Question of the Day - 25 June 2022

In today's installment, we take a look at what the future might have in store for the traditional Las Vegas live stage presentation.

Some innovations are definitely being rolled out on Las Vegas stages. iLuminate is the obvious example; the stage is completely dark and the dancers and props are outfitted with lots of LEDs positioned in many different places; separate switches turn the lights on and off with pinpoint timing to create the effects. iLuminate is actually number four in our Top Ten. 

Another high-tech innovation we saw was in Extravaganza at Bally's. The interplay between the live stage action and the giant backing screen includes neon nights, Vegas landscapes, casino scenes, fireworks, and rainstorms; the segment in which the leading man runs along virtual roller-coaster tracks is nothing short of breathtaking. There are also holograms of Elvis, Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, and Michael Jackson.

We cited the Whitney show in Part 1 as an obvious representation of one direction Las Vegas entertainment might take.

One direction it probably won't take is more Cirque-style spectaculars. Yes, it's true that Cirque's Mad Apple opened this month at New York-New York, but that's a replacement for Zumanity. The theater had long been built and the new show simply had to adapt to it. After the catastrophe of Cirque's R.U.N. at Luxor Theater (ultimately replaced by the decidedly present-day America's Got Talent Las Vegas) and all the money thrown away on reconfiguring the venue, not to mention the company's bankruptcy and radical reorganization, we suspect that the days of Cirque's building from-scratch showrooms to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars (Ka's, for example, is reported to have cost $250 million) are a thing of the past.  

And really, how many more of the traditional magic, variety, impersonator, talent, male and female teasers, drag, impression, ventriloquist, hypnosis, and mentalist productions will younger and younger Vegas visitors pay to see? Especially with tickets for even the minor shows averaging over $100 apiece? There's also a glut of comedy clubs, Motown and classic rock, even residencies, all getting more expensive as they compete with one another for the dollars of a demographic like LVA's, which is less and less willing to pay the high prices for much of anything and is getting older and traveling less. 

One trend we've been watching is that of the smaller off-casino stages such as Alexis Park, Embassy, Mosaic, Notoriety, Miracle Mile Shops, even the Erotic Heritage Museum. These shows are smaller, more targeted, and less expensive than many of the one-size-fits all productions in the major casino showrooms and theaters, so there might be more of those on their way.

But eventually, all of them could succumb to the grand evolution of entertainment, in which, if our predictions come to fruition, the siren song of virtual and immersive, festivals and sporting events, and whatever innovations are destined to appear in the inevitable future do arrive. 

As for us, we're starting to turn our attentions to the high tech of the advance guard as subscribers to the Las Vegas Advisor will start to see soon.