… as in the Las Vegas Advisor weekly poll. Tomorrow’s promises to be a real doozy. The question is, What was the worst show in recent Strip and Downtown history? The dog kennel hasn’t been completely filled but I can share with you some of the nicknames our hard-working research department has coined for some of the great stinkers of Sin City: Pammy and the Klok … Steve Wyrick, Master of the Anticlimax … Melinda “Oh shit, what’s the car still doing here?” Saxe (aka Melinda, Worst Lady of Magic) … Triumph: It Ran out of Steam … Wayne Newton: Once Before I Die … Scarlett the Booby Magic Psycho … Michael Jackson The Immoral World Tour … Striptease The Show (not to be confused with Striptease The Laxative) … and here but already half-forgotten, Smurf The Musical.
Hot girl-on-girl action at the Olympics? Maybe I’ve been too quick to write off synchronized swimming as the Snooki of Olympic sports.
Let’s not forget Nicole “ND” Durr, who brought one of the best shows ever — “Havana Night Club” — to the Stardust, and followed it up with one of the worst ever — “Fuego Raw Talent” — at the Sahara. The last we heard, she was being accused of “intentional fraud” and sued for millions by a bankruptcy trustee. ( http://www.vegasinc.com/news/2011/jun/01/las-vegas-nightclub-show-figure-sued-bankruptcy-tr/ )
Mamma Mia… For years that Abba music polluted Mandalay Bay, banks of slots churning out Dancing Queen, so walking through the casino was a hazard to the songs going through your brain. The teaser videos showed the audience all standing and rocking out, but they did not tell you that was the encore/finale. This turd ran for years and years…
Ah yes, “Fuego” aka “Fuego Raw Talent” aka “Raw Talent Live” aka “ND’s Fuego” was something unto itself. It is the only show I have ever seen, here or elsewhere, that used pre-recorded applause. Fraulein Durr also made S&G’s list of the top three Europoseurs in town. We’re rid of her and Christian Audigier, but will we ever be liberated from the ubiquity of Guy Laliberté? He has Svengali-like power over Jim Murren. (“I weel create zees giant pile of *merde* called ‘Viva — how do you say? — Elvees’ and you weel pay me $100 million of your Yankee dollars for zees atrocity, *non*?”)
I added my vote by email, but for me, nothing could outclass ERocktica at the Rio. I would have never believed you could take you take rock music, and boobs and make it bad. All it took was bad choreography, an annoying MC screaming at you, and a band that wouldn’t even be considered average for a lounge.
OK David, I’ll bite. For years you have nothing but knives out for Cirque, not even a kind word for O or Love. These and other Cirque shows continue to fill the seats at super-premium prices. Just what do you have in mind for these properties? Do you have any examples that compare? Yes, the astounding run of smash hits ended with the Luxor bunny rabbits, and Elvis will be leaving the building, but by and large the Cirque shows work for the people and the properties. Broadway shows sometimes do OK, headliners come and go, variety shows with centerfolds wear thin quickly, and Sinatra is dead. Perhaps only boobs and rock can save us…
Mike, *I* only nominated a single Cirque show for inclusion and “Criss Angel BeLIEve” (not my suggestion but an obvious choice) has a strong chance of winning … as does an unexpected, write-in, dark-horse candidate, not of Cirque’s making. But I sensed “Cirque fatigue” well before Mr. Angel’s show opened and their ubiquity — and MGM’s inability to think outside the Cirque box — has caused annoyance in some quarters. Interestingly, “Zarkana” will be a throwback to pre-“Love” Cirque shows (i.e., their period of greatest success), right down to nonsense language — so maybe the era of “mainstreaming” Cirque by latching onto platinum-selling artists is over. At least Cirque still draws far, far better here than it did in Macao, where the punters just couldn’t be bothered.
P.S.: Since I have friends who work (or have worked) for Cirque, wouldn’t conventional wisdom be for me to display a *pro*-Cirque bias.