As in Clay, Donny Clay, played by the versatile Jason Alexander in The Donny Clay Experience. This delightful one-man show will be a peripatetic and hopefully long-lived visitor to Planet Hollywood … unless Gary Loveman‘s crony Frank Biondi (ex-Viacom CEO) flies into another one of his anti-Alexander tantrums like the one eyewitnessed in Winner Takes All. (Just kidding.)
• Oh yeah, there’s this other new show on the Strip called Viva Elvis. Here’s the Reader’s Digest condensed version of last weekend’s review, augmented with photos that illustrate just what eyesores Mark Fisher‘s sets are. Incidentally, some of those sets fit so awkwardly onto the stage that it’s got me wondering whether the showroom was actually tailored to the show or (more likely, I suspect) a generic theater was designed and Cirque du Soleil was shoehorned into it.• Visitors who fancy taking in a movie at The Orleans might want to pack some longjohns and a couple of sweaters. Earlier this week, we viewed New Mexico-set Oscar nominee Crazy Heart in climatic conditions more appropriate to Nanook of the North. Memo to Boyd Gaming: Your HVAC system’s working just fine; you can turn it down a notch now.
• Although the Palms has effaced all physical traces of Matt Goss from the property it hasn’t gone to the petty extent of editing him out of its celebrated “Poker Face” ad spot, which plays in its cineplex. (Besides, it’s not like he’s particularly recognizable.) The blipvert, set to Lady Gaga, works better on the big screen … and in this instance we’re talking IMAX-big.
• For those S&G readers visiting Las Vegas this weekend (and you know who you are), it’s supposed to be bucketing down rain on Saturday but clear skies are predicted for Sunday’s big NASCAR event, if that’s your bag.
So, what’s this Station settlement gonna do to Boyd? Will Boyd get anything after it’s all said and done?
Since Texas Motor Speedway is only 3 hours away, the idea of going to a Cup race in Las Vegas doesn’t appeal to me. I can’t imagine giving up the hours it takes to go to the race out of my precious Las Vegas time. Someone must think it’s worth it, though. The Las Vegs race is one of the top 10 attended on the tour, I think.
I’ll need to check with STN but one presumes it has right of first refusal if the ‘Spuns want to sell their half of Green Valley Ranch, Aliante Station and all the grind joints the two companies co-own. Unfortunately, GVR’s one of the properties Boyd would need most, in terms of having all sectors of the Valley covered. Getting Aliante Station also means Boyd could unload its (gaming-entitled) North Las Vegas site.
Then there’s the wild card that is the alliance between some of the major creditors and Isle of Capri (they’d own, Isle would operate). All of which presumes that the casinos can actually be pried loose from the Fertitta Bros., whose strategy all along has boiled down to, “We keep the gold mine, you get the shaft.” So far, the bankruptcy court judge has tended to side with the Fertittas, so it looks like we’re headed for a very expensive bankruptcy auction — and the Fertittas are newly flush with money from Abu Dhabi, so don’t count them out.