Euphemisms have a way of sanitizing everything. For instance, there are no longer mercenaries — instead they are “contractors,” which makes them 
sound like somebody you’d have install your pool deck. And in Las Vegas we don’t have celebrity impersonators, we have “tribute” shows. The latest — and most prominently platformed — is Bob Anderson‘s Frank, The Man, The Music. This Sinatra impersonation will debut at Palazzo on Jan. 27, slated for a one-year run. It replaces Panda!, which never quite caught on, despite nearly a year’s tenure. (Why see Panda! when you can get tickets to KA, of which more anon.) Backing Anderson will be a band under the guidance of former Sinatra collaborator Vince Falcone.
Other luminaries connected with the show are Steppenwolf Theatre Company director Stephen Eich and designer Kevin Rigdon. So Las Vegas Sands is going first cabin on this one. Anderson describes the show thusly, “It’s simply Frank Sinatra, having a nice casual conversation at times with the audience and singing his great songs.” It’s also a cautionary lesson for any Strip casino catering to Chinese players: Give them entertainment they can’t get back home, preferably something with a strong Vegas association.
* Maybe it was a midweek thing but turnout was sparse for KA last night. The 
show retains almost all of Robert LePage‘s creative brilliance and makes you wonder why Cirque du Soleil doesn’t embrace narrative-driven productions more, because KA is storytelling on a grand scale. Cirque still hasn’t devised a live-action replacement for the aerial battle scene which resulted in a 2013 fatality. What they’ve got now is a CGI substitute that looks like an old video game and whose projections are so runny you can’t tell what’s going on. Cirque might as well cut the number and proceed to the climax; it’s not like KA suffers from a dearth of stunt work.
* Getting back to euphemisms, or their equivalent, the State of Massachusetts counts an electronic table game as one gaming position. That’s good news for Penn National Gaming. Its Plainridge racino will be able to up its count of actual positions from 1,250 to 1,375 or 1,475, according to Deutsche Bank analyst Carlo Santarelli.
* Excruciating back pain kept me from walking the Global Gaming Expo show with anything remotely approaching thoroughness. However, my overall impression was that this was the most robust G2E has been in years. If G2E is a barometer of the casino industry’s health, better times are ahead.
