Entertainment

“Showstoppers” gets it done; Soul-searching at Cirque

Basking in the afterglow of the opening night of ShowStoppers. (Or properly, Steve Wynn’s Showtoppers) Wynn Resorts CEO Steve Wynn called it the most satisfying creative ShowStoppers Chorus-Line-RGB_1experience he’d had to date. When he finishes a hotel, he said, all he sees are the things that could have been done better. Here he could just sit back and enjoy the ride. Few critical verdicts are in on the show yet. But if Wynn’s goal was to “exhaust” audiences, I’m happy to say he failed. When the show climaxes with a stunning (and upsized) recreation of Michael Bennett‘s choreography for “One” from A Chorus Line, one feels satisfied but not glutted, thanks in part to the show’s trim, disciplined, 72-minute running time.

The bigger question is whether a show that leans heavily on musicals like

The genius of Wynn; Wilmot charges ahead

Steve Wynn doesn’t wrap his hotels in bronze glass just because he likes the color. No, he has determined that the light passing through it makes his guests look more attractive “in macau_wynnrooms that have warmer light … One of the things that happens with glass is that the wavelength of the light affects the color palette on the inside of the room,” he told the Boston Globe, sounding anything like your standard-issue casino owner.

It’s not any old bronze glass, either, but a custom-made blend, to be found only at Wynn Resorts properties. Likewise, when all types of artificial turf were inspected and found lacking, “Wynn lawn” was invented to

Vegas hits the jackpot & other Case Bets

We don’t know how much they’ve spent yet and how much of a blockbuster year this will be for Las Vegas but we know one thing for certain. We’ve finally broken the 40 million mark pinup-picin annual visitation, a Holy Grail long sought by the tourism industry. Heck, we may hit 41 million by the time midnight strikes on New Year’s Eve. We doubt that Visitor #40 Million was garlanded with roses or laurels. But, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “To mark the milestone, tourism officials are giving away Las Vegas suite upgrades, dining and thrill experiences and beauty makeovers to random tourists with local entertainers Penn &Teller, Carrot Top and Claire Sinclair (above) making the presentations.” Carrot Top? We want people to come here, not scare them away.

* Cordish Co. got the deal it was looking for to build a

Taj at Icahn’s mercy; The wrath of Wynn

Trump Entertainment Resorts CEO Bob Griffin (below) has basically flung himself at the feet of Carl Icahn and begged the billionaire to keep funding Trump Taj Mahal “well into Griffin2015,” while Unite-Here‘s appeal of a bankruptcy court ruling is adjudicated, maybe longer. (If I were Icahn, I’d like to know what I’m getting in return.) Icahn’s ultimatum of ‘Give me tax breaks or I’ll kill this casino’ having fallen upon deaf ears in Trenton, there’s a serious danger the Taj will close this Saturday. This may not be cause for grief among other Boardwalk operators, all of whom stand to inherit what little business the Taj still does.

In yet another of his open letters, Griffin wrote, “The state, city and the union have all abandoned us. You are our last hope to find a solution that will keep the Taj open and save these 3,000 jobs.” Say what you like, the man has a flair for melodrama. However, he needs to work on

Sayonara, Sam; Showstopping Steve

When the going gets tough, Sam Nazarian gets the hell out of Dodge, although he’ll try to take some of the revenue stream with him. That’s the moral to be drawn from his withdrawal from any operational role at SLS Las Vegas, a property already Sam_Nazbesieged with rumbles of financial trouble. Nazarian had already been through a rough hearing before the Nevada Gaming Control Board and approval by the Nevada Gaming Commission is no slam dunk. The best Nazarian can hope for, it appears, is a provisional, probationary, one-year license. Hardly a ringing vote of confidence in this oft-proclaimed “visionary.”

“With the extremely talented executive team led by Scott Kreeger and our dedicated work force at the resort, I feel my professional efforts are

Much ado about Harmon

After endless months of maneuvering and legal posturing, MGM Resorts International and  Tutor Perini arrived at a settlement on what was to have been the opening day of an Harmoniniepic trial. (That’s seven weeks of jury selection down the drain.) The case revolved around the defectively constructed Harmon hotel and came down to where the finger for the fiasco should be pointed. Although the settlement was nominally confidential, Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli got the nitty-gritty via the SEC. CityCenter will receive $110 million from contractors, insurers, MGM and sundry third parties. In addition to paying CityCenter $20 million, MGM lays

Icahn: My way or the highway

If Unite-Here doesn’t cave in today, it’s curtains for Trump Taj Mahal. Or so says Carl Icahn, who wants the union to abandon its court fight to restore health and pension benefits breached by Trump Entertainment Resorts. If Icahn carries through with his ultimatum,carl_icahn the property would be mothballed on Dec. 20. TER CEO Robert Griffin got into the act, sending another of his melodramatic missives to Local 54 President Robert McDevitt.

