Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Sunset Strip

Another classic (albeit shabby) Vegas landmark will soon be history. The Stardust opened in 1958 and has been credited as the hotel that did the most to make superstar performers a fixture of the town. Other hotels had them before but the Stardust defined its identity by booking the biggies into its showroom. It was also said for a time to have the most "mob ties," though folks haven't said that for quite a while. Or gone there. Unless one wanted to catch a certain show, I can't think of a single reason you'd venture onto that property and I'm apparently not the only one. After several years of losing money, its owners have announced they'll close the place either later this year or just after New Year's, 2007. It will be torn down and replaced with — what else? — a multi-billion dollar mega-resort. That will come in handy for the people who don't want to walk all the way across the street to get to a multi-billion dollar mega-resort.

I love old Vegas but I find no emotional attachment to places like this in their present state. I walked through the Sands the week before it was demolished and could find nothing to be nostalgic about. (Quick story: They were doing a thriving business there selling souvenirs with the Sands logo on them — t-shirts, fanny packs, etc. I almost bought a Sands mug until I saw the price, which was over $20. Two weeks later — I swear this is true — I found the exact same Sands mugs at the 99-Cent Only store, priced at two for 99 cents.)

The Sands is gone. The Desert Inn, the Hacienda, the original Aladdin and the Landmark are gone. So is the Dunes. The Tropicana and the New Frontier are only awaiting the right deals before they're razed. The Boardwalk and the Westward Ho have closed. The Castaways is being torn down. The Imperial Palace has been sold to folks who have every reason to call in the wrecking ball, the Lady Luck downtown has closed for a year-long makeover...and so on. I miss the era but I don't (or won't) miss a one of those buildings. The Stardust, especially.

In the photo above, you'll notice that the marquee touts the Lido de Paris with its headliners, Bobby Berosini's Orangutans. You don't see much of Bobby Berosini or his orangutans (he reportedly still has them) these days but once upon a time, they were the hottest act in Vegas and made very good money. That was before 1989 when a dancer in the Lido show secretly videotaped Berosini backstage with his apes, yelling at them and apparently beating them. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) got involved, the tapes aired on TV, protests mounted and the Stardust dropped Berosini. He made a brief reappearance in a show at the Dunes but has been virtually unemployable since, at least in Las Vegas.

Lawsuits flew and if you try to research them, you'll get a migraine following all the appeals and reversals. Berosini won a $4.2 million dollar judgment against PETA. Then it was reduced to $3.1 million. Then it was reversed altogether and suddenly, he owed them hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then he didn't. Then he did and...well, I lost track. I couldn't even figure out which side to root for. We once had Mr. Berosini on a show I wrote and at least around us, he seemed to treat his animals quite well. I also visited him backstage at the Stardust once and saw him screaming at but not striking his co-stars...but of course, those were just two moments out of many. I'm a big believer in kindness to critters but PETA sometimes strikes me as doing for their cause what Dr. Strangelove did for world peace. So I don't know whether to be happy or sad at the outcome, which is that Bobby Berosini and his anthropoids no longer play Vegas. It was a funny act, though.

Backstage at the Stardust, by the way, looked nothing like it did in the movie, Showgirls. I once watched that movie at a party with a bunch of Vegas dancers and they howled at the turgid dialogue and plot situations...and especially at the fancy dressing rooms. When they saw Gina Gershon's, one former Lido dancer said, "The entire company had to dress in one room that size...and that included the orangutans."

• Posted at 10:08 PM · LINK

Running Forever

Contrary to what I predicted in this post two years ago, The Phantom of the Opera has now passed Cats as the longest-running show in Broadway history. Back when Cats took the trophy away from A Chorus Line, there was much wailing and weeping in the theatrical community. Even folks who didn't like Chorus Line felt it was way more deserving than Cats. There was the feeling in some circles that for the feline-themed musical to have that distinction said something unflattering about Broadway or about the standards of Broadway.

I don't know that it does. It might say something about more effective marketing or advertising or discount ticket promotions. It might also be significant that none of the shows in the Top Ten were really star-dependent and therefore subject to dips when certain performers departed. I mean, the original production of The Music Man ran 1,375 performances. If Robert Preston had been willing to remain in it for twenty years, it probably would have run twenty years. For reference, here's the Top Seventeen...

1. The Phantom of the Opera (7,487 performances)
2. Cats (7,485 performances)
3. Les Misérables (6,680 performances)
4. A Chorus Line (6,137 performances)
5. Oh! Calcutta! (Revival) (5,959 performances)
6. Beauty and the Beast (4,818 performances)
7. Miss Saigon (4,097 performances)
8. Rent (4,051 performances)
9. Chicago (Revival) (3,804 performances)
10. 42nd Street (3,486 performances)
11. The Lion King (3,436 performances)
12. Grease (3,388 performances)
13. Fiddler on the Roof (3,242 performances)
14. Life With Father (3,224 performances)
15. Tobacco Road (3,182 performances)
16. Hello, Dolly! (2,844 performances)
17. My Fair Lady (2,717 performances)

Phantom will have its title for a long time. No one expects it to close soon and whenever that day comes, it's unlikely that Beauty and the Beast, which is the next show on that list still running, will be running six and a half a years after that. Which is what it would take to snatch the title away. Nor will Rent, the revival of Chicago or The Lion King — the other shows on this list that are still racking up performances — probably hang around that long.

If I had to guess, I'd bet that Chicago would have the best shot at toppling Phantom but that's unlikely. Let's imagine Phantom runs three more years, which is a reasonable prediction, I think. Not only would Chicago have to also stay open for those three years but it would then have to run until around Christmas of 2017 to move into first place. The Producers, which has had around 1,968 performances, would have to run until April of 2025. So for the rest of our lives, Phantom of the Opera may be the longest-running show in Broadway history. I wish I knew more than a few people who liked it.

• Posted at 12:45 AM · LINK