{"id":7405,"date":"2011-08-30T16:02:12","date_gmt":"2011-08-31T00:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=7405"},"modified":"2011-09-02T10:05:20","modified_gmt":"2011-09-02T18:05:20","slug":"you-can-take-the-executive-out-of-the-casino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/you-can-take-the-executive-out-of-the-casino\/","title":{"rendered":"You can take the executive out of the casino …"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"… but you can’t take the casino out of the executive. Case in point, Smith Center for the Performing Arts<\/strong> Chairman Donald Snyder<\/strong><\/a>, former prexy of Boyd Gaming<\/strong>. One of the odder components of the $425 million multipurpose venue<\/a>, known to some of as “The Edifice Complex,” was its cabaret theater. It’s an eccentric doodad on a building mostly dedicated to the performance of Broadway musicals<\/strong>, with the occasional ballet and symphonic concert thrown into the mix. Well, the Smith Center<\/strong> brain trust put on its thinking cap and came up with a resident attraction for the cabaret room and it’s — believe it or not — Clint Holmes<\/strong>. Now I’ve got nothing against ol’ Clint, who was headlining at Harrah’s Las Vegas<\/strong> during my early years in Sin City. (And, no, there is no truth to the rumor that I was present at the 1906 groundbreaking of the Golden Gate<\/strong> downtown.) His wife, Kelly Clinton Holmes<\/strong>, is part of the cast of the Las Vegas Hilton<\/strong>‘s criminally under-publicized Nunsense<\/em><\/a>. However …<\/p>\n

After all the Smith Center hype<\/strong>, it really puts the place in perspective to see it plundering entertainers from Mr. Snyder’s former properties, Suncoast<\/strong> and Sam’s Town<\/strong>. That’s a helluva lotta clams to spend simply to go into competition with who the casinos are offering — locals casinos, at that. Who’s next, Society of Seven<\/strong>? Earl Turner<\/strong>? Maybe the Scintas<\/strong>? Just think: Snyder & Co. could sell “naming rights” and call it … ta da!<\/em> … The Scintas Center<\/strong>. Chalk this up as one epic fail in the imagination department. The Edifice Complex has just handed a boxful of ammo to those who say tax dollars have no role underwriting concert halls. D’oh<\/em>!<\/p>\n

Last call:<\/strong>
\n<\/embed><\/object>
\nTonight is the final performance of Tommy<\/em> at Green Valley Ranch<\/strong>, part of a four-walling arrangement between RagTag Entertainment<\/strong> and Station Casinos<\/strong>. While RagTag’s Andrew Wright<\/strong> and director Troy Heard<\/strong> have elected to present a pretty bare-bones, disjointed Tommy<\/em> staging (strongest when sketching the piece’s Christ-ian allegory), I’m assured that it’s improved greatly since opening night. and Sandra Huntsman<\/strong>‘s vocally luminous portrayal of the protagonist’s mother is far and away the best thing in the show. Next up: Stephen Sondheim<\/strong>‘s Sweeney Todd<\/em>, which will require RagTag to put all its cards on the table, and should test the theatrical capabilities of Ovation<\/strong> to the limit and probably beyond.<\/p>\n

Question of the Day<\/strong>: “Have they got a casino at this joint<\/a>?” Doesn’t look that way, does it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… but you can’t take the casino out of the executive. Case in point, Smith Center for the Performing Arts Chairman Donald Snyder, former prexy of Boyd Gaming. One of the odder components of the $425 million multipurpose venue, known … 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":[60,3,66,28,51,4,7,53,57,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7405"}],"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=7405"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7419,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7405\/revisions\/7419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}