Thursday, June 22, 2006
The new production cost more than $75 million.
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- He's keeping his brooding to under 90 minutes, and sparks now shoot out of his sleeves and disappear amid fiery blazes. The chandelier is even more unruly and the fog machine is cranked up full blast.
This is "Phantom -- The Las Vegas Spectacular."
After more than 65,000 performances in 24 countries, the longest-running show in Broadway history has gone under the knife. It will emerge Saturday as a trimmed-down, amped-up version tailored to suit casino audiences who have dinners to eat and slot machines to play.
"Spectacular" is just the latest, and likely the priciest, attempt to translate a Broadway hit for Las Vegas Strip visitors, an endeavor that has enjoyed only mixed success. But "Phantom" backers say they're not dealing with a Broadway show, they're dealing with the strongest "brand" in live entertainment -- and now they've "added value."
Collaborator's comments
"It's a very different experience," said composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, who collaborated with the show's original director, Harold Prince, to rework the show. "This will be an experience you can't get anywhere else in the world." For now, that is. There's already talk of taking the production to the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau, presumably after renaming it.
Costs for the new production topped $75 million, including $40 million for a lavish, 1,800-seat replica of the Paris Opera House constructed inside The Venetian hotel-casino. Co-producers Live Nation and BASE Entertainment, spin-offs of Clear Channel Entertainment, and The Venetian foot the massive bill, nearly eight times the average cost of mounting a Broadway musical.
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