Vegas. Gambling makes me so sad, and I cannot figure out why. It's not like I have anyone with a Zbornakian-level gambling addiction in my family.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 7/9/13 at 2:33pm

I don't gamble and I love Vegas in kind of a weird way. It IS the worst of America, in some ways, but it's also totally up front about its tackiness.

I also love Spago at Caesars Palace.

[newintown]

Posted: 7/9/13 at 2:33pm

Ah, but you misunderstand, Namo. I can see why - you interpreted my phrase "I thought that Vegas was supposed to be a classier version of Atlantic City" as "I thought that Vegas was created to be...," whereas I used "supposed" in the sense of "considered to be."

An understandable misreading.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/9/13 at 2:43pm

The casinos were put in Atlantic City in the '80s to make that place like Vegas.

[DEClarke]

Posted: 7/9/13 at 5:59pm

Lizzie, Jersey Boys is the regular length show. The only thing that was shortened was the intermission. It's 8 minutes with projected countdown timers!

Wrong, according to an actor who has been in both the touring version and the Vegas version, the Vegas show has about 12 minutes trimmed out of it.

Me: How does touring in JERSEY BOYS compare to playing it in Las Vegas?

Colby Foytik: The first difference is we do the full show. In Vegas it's a condensed show, only by about like 12 minutes.

Click Here to Read BWW Interviews: Colby Foytik Talks Career and Touring in JERSEY BOYS

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 7/9/13 at 7:11pm

And those 12 minutes were cut out of the intermission.

Updated On: 7/9/13 at 07:11 PM

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 7/9/13 at 7:45pm

There is more cut out than that, actually -- part of Beggin', the epilogues, some other stuff. I should've mentioned that earlier! The biggest cut IS to intermission, as far as I can tell.

[florida theatre kid]

Posted: 7/25/13 at 9:50am

I caught Priscilla's last Friday evening performance in Vegas. It's a shame it couldn't find an audience, as it really was fabulous, equally as great as the cast I saw on Broadway in November 2011.

The show was 2 hours without an intermission. I didn't notice any huge cuts besides "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" and bringing the audience up onstage.

The cast was fabulous all around, and lots of energy. But that theatre is a cave and man did it look empty. The audience was enthusiastic, but small. The floor level was maybe 3/4 full (that's a stretch) and I think the balcony was closed. The small crowd didn't effect the cast at all though.

Overall, it really is a bummer it didn't work out in Vegas because it was a spectacular show.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 7/25/13 at 10:07am

"But that theatre is a cave and man did it look empty"

Interesting. I wouldn't have thought it was that big, but I'm of course remembering it with that spectacular chandelier that filled so much of the space. Now that I'm imagining it without that chandelier I would indeed agree with you that it must feel like a rather large space.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 7/25/13 at 12:42pm

Forever Plaid ran 6 years at the Flamingo (1994-2000).
Starlight Express ran 4 years at the Las Vegas Hilton (1993-1997).

Those were the first of the long-running Vegas musicals I can remember that started the trend.