The New York Times apparently called the 1964 film of Viva Las Vegas, starring Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret, as being “about as pleasant and unimportant as a banana split”. I actually happen to like banana splits, and I love Las Vegas. Since I first came here in late 2000 for the first time, I have been back four more times now…. and I will keep coming back, at least as long as there are shows to see. In five trips, I am yet to spend a dime, let alone a quarter, in one of the casinos; I am, I guess, what the casinos here would call a “loss leader”; I’m not pouring money into the local economy, its true – but maybe I can encourage a visitor or two to follow me?
But then the shows are themselves loss leaders, too. There is no way they can recoup on their own account – even with a top price of up to $150 in the case of Cirque du Soleil’s ‘O’, ‘Ka’ and ‘Love’, and a panto-style schedule that has them giving two performances a night; but the level of investment in creating the shows in the first place is so high and the weekly running cost so massive (with up to 75 performers in each show), that a recoupment schedule has to be a distant hope. But meanwhile, the shows provide an “anchor” tenant for each hotel that they are resident in: something that makes them a destination, and not just for those staying there, to provide all sorts of ancillary income to them that isn’t accountable just in the ticket price.
And it brings visitors to town who might not otherwise come here at all, like me.
Thinking back to that first trip I made in 2000, ‘O’ was the top of my wish list, and it immediately went to the top of my best-ever list: so much so that, barely five months later, I was back in Vegas, this time with my parents in tow, to see it again, in a trip that my brother and I banded together to pay for them as a Christmas present. I subsequently saw ‘O’ on each of my next two trips as well. Then I saw ‘Ka’ on its official opening night in early 2005, and was awestruck by that, too – and returned to see it again last September. But then on that trip I also saw ‘Love’ — and now I’m back, barely five months later, to see that one again, in turn, on tomorrow. Yes, I know this sounds a little obsessive-compulsive – but no one is being hurt, and these shows have upped the ante on what can be achieved theatrically so high that I can’t imagine it ever getting any better than this. So I am enjoying it while I can.
And tonight I also have Bette Midler, who just last week began a two-year residency as a headliner at Caesar’s Palace. I’ve seen Bette live twice before in the last few years with her last tour, Kiss My Brass, which I saw both at Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall. A friend knows a friend of hers, who proudly once declared, “She’s a c**t, and that’s what her friends say!” But however difficult she reportedly is offstage, she is a force of nature on it. I can’t wait to see what she makes of Vegas – and Vegas makes of her.
But arriving yesterday from San Francisco, I actually did something I have rarely done here (or anywhere, for that matter!) – I’ve had an evening in! That’s partly thanks to the amazing hotel suite I’m in at the palatial Wynn Hotel: it’s a room (or rather four) so lavish that I was completely inclined to stay reclined. One of those four rooms is even a private massage suite! I could just get used to this….
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