MADhattan was the first show to open at New York-New York, when the property debuted back in 1997. The hotel opened January 3 and the show, which was a tribute to The Big Apple's street performers, premiered June 12.
Featuring a cast of 35, some of whom were genuine New York City buskers, the production included 16 musical numbers, 99 costumes, 896 lighting cues, and full-scale mock-ups of New York landmarks, including Washington Square arch and the lions that guard the New York Public Library, not to mention sets like an evocation of the subway. It actually began life as a $2,000 Off-Broadway musical called Street Songs that performed at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in the East Village, before transferring to the Strip and a new incarnation as a $6 million extravaganza. Along the way, many of the original cast members either left or were rejected, to be replaced by professional performers, or street and circus acts from other cities.
At the time, the whole concept was seen as a pretty radical departure from the Las Vegas-showroom norm, with its eclectic cast of singers, dancers, speed-painters, and other street-style performers. The New York Times observed that MADhattan "has about as much in common with a typical show on the Strip as Brooklyn's pigeons have with Siegfried and Roy's tigers."
And with a relatively hefty (for the time) $40 ticket price, even the show's veteran producer Kenneth Feld was skeptical, admitting that, "This is a very risky thing. It's the most culturally and ethnically diverse show in Las Vegas. I hope the city is ready for it."
It turned out that it wasn't, and MAHhattan didn't last long. It closed after a short run (we couldn't establish the exact end date), to be replaced in 1999 by Michael Flatley's much more mainstream Lord of the Dance. In fact, when we ran a recent Reader Poll inquiring about the worst Las Vegas show you'd ever seen, Anthony Curtis, who tends to look for the good in any show here, personally nominated MADhattan, but then it's not something we'd necessarily expect to jibe with his personal taste and perhaps he was just having a bad night.
As to whether you can still purchase the lost CD featuring the show cast, we have but one word to say to you: Amazon! When we looked online yesterday, there were three new copies up for grabs, starting at $12.88, or you could take a chance on a second-hand copy from $2.50 up. You can probably find it on eBay, too.
For anyone else interested, you can hear some excerpts of songs from the show at the website of the songwriter Jonathan Brielle.
