Story Archive

Reluctantly yours

David Alan Grier, bringing an arsenal of topical jokes thanks to his cable show, yearns for the days of Aspen

Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008

The Comedy Festival gathers so many comedians in one place at one time — including Ellen DeGeneres, Jerry Seinfeld and Dane Cook — that for these three days each year, Caesars Palace becomes the comedy Woodstock.

‘Scheherazade’ highlights ‘fun’ program for Philharmonic

Monday, Nov. 17, 2008

Once upon a time, and not so very long ago or far away, there was a boy who grew up listening to “Scheherazade” in his family’s living room. And one day — Saturday night, in fact — he found himself all grown up, leading the Las Vegas Philharmonic through that very music.

Informed by Kafka’s life, ambitious play matches today’s foreboding

Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008

Don’t think of it as homework, but I’d recommend reading at least a capsule biography of Franz Kafka before heading off to see “Morphotic.”

Production likely to bring laughs, maybe even tears

Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008

There comes a time in nearly everyone’s life when we ask “How did I turn out like this?” And also “Who do I blame?” Sadly, by the time most of us think to query the responsible parties, it’s often too late.

Six questions for: Mike Del Gatto

Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008

Architect Mike Del Gatto moved to Las Vegas at age 4 and saw his city grow up around him.

Cirque du Soleil collaboration gives Nevada Ballet a way to shine

Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008

It could easily be a Cirque du Soleil story line: An on-the-rise ballet troupe wakes to find itself on a vast fantasyland of a stage, with limitless artistic and technological resources available at a whim.

Don't cry for her, Vegas

Madonna: ‘Sticky & Sweet’ Tour

Friday, Nov. 7, 2008

It’s been a rough quarter for ol’ Madonna. She turned 50. Her marriage went bust.

Comic book literature unmasked at festival

Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008

At 7 years old, the Vegas Valley Book Festival is demonstrating how truly grown-up it is.

Illusion is elusive in Angel's 'Believe'

Saturday, Nov. 1, 2008

No wonder. That — among its many, more obvious failings — is the fatal flaw at the heart of “Criss Angel: Believe.” There’s just no wonder in it.

‘Shenandoah’ spirited, solid

College of Southern Nevada’s staging of Civil War

Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008

I genuinely enjoyed the sincere, solid staging of the musical “Shenandoah” at College of Southern Nevada. But one thing really struck me as wrong: Not enough of you were there admiring it with me.

Illusionist’s big ‘Ta-da!’

Speculation surrounds bad boy conjurer Criss Angel’s long-awaited show with Cirque

Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008

Just days from now, our long national nightmare will finally be over.

Liberace-like talent, up close

Pianist in solo tribute is a draw himself

Friday, Oct. 24, 2008

Philip Fortenberry calls his splendid solo piano show “Liberace and Me,” but it’s hardly a case of pianist envy.

Nevada Ballet sparkles, haunts

‘Giselle’ danced with grace, acted with theatrical precision

Monday, Oct. 20, 2008

With its harvest-time setting and eerie legend, “Giselle” is a perfect choice of ballet for the approach of Halloween.

A&E: Criticism: Reviewing the reviewer

Friday, Oct. 17, 2008

Lots of people think I have a dream job. Since I’ve arrived in Las Vegas, I’ve seen Celine Dion, Bette Midler, Elton John and Cher. For free.

Keep your distance from Black Box stage while this stinker is running

Thursday, Oct. 16, 2008

We’ve all heard someone say, “That was so disgusting I have to take a shower.”

Orchestra hits jazz notes, shifts gears

Byron Stripling, ‘Four Cantors’ shine with Philharmonic

Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2008

Saturday night was the Las Vegas Philharmonic’s first pops concert, with a jazz theme and trumpeter Byron Stripling as the soloist. And the orchestra clearly enjoyed swinging out and letting its hair down.

Five Stages With Henry Rollins

Thursday, Oct. 9, 2008

The original straight-talk express, Henry Rollins, is rumbling into town, and as always, he’s got a lot on his mind.

Fright Dome: Dark, scary meets hot, heavy

At huge, frightening Halloween attraction, teen romance abounds

Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008

There are monster houses in Las Vegas, and then there’s the Fright Dome, the annual megahaunted house at the Adventuredome at Circus Circus.

