Entertainment notes: Celine and Mamma Mia
January 5, 2007 | 11:12
am
Two shows sent out press releases celebrating their home stretch. In different ways, both Mamma Mia and Celine Dion's A New Day had a major impact on the Strip. To this day I am not sure if Mamma Mia will be seen as at the vanguard of the whole Broadway to Vegas tradition or as an anomaly that others lost a lot of money trying to duplicate. I'll have 18 months to work that out as Mamma Mia announced it will be closing in the Summer of 2008. By then we should know if Spamalot at Wynn and The Producers at Paris (both open in February) are more successful than Hairspray (closed after 4 months) at Luxor and Avenue Q (closed after 9 months) at Wynn were. On the other hand, it is clear big name headliners like Celine Dion are here to stay; it is just a matter of figuring out what names can move enough tickets. There are very few performers who can sell 4,000 a night, week after week, year after year. So, who will replace Celine Dion after the last performance of A New Day set for December 15, 2007? Cher and Bette Midler are two names who keep coming up in rumors. and now Michael Jackson is in town, too. But no formal announcement has been made of what will happen after A New Day turns into yesterday.
photo by JOE CAVARETTA/AP
I vote for the Paris and Britney Show. Now that would be craptacular.
Posted by: Gump | January 05, 2007 at 12:49 PM
There are plenty of white trash and old people to fill those seats night in and night out
Posted by: Ken | January 05, 2007 at 09:54 PM
What about Phantom? How is that doing?
Posted by: Roddy Reta | January 06, 2007 at 06:54 AM
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Posted by: Hossein Zali | January 06, 2007 at 08:37 AM
I still can't believe Mamma Mia! has lasted as long as it did. I saw the show last week, thinking it would at least be entertaining and it was simply horrible! Terrible singing, trite storyline with dialogue that ranges from super corny to incredibly raunchy. Your 85 bucks is better spent at the penny slots than at that show.
Posted by: Deborah | January 06, 2007 at 10:29 AM
I'm surprised too that the show is still going. I saw the show a couple of years ago and was very disappointed.
Posted by: Lee | January 07, 2007 at 10:25 AM
The funny thing about this whole "Broadway shows almost never do well in Vegas" crapola is that the so-called failures sell more tickets at higher prices than their NYC counterparts. Avenue Q's Las Vegas theater had FAR more seats than the NYC theater it has played in and consistently sold more tickets than the NY show. Phantom is at a much higher price point and is also in a larger theater. Ditto The Producers on both counts. Our "failures" gross more than the NYC "successes" - so would the LA TImes please make an actual contribution to this whole question by doing a little digging and finding out where the money is going, rather than perpetuating a misleading myth about Las Vegas not supporting Broadway shows? We support them quite well - better generally than NY does. But there seems to be some fuzzy math that a good muckraker should have a field day with. For example, Avenue Q was grossing $500,000 per week in its 1,200 seat theater when Wynn shut it down - it's NYC theater is a bit more than half that size (less than 800 seats) with an average weekly gross of $400,000. Yet the Vegas show gets shut down and the NYC show keeps on trucking.
Posted by: Bill in Henderson | January 07, 2007 at 02:17 PM
Mamma Mia, I would love to see Michael and Britney in an all-nude revue. Also let me ask you why is Mr Hossein soliciting nuptial donations in this feedback?
Posted by: RObert | January 07, 2007 at 10:39 PM
Mamma Mia has been a huge success and appeals to all ages, however shows can't go on forever, especially not in Vegas, so for it to last so long is great credit to the show and Mandalay Bay for taking a risk with it. I have seen it on 2 visits to Vegas and find it an enjoyable show in a very nice theater, so it will be interesting to see what replaces it- please not yet another cirque show! Celine Dion is a great performer and has done very well in Vegas, i enjoyed her show when i saw it May 2006, hopefully Caesars Palace can pull out another top performer to replace her, Michael Jackson or Cher would be good.
Posted by: Simon | January 08, 2007 at 10:20 AM
omg if that was the play from yesterday i was totally there.i loved the part when donna and sam got married other than sky and the other girl cant remember)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: lauren | July 06, 2008 at 07:42 AM