Around or about "late summer of 2006," a production of The Producers (the Broadway show) will open at the Paris hotel in Las Vegas. No word yet on who will star or if Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick will play the first few weeks, then hand off to others.
They might not want to because if early announcements are true, this Producers will run 90 minutes with no intermission. The version in New York clocks in at 2 hours and 40 minutes, fifteen of which is the intermission. So the Vegas Producers will need to lose close to an hour…and I have no idea how they'll do that without ruining the show. The recent motion picture version cut two numbers and it still runs 134 minutes.
Not all that long ago, some (including the guy who runs this weblog) were predicting that the new Vegas trend would be to import Broadway shows and perform them in full, instead of the cut-down "tab" versions that had been the norm for such transplants. A lot of Broadway shows have made it to Vegas but only a few haven't lost their intermissions and a few numbers. Then in 1999, an uncut production of Chicago did good business at the Mandalay Bay, followed in 2003 by Mamma Mia, also performed in full, which is still running and still successful.
Then last September, the Broadway smash Avenue Q opened a production at the new Wynn Hotel in Vegas. Although on a ten-a-week schedule, they performed the entire show as it runs in New York — about two hours plus a fifteen minute intermission. Ticket sales were disappointing and in an attempt to boost business, they lost the intermission and cut about a half-hour from the show. The cuts didn't help sales (the production closes in May, well ahead of when anyone hoped) but they seem to have marked the end of the full-length Broadway show in Vegas, at least for now.
One suspects the running time was not the problem. Avenue Q is an adult puppet show and a satire of Sesame Street that at any length seems out of tune with Vegas audiences. It has also been suggested that the producers simply had unrealistic expectations, opening what is basically a "small" musical in a 1,200 seat theater. With a ten show schedule, that means there are 12,000 tickets available each week so a lot of empty seats were inevitable. In New York, Avenue Q plays at the John Golden, which seats 804. With eight performances a week, that's about half as many seats to fill…and folks who've seen Avenue Q in both venues say it simply plays much better in the more intimate theater.
Still, those who are bringing Broadway shows to Nevada are looking at its failure and ordering trims. Hairspray — which opened two months ago at the Luxor in Vegas — was cut down from 2 hours and 40 minutes to 90. And a condensed version of The Phantom of the Opera is soon to be mounted at the Venetian in Las Vegas. Unlike the others, this one is not being marketed as a replica of what's playing in New York. It will be called Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular and will run 95 minutes with all-new staging by Hal Prince, who directed the original. (The New York Phantom runs around two hours and fifteen minutes. The Vegas incarnation is being advertised as having "all the songs" of the original, though no one is suggesting they'll be performed in full.) There will be ten performances a week so the primary roles are being double-cast. Two different actors will take turns playing The Phantom, two actresses will rotate as Christine, etc.
That may be the new trend: Less show, more performances. Once Avenue Q vacates its space at the Wynn Las Vegas, the showroom will be remodelled and renamed The Grail Theater and in 2007, it will be home to a production of Monty Python's Spamalot. The New York production runs two hours and twenty minutes, fifteen of which is intermission. The Vegas version will reportedly run ninety with all roles double-cast to allow for an unprecedented twelve performances a week. I don't think any show that ever originated on Broadway has gone on to do twelve performances a week in any theater anywhere…and that's not the end of it. There will also be something called (tentatively) "The Spamalot Experience," which will cost $70 million to build. One presumes it will be not unlike "The Star Trek Experience" at the Vegas Hilton, which is like a mini-theme park allowing tourists to become a part of the show.
Personally, I don't want to become a part of the show. I just want to see the whole thing, especially since they're going to be charging New York prices…or more. The problem with Avenue Q isn't that it was too long. It was just the wrong show in the wrong town in the wrong showroom. My suspicion is that Vegas entrepreneurs are seizing on its failure as an excuse to not do shows in their entirety. They like the idea of 10-12 performances a week, and of 90 minute shows that get the tourists back out into the casino in a hurry so they can resume gambling. I'll bet The Producers, performed in full, would sell just as many tickets per performance, if not more. It's just that if they do the whole show, they can't do it twice a night.