Clothes make the king, queen

Renaissance festival royals get their period stuff online, at local ‘superstore’

Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008

There’s a lot of talk about Las Vegas as a city of the future, a place that has forgotten or simply paved over history.

Six questions for John Beane

Director of the alternative Onyx Theatre in Las Vegas

Monday, Oct. 6, 2008

John Beane is director of the alternative Onyx Theatre in Las Vegas and artistic director of the Insurgo Theater Movement, a “wild west avant-garde acting ensemble,” which presented its first season of plays at Onyx this year.

Manilow show gets update, and this time it's 'ultimate'

What's still the same: energy and hits, hits, hits

Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008

The latest edition of Barry Manilow’s show at the Las Vegas Hilton is called “Ultimate Manilow: The Hits.” And true to its title, it’s crammed, stuffed, bulging with hits.

Donny and Marie put on the charm

Monday, Sept. 29, 2008

Is it too late to nominate Donny and Marie for President?

Rehab's spring break-like party calls it quits for season

After 23 Sundays, the party phenomenon is coming to a close at the Hard Rock pool

Friday, Sept. 26, 2008

We saw you -- and we saw almost all of you -- sunning, strutting and shaking it every Sunday at Las Vegas' biggest, barest pool party, the afternoon fleshfest known as Rehab.

Big top fun with human touch

Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2008

A spinoff of a famous century-old Mexico City circus, Circo Atayde USA has been setting up its big tent in parking lots across Las Vegas this summer.

Las Vegas’ two faces

Yale architecture students meet the city marketed around the world

Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2008

Ten Yale University architecture students were in town last week to study the Strip’s shopping and entertainment centers.

The closest thing to Buffalo

Bars like Johnny Mac’s help exiles feel right at home in the desert

Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008

It’s easy to see why cities like Paris, Venice and New York receive Las Vegas-style imitation-homages.

Competition celebrates music, showmanship Liberace loved

Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008

Here they are, Las Vegas, your finalists in the 2008 Liberace Piano Competition. It may be a stretch to call the 15-year-old contest the “American Idol” for pianists, but there’s no doubt it’s been closely watched around town.

A play based on Buffalo put-downs doesn’t play well in Vegas

Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008

As it begins its 33rd season, the Las Vegas Little Theatre is more than up to the challenge of the formulaic farce “Moon Over Buffalo.”

Henderson Symphony should relax, build on strings’ strength

Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008

Sporting shades, dressed in black ties and black dresses, the Henderson Symphony Orchestra looked cool. Their 90-minute program offered several graceful moments, but just as many strained and sprained sounds.

No. 1 celebration

Latin stars converge on Vegas for event bigger than Cinco de Mayo

Friday, Sept. 12, 2008

If ever there were a time to shout “Viva Las Vegas!” this would be the weekend for it. Here in Las Vegas, Mexican Independence Day is mas grande than Cinco de Mayo. Mexicans celebrate their 1810 independence from Spain — Grito de Dolores — every Sept. 16

This time, history may not be kind

Design study group may take critical view of cityscape lauded in ‘dangerous’ book

Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008

“Less is a bore,” proclaimed the little book about Las Vegas architecture.

Suspense adds to experience as philharmonic, soloist shine

Monday, Sept. 8, 2008

Something was missing at the Las Vegas Philharmonic’s season-greeting 10th anniversary concert Saturday night at UNLV’s Artemus Ham Hall. The musicians were onstage, beginning Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero.” But where was the conductor?

Reporting’s just not that alluring

A list that only Vegas could do justice to: ‘The 12 Sexiest Jobs’ in town

Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008

The other night, while waiting for the guiltiest pleasure, called “The Hills,” I chanced upon a TV show called “The 12 Sexiest Jobs in Las Vegas.”

Sweetening deals

Gourmet cupcakes becoming a new way to grease a Vegas palm, enhance a hot party

Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008

There’s always been an underground economy in Las Vegas. Since the town began, businesspeople with varying degrees of legitimacy have gifted and bribed one another with women, booze, money and fancy casino digs.

Religion can rock, too

Las Vegas provides avenues for young band to demonstrate its talent

Friday, Aug. 29, 2008

Meet the band: Summit Grove, a young — median age 19 — Las Vegas group to watch.

