{"id":217,"date":"2009-09-17T17:36:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-17T21:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blogs\/dmckee\/index.cfm\/2009\/9\/17\/Phantom-fans-hit-Vegas"},"modified":"2020-04-30T05:48:45","modified_gmt":"2020-04-30T13:48:45","slug":"phantom-fans-hit-vegas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/phantom-fans-hit-vegas\/","title":{"rendered":"'Phantom' fans hit Vegas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heaven knows, there are conventions for soap operas, sitcoms and every iteration of science fiction (I’ve been to more than a few of the latter). But a fan convention for a Broadway<\/strong> show? That’s unheard of.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, fans of Phantom of the Opera<\/em><\/a> hit town for the first-ever Phantom<\/em> con, at the Venetian<\/strong>, where they’ll score some face time with director Harold Prince<\/strong> and the Venetian’s resident Phantom<\/em>, Anthony Crivello<\/strong>. (You have to give Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> props: If Glenn Schaeffer<\/strong> had been running the Venetian, he’d have turned down Phantom<\/em> on the grounds it was free publicity for Paris-Las Vegas<\/strong>. But Adelson knew a good thing when he saw it.) The Venetian has even rolled out a package of goodies to keep Phantom<\/em> fans on-property. Smooth move there, Rob Goldstein<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Having recently passed its third anniversary<\/a>, the Vegas-ized Phantom<\/em> looks well on its way to blowing past Mamma Mia!<\/em>‘s six-year milestone. We could easily be celebrating its 10th anniversary come 2016. Yours truly gets name-checked in Steve Friess<\/strong>‘ interview with Prince. My only quibble with the story — and it’s a very minor one — is that it doesn’t mention Prince’s original stagings of Stephen Sondheim<\/strong>‘s Company<\/em> and Follies<\/em>, two of the high-water marks in Broadway history. And if you think Phantom<\/em> is a “downer,” take Follies<\/em> out for a spin sometime:<\/p>\n

As for fan conventions, except for the annual Star Trek<\/em> hootenanny<\/a> at the Las Vegas Hilton<\/strong>, Vegas doesn’t do such a great job of attracting them. We’ve got to work on that. And when Stargate SG-1<\/em>\/Stargate Atlantis<\/em>\/Sanctuary<\/em> star Amanda Tapping<\/strong> graces a Vegas stage, we can say, “Job well done.”<\/p>\n

Deathtrap<\/strong><\/em>. Sometimes there are shows that warrant venturing away from the comfort zone of the Strip. Las Vegas Little Theatre<\/strong>‘s production of Ira Levin<\/strong>‘s Broadway hit is not one of them<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heaven knows, there are conventions for soap operas, sitcoms and every iteration of science fiction (I’ve been to more than a few of the latter). But a fan convention for a Broadway show? That’s unheard of. Yesterday, fans of Phantom … 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":[3,28,4,7,53,12,9,19,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217"}],"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=217"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26937,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions\/26937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}