{"id":14154,"date":"2014-07-23T12:29:25","date_gmt":"2014-07-23T20:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=14154"},"modified":"2014-07-24T13:18:14","modified_gmt":"2014-07-24T21:18:14","slug":"megaflop-at-the-trop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/megaflop-at-the-trop\/","title":{"rendered":"Megaflop at the Trop"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Whatever the hold Mamma Mia!<\/em> exerted over Las Vegas<\/strong> audiences, it’s gone — and so will be the show, closing Aug. 3 after an abortive, three-month run. It doesn’t figure: A previous incarnation at Mandalay Bay<\/strong> (which Mandalay Resort Group<\/strong> and later MGM Resorts International<\/strong> were able to market to multiple properties) lasted for six-plus years. The version which (re)opened at the Tropicana Las Vegas<\/strong> was lacking some of the bells and whistles — and some of the dialogue — of the Mandalay Bay version, making it look a bit tatty and cheap.<\/p>\n

True, Mamma Mia!<\/em> must be a bit of hard sell when anybody can go down to Redbox<\/strong> and rent the DVD. But that’s not the whole story. It’s still playing both on London<\/strong>‘s West End and on Broadway<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/strong>and 11 other resident or tour companies dot the globe<\/a>, including one that played Vegas’ Smith Center for the Performing Arts<\/strong> last January. So the demand is there. Just not on the Strip, where Mamma Mia!<\/em>‘s moment seems to have passed, especially when 150 people show up at a 1,100-seat showroom for one of the biggest Broadway musicals ever.<\/p>\n

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Some fingers of blame are being \u00a0pointed at producer Judy Craymer<\/strong>, who — confronted with her first-ever money-losing troupe<\/a> — was quick to pull the trigger, Mike Weatherford<\/strong> reports. Craymer was also said to be resistant to a “tab” version of the show, cut down to accommodate two shows a night and lower ticket prices.<\/p>\n

Finally … it’s the Trop. It continues to struggle to find something, anything that will thrive in the Tiffany Theater<\/strong>. (Are ancient Indians buried beneath it?) It has no other casinos to which it can market the show (not even a Hilton Doubletree<\/strong> affiliation helped), leaving it hoping for lightning to strike. The Trop is also guilty of hanging the cast out to dry. When some of them might have jumped ship to other shows, the Trop issued a statement that\u00a0\u201cour recent meetings have been very positive as our ticket sales continue to growing [sic<\/em>] double digit percentages each week.\u201d Of course, when you’re playing to 14% of capacity, you’ve nowhere to go but up. Or, in this case, out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whatever the hold Mamma Mia! exerted over Las Vegas audiences, it’s gone — and so will be the show, closing Aug. 3 after an abortive, three-month run. It doesn’t figure: A previous incarnation at Mandalay Bay (which Mandalay Resort Group … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,48,51,4,11,10,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14154"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14154"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14177,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14154\/revisions\/14177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}