All of those efforts are gone now, and they did not necessarily fail because of audiences. Fashionistas never had resort support marketing and was placed in a lousy location at the side entrance of Planet Hollywood (accessible only from the street on Harmon). Prince was never going stay forever at the Rio. And the Hard Rock's support of Beacher was as an old-school loss leader; the Madhouse was not the sort of expense easy to justify or comprehend by the out-of-town public company with little Vegas experience that bought the resort from Peter Morton, the owner who funded the Madhouse.

Also vanished is any enthusiasm for more Broadway-to-Vegas shows. This was clearly though the audiences' choice. "Hairspray," "Avenue Q" and "Spamalot" were all shows worth seeing, and all received a lot of marketing and press; yet tourists did not consider them an essential part of a Vegas vacation in the way Celine Dion was from the moment "A New Day" opened to the night she closed at Caesars.

Vegas entertainment has also failed on efforts at high art too, with Wynn's art gallery and now the Guggenheim (at Venetian) shutting down.

So, instead, the self-proclaimed Entertainment Capital of the World  is playing it safe by offering up a patch of fallow, dull predictable new shows the most successful of which are likely to be Celine's replacements: Cher and Bette Midler.

The show you have to feel sorriest for is "Jersey Boys" at the Venetian's Palazzo. With its grand opening weeks away, "Jersey Boys" is the last scheduled Broadway-Vegas show to open planned back when casinos were referring to the Vegas of the near future as Broadway West. No one says that anymore, and it seems inconceivable that a musical based on the Four Seasons will succeed where so many other Broadway shows have not.

Meanwhile, the laughably uninspired Danny Gans show is going to be the big headliner at Wynn's new Encore (though to complicate things Gans is going into the theater "Spamalot" is leaving). As one local writer, Steve Friess, noted recently in a column, after he reported accurately how easy it is for locals to score free tickets on the Internet to Gans at the Mirage, that Gans' "act is so notoriously stuck in the 1990s that he must be fervently praying for Hillary Clinton to win the election."  My vote there is that Gans is more stuck the '80s. Either way the show is awful. Friess went on to conclude: "Wynn has chosen not just to hire Gans but also make him the face of his new, uber-elegant property, and that could end up backfiring and actually degrading the image of Encore." Or, as I wrote recently: "The Gans show is the tackiest part of Mirage and will soon be the tackiest part of Wynn's Encore."

But yesterday came the announcement  where once again (unlike just a year ago) I need to start hanging my head low and mumbling with shame when I tell people I cover entertainment in Vegas. Yes, yesterday came the official word on the newest headliners at the Flamingo: Donny and Marie Osmond.

About the only show with any buzz coming up is Criss Angel's forthcoming collaboration with Cirque du Soleil, "Believe," set to open at Luxor in September. But at the end of the day, "Believe" is a show that  plays it safe in three ways by mixing magic, celebrity and Cirque.

There are still some good shows on the Strip, but they are getting fewer. Penn & Teller remain the essential entertainers who always add new elements to their show. One of the five Cirque shows in Vegas is certainly worth checking out if you have never seen one. And Wayne Brady also updates Vegas variety in a way that lacks cheese and you can enjoy without irony.

But unlike just a year ago, there is no exciting new entertainment on the horizon for the Strip and little going on that is worth tourists paying the ever-expanding ticket prices for production shows.

(photo of Beacher's Madhouse in 2007, by Sarah Gerke)