‘Sgt. Pepper’s’ performed live, 40 years after release

Quintet reprises songs of the album the Beatles never played in concert

Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008

The Beatles never performed “Sgt. Pepper” in concert, but Friday at Texas Station we’ll get the closest thing. Las Vegas is the last stop on a 10-city tour for a unique tribute event.

Cynical, funny play takes pokes at Hollywood’s deceptions

Monday, Aug. 25, 2008

A recent hit off- and on Broadway, Douglas Carter Beane’s cynical comedy “The Little Dog Laughed” is being staged in what may be the most dramatic venue in Las Vegas.

Meet Richard Cheese: He’ll grate on you, make you laugh and sing along

Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008

Make room in the Rat Pack pantheon, fellas. Move over Frank, Sammy and Dean ... here’s Dick.

Diamond songs sung true

Impersonator may even top the real thing for Vegas crowds

Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2008

You come to Las Vegas and you want things your way, right? This is your time, and you’re spending money, and you’re gonna have it just how you want it.

'Aida' shines under the stars

Production, setting make for a wonderful evening of entertainment

Monday, Aug. 18, 2008

The show begins in your car.

Serious music, now with fun

Piano legend would approve of event’s new category

Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008

Given your choice of two pianos — an austerely elegant jet-black Steinway grand or Liberace’s own rhinestone-encrusted Baldwin, sparkling with rainbow colors in the spotlights — which would you pick? Sparkly proved irresistible to most of the junior pianists at the Competitors Showcase for the 2008 Liberace Piano Competition on Sunday afternoon, including 8-year-old Natalie Rule of Las Vegas.

Beg, borrow, steal a ticket

Steely Dan brings perfectionist blend of jazz, pop to Pearl

Friday, Aug. 8, 2008

Las Vegas, along with New York and Los Angeles, has been a continuing motif, metaphor and milieu for the songs of Steely Dan, offering a glamorous/seamy setting for a cast of morally ambiguous characters.

Unplugged tunes in a neon city

Weekly showcase features local acoustic music

Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008

One of the most plugged-in cities in the world, Las Vegas seems to have every kind of entertainment you could wish for.

The stupidity antidote

Joel McHale’s nascent stand-up routine borrows from his show’s skewering of bad TV

Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008

Joel McHale — who hosts "The Soup," a weekly recap of the best of the worst on TV — watches the bad so you don’t have to, earning him a following that considers him the antidote to the nation’s stupidity epidemic.

Metal-urgent mayhem

Steel Panther revives the screams, big hair and outsized glam of ’80s hard-rock era

Friday, Aug. 1, 2008

Booked for an indefinite Friday night stand at Green Valley Ranch Station Casino, a four-man band called Steel Panther is what would happen if someone took every band from those VH1 “Most Metal Moments” reruns, stuffed them in a giant blender — added a big dollop of Spinal Tap — and hit liquefy.

The Time of their lives

After 18 years apart, ensemble band members pick Vegas to kick off reunion

Thursday, July 31, 2008

The Time is now. The place is Las Vegas.
The Strip has been the location and motivation for all kinds of showbiz resurrections, revivals and replicas.

Weekend to hold lots of laughs

Seven comedians, including two stars of late-night television, will be dropping in on Vegas

Friday, July 25, 2008

Seven comedians fly in to Las Vegas ... Sounds like the setup to a joke, but it’s happening right now.

Just go with the Izzard flow

British comedian, actor to bring his constantly evolving routine to Vegas

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Talking with comedian/actor Eddie Izzard — or rather listening to him — is like catching a working sketch for his comedy act.

Local cast likes 'Mamma Mia' film

Friday, July 18, 2008

After five years at Mandalay Bay, “Mamma Mia!” is scheduled to wave goodbye in early January. But if the movie version of the ABBA musical is a hit when it opens today, the Vegas outpost of the stage show may just get its sixth wind.

Second Invasion looms

Revived British pop bands head for Vegas as gallery showcases photos of iconic groups

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Nobody really planned it this way — nobody really planned the first one — but Las Vegas is on the verge of a micromini British Invasion this weekend, with a slight but significant return of U.K. pop groups.