“Please, Bob. This is our final opportunity to help people. Time is running out and money is running short. We simply cannot stay in limbo any longer. Every day, fewer and fewer people patronize the Taj, and we lose more and more of what little money we have left,” wailed Griffin, blaming McDevitt for his own ineptitude. “We just cannot wait any longer.”

At least Griffin is

Walk softly, carry a Talking Stick

There’s a new symbolic benchmark for the economic importance of tribal gaming in the U.S. What was the US Airways Center, in Phoenix, home of the Phoenix Suns, is becoming Talking Stick Resort Arena. It’s a testimony to the financial clout of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and of “the new buffalo.” The tribe hopes to generate additional business at Talking Stick Cultural & Entertainment Destination, which isn’t just home to a casino but a golf course and baseball stadium, and the new name of the basketball stadium will be everywhere from business cards to the roof. Although the change will

Palace coup at Full House

When you strike at the king, you must kill him — and dissident investor Dan Lee (left) was successful in deposing Andre Hilliou from his throne at Full House Resorts. “I would DanLeealso like to thank Andre and Mark for their many years of service with the company and wish them well in their future endeavors,” said Lee as Hilliou and COO Mark Miller walked the plank. Lee and well-traveled industry veteran Ellis Landau will be among six new board members. In ascending to the CEO’s chair, Lee will well-remunerated. Reports The Modesto Bee, “The board’s compensation committee approved a grant to Lee for an option to purchase 943,834 shares at a per-share exercise price equal to the closing price on the grant date. Lee’s option is scheduled to vest over a four-year period, with 25 percent vesting on the first anniversary of the grant date, and the remaining 75 percent vesting in substantially equal installments over the following three years.”

Given Lee’s record at Pinnacle Entertainment, it wouldn’t surprise me if he wasn’t

Slots drive Vegas; Big change at Foxwoods

Las Vegas Strip casino revenues fell 6% last month, largely thanks to soft table play. Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli characterized slot play as “encouraging
Liberace slotand driven primarily by volume,” as the Strip recorded its sixth consecutive month of increased coin-in, up 7%. Since Santarelli had been expecting a flattish 4Q14 he termed the results not “all that meaningful relative to our Company forecasts.” Baccarat revenue plunged 35.5% on 15% lower play. This is a change from 2013, when baccarat carried the Strip. Despite lighter play, non-baccarat table games did 4% than October previous. Over at J.P. Morgan, analyst Joseph Greff was comparably sanguine, writing, “we maintain our positive outlook for the LV Strip and believe the overall recovery will continue for the balance of the year and into 2015.”

Reno posted an 8% increase in a month in which non-Strip revenues tended to seesaw violently. Downtown Las Vegas was stable, with a 1% bump and the unclassified parts of Clark County had a 2% boost. Lake Tahoe shot up 53%. The Boulder Strip plunged 24% and North Las Vegas fell off 15%. Laughlin got off easy, with a 5% decline. Whatever else the locals customer is, he is cautious with his money these days.

* “We think we have too much gaming.” When was the last time

Case Bets

A California tribe is getting into Internet gambling in a somewhat roundabout way. The Pala Indians are beta-testing PalaCasino.com, which will be run off the online atlantic-city-borgata-hotelplatform of … Borgata. (Casinos in Atlantic City can host as many as five ‘Net casinos per property.) Pala’s 90-game package will go live on Monday, pending approval by the Division of Gaming Enforcement. Of course, it can only take action from Garden State punters. Pala Interactive Chief Marketing Officer Jeremy Clemons told media, “Our launch in New Jersey is a huge step for the company, and we want to make sure we’re rolling out one of the best, most user-friendly casino experience on the market.”

* Faced with the imminent approval of four new casinos, Turning Stone Casino, in Oneida, New York, is differentiating itself with

Quack Pack attack

Since it’s the altar on which A&E recently sacrificed Longmire, I don’t have warm feelings about Duck Dynasty, although the network itself goes one better, depicting Phil Robertson and his clan as bizarre backwoods cretins. With a pedigree like that, it was inevitable that show biz would come calling, although not in the form of a TV sitcom — which Duck Dynasty arguably already is — but as a Las Vegas musical, a strange marriage of form and content. For one thing, what are the Robertsons’ religiously conservative fans going to make of the family breaking bread with Sin City?

“The Robertsons are so unusual, their story so juicy, and theater shouldn’t

Showman Steve; Who’ll take Bucharest?

Rather than hire out entertainment for his Wynncore showroom (the one not occupied by Le Reve), Steve Wynn has taken a DIY approach. He’s producing and co-writing Showstoppers, a revue of some of the most iconic songs from Broadway musicals. It’ll Steve Wynncost a tiny fraction ($10 million) of the budget of a Cirque du Soleil show and the anti-Cirque approach was part of the attraction, according to Wynn himself. “We can’t just surrender to Cirque du Soleil. How many shows can you stand of that stuff. Jumping, popping, swinging. I mean, enough already,” said the man who brought Cirque to the Las Vegas Strip. Besides, creative personnel include choreographer Marguerite Derricks, a Zumanity veteran. Randal Keith, the best King Arthur I’ve seen in Spamalot, will topline the show. The 28 dancers outnumber the original A Chorus Line‘s 18.

