The verdict: Céline vs. Gladys; End is nigh for Sahara; Plaza 2.0

As Yr. Humble Blogger opines in this week’s Las Vegas CityLife, Céline Dion may be quite something but Gladys Knight is Something Else. If you’re a paying customer, Knight’s Tropicana Las Vegas show is by far the better value: longer, more spontaneous, less expensive and incomparably more intimate. You just can’t replicate that kind of audience rapport in a 4,000-seat auditorium (although Dion’s drawing power is packing the Caesars Palace parking garage on weekends and has enabled to the Colosseum to reopen its top balcony, shrouded for Bette Midler and Cher). Also, Knight could be gone — given the will o’ the wisp nature of Trop headliners — in a matter of weeks, so make haste.

Sahara, R.I.P. In the same issue, you’ll be taken on a valedictory visit to the soon-to-be-closed Sahara. The patient’s not dead yet but Lissa Townsend Rogers finds manager Navegante Group already hammering the coffin lid shut. If, as she reports, owner Sam Nazarian is still planning to replace the Strip dowager with “big, shiny, semi-luxury hotel with eight restaurants and two nightclubs for the hip, upscale party crowd,” then Smilin’ Sammy Naz has learned nothing from his bootless venture into the North Strip.

Ol’ Man River. Spring floods are going to have a rolling effect on Mississippi‘s western string of casinos. The state has ordered the Tunica venues closed, an edict that Caesars Entertainment plans to flout. In view of the economic harm that rising waters mean for operators, their employees and, yes, the state budget, this would seem like a good moment to remind Bible Belt (and Upper Midwest) legislators of the continuing, self-defeating imbecility of requiring that casinos sit upon the water. I guess those moats are supposed to act as “casino condoms,” protecting the remainder of the states from — Eek! — gambling. If Gary Loveman wants to rant about something useful,  he could start with this de facto stigma, especially when you consider how many of his properties it affects — such as the former Grand Casino Tunica (left) now a Harrah’s-branded locale.

New-look Plaza. The pieces are falling into place for Tamares Group‘s $20 million-plus remodel of the Plaza Hotel. Early glimpses are tantalizing, if frustratingly fragmentary. Tony Santo, you’re such a tease!