A couple of folks have written to ask about this morning's B.C. strip with one character turning into another for no visible reason. (I may not recall the players' names accurately but I think that's Peter in the role of I.R.S. agent...and then the other guy is B.C. in the first panel and Clumsy Carp in the second.)
No, I don't get the switcheroo, either. It looks to me like a mistake...or maybe Johnny Hart did it deliberately to see if anyone would notice. At least three people who read my site did.
Just curious to know if people in Las Vegas, going to these truncated, "road show" versions of Broadway shows, are being charged the same $90 to $120 that they do on Broadway? If so I would say that's a pretty big rip-off.
Well, sort of. As I've noted here before, the price of a show in Vegas has gone up a lot. A few years ago, a number of them decided to try inching prices up and see what impact it had on their sales. A friend there told me, "Some of them were genuinely stunned at how much more they could tack on to the price of a ticket without it affecting the demand." So the going policy now seems to be to price tickets high and then if they start finding themselves with empty seats, they spread around discount coupons and offers, rather than to lower the base price of a ticket. This can make it a bit confusing to figure out how much it will cost to see some of these shows.
Tickets for the 90 minute version of Hairspray start at $71.50 and go up to $110 on the Luxor website. Over at Goldstar Events, which is the only online discount service, they have them for certain performances at $56.10 to $66.00. Tickets may also be available at up to 50% off at the discount booths in Vegas but you won't know unless you're in Vegas and you go to one of these places on the afternoon that you wish to attend the show.
Seats for Mamma Mia — which is performed in full, including an intermission — range from $45 to $100 on the Mandalay Bay website. The Goldstar Events site says that tickets normally go for $82.50 to $110 and they have some for $49.50 to $66. And again, this one is sometimes available at the half-price booths.
You can order tickets for the upcoming 95 minute version of Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian website for a low of $75.64 and a high of $150.64. They probably won't have discounts available for the first few months. No word yet on what The Producers will cost but I'll bet you it'll be the highest priced ticket until Spamalot shows up and tops it.
So I guess the answer is that they're charging Broadway prices or more...but as on Broadway, where you can go to the TKTS booth and maybe get a half-price ticket for that night, you can often score seats for 50% off. If you'd like a guide to show prices in Vegas, including an overview of discounts, The Las Vegas Advisor has a survey up on this page.
We told you back there about the planned demolition of the Hotel San Diego, scene of many a great convention party. Well, this morning they blowed that place up pretty good. This page has the details and an online video. Thank you again, Jackie Estrada.
A motion picture has been announced that will bring the original Captain Marvel (aka Shazam!) to the screen.
I find that I have very little interest in most of these comic book movies. I may have loved the comic books of the characters involved but that love doesn't necessarily transfer to some other interpretation. I mean, I cared about Spider-Man by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. I cared about Spider-Man by Stan Lee and John Romita. I've enjoyed some other comic book versions of Spider-Man — though by no means, the majority. I have not been able to generate the interest to see either of the Spider-Man movies. In much the same way, I liked James Bond as written by Ian Fleming in the novels, I enjoyed the films when Sean Connery played him...and my interest in other Bonds, either in print or on film, is highly variable.
That said, when I heard about the possible/probable Shazam! movie, I thought of one thing that might pique my interest to see it. They probably won't hire him but how about Wallace Shawn as Dr. Sivana? Would that be perfect?
It may not work for everyone's browser but if you have Windows Media Player installed, this link oughta bring you a little more than a minute of Monty Python's Spamalot, as seen on Broadway.
In the early seventies, the folks behind Monty Python's Flying Circus did some odd things for money. They hadn't made all that much off the TV show so they grabbed some offers to do industrial-type films. This one is for Harmony Hairspray, it runs seven minutes and I should warn you that the video image is not the best and that much of it is out of sync. I don't create these clips. I just link to them.
Python authority Kim "Howard" Johnson points out to me in an e-mail that these films represent the directorial debut of Terry Jones. The Python TV shows had been directed by John Howard Davies (the first four) and Ian MacNaughton (the rest) and making commercials gave Python the opportunity to bring the director's job into the group and to give Jones some experience. He and Terry Gilliam would soon go on to direct Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
I think that's everything I know about this film...and yes, I know it's for hairspray. But how often do you get to see Python work from this era that you haven't seen before? Heck, I'll settle for just about anything I don't know by heart.
No, not the last day to mail your income taxes...you can do that on Monday. But today is the last day to order lifetime service for a TiVo. The $299 price, which covers the life of one machine, goes away after 7PM Pacific time tonight. Let's see how long it is before TiVo announces a price hike for month-to-month service.
April 16, 2006