Showstoppers may not have have the whimsical grotesquerie of Cirque but it won’t lack for production values. It will have a cast of 34 and a lavish orchestra of 30. “We’ve got to do our own thing here,” Wynn said, dismissing long-running rumors that

Election Special

Where gaming-related issues were concerned, there was one big race last night and a
bunch of also-rans. The main event, of course, was Massachusetts, where casino MGM Springfieldrepeal went down to defeat 60% to 40%, good news for Penn National Gaming, hard at work on its Plainville racino, as well as for MGM Resorts International and Wynn Resorts. Having lost big-time, Repeal the Casino Deal will hopefully go away quietly. For instance, support in Springfield was even higher (64%) yesterday than last year (58%) and even West Springfield, which had rejected casinos earlier, flipped to the “aye” category. Wrote the Springfield Republican‘s Ron Chimelis, “the public has spoken twice on the subject, and given the same answer each time. If we are to believe in the value of democracy, we cannot dispute that the will of the people is to give MGM its chance.”

“You’re not going to get people excited if it’s not in their backyard,” said Boston College casino expert Rev. Richard McGowan and the planned casinos will be

NHL maybe, NBA not so much

“Preliminary talks” could mean relatively nothing but when one of the principal parties is MGM Resorts International, you have to take them seriously … especially when NHLMGM is building an arena intended for major-league sports. Still, there don’t appear to be direct negotiations with an actual team but instead “a group interested in housing an NHL team.” Very different. Sports Business Daily has looked at the economics of an NHL franchise in Sin City and concluded that they don’t pan out. Then there’s the hostility of the league itself. Another wrinkle is that MGM partner AEG owns the Los Angeles Kings. The company would probably welcome having another market in which to show off the Kings, but how does it feel about building an arena whose primary tenant would be a rival franchise?

It still seems far more plausible than

The village idiot; Knuckle-dragging in Maryland

Every city has its cross to bear. In the case of Las Vegas, it’s former steroid user, baseball player and serial dumbass Jose Canseco. He obviously skipped firearm-safety class the day they told you to make sure your gun is empty before cleaning in it. Luckily for Canseco, no vital organs were injured, just a finger in his left hand. (Had he shot himself in the head, would the bullet have found anything to hit?)

* On a distantly related note, Caesars Entertainment continues to burn through cash. It offered Toby Keith $325,000 to perform one show at Planet Hollywood and make an in-person appearance at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill. Still, that pales next to the $4.5 million put before Kanye West to perform nine shows at The Axis, at Planet Hollywood. If I were Celine Dion, I’d be a bit miffed, since the Kanye payday exceeds the $476,000/concert she pulls down at Caesars Palace. And who does more for Vegas tourism?

* Card-counting may be legal in Maryland but nobody told

Fighting on in New Jersey; One-armed banditry

Monmouth Park may have been stayed from offering NFL and World Series bets, among others, but state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D) isn’t giving up fighting the good fight, describing it as “the last hurrah.” Describing an Atlantic City that’s devoid of life during major sports events, he envisions bringing players back to the Boardwalk to put some action on, say, March Madness. Sports wagering would be confined to tracks and casinos to “put fannies in the seat,” to help restore their financial health. OTB and betting parlors need not apply.

For now, Monmouth Park says it wants “the whole enchilada” of sports but Lesniak thinks that, as the court case moves forward,

Reading Loveman’s tea leaves

Loveman fluffyGary Loveman has made a lot of mistakes as Caesars Entertainment CEO but building a convention center in Atlantic City wasn’t one of them. In fact, it’s been one of his better ideas. While he was in town to put his John Hancock on the final beam of the $126 million Waterfront Conference Center, he shared several cryptic remarks with the media. While he said he wasn’t in any talks with Unite-Here, Loveman added “The challenge in Atlantic City is not simply revenue but cost.”

This could easily presage a contractual squeeze like the one Trump Entertainment Resorts put on its labor force (which may have bought them only three more weeks of employment), particularly if

Caesars wins times two

Congratulations are in order twice over for Caesars Entertainment. The company is towering over its competitors in the social-gaming sphere, CAESARS-ENTERTAINMENT-LOGOaccording to Eilers Research. While Zynga still rules Facebook and DoubleDown Casino has thrown a lifeline to International Game Technology, it’s the guy in the toga who comes out on top, with a 21% market share. DoubleDown is way back, at 11% and Zynga is close behind it at 9%, nearly followed by Big Fish Games at 8%.

It wasn’t that long ago (July of last year) that Zynga was tops and Caesars pushed past it to be Numero Uno. It’s not even the online World Series of Poker that’s driving the numbers but

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