The making of a show

Now waiting at the airport (free wifi - so impressive) in Las Vegas, to head up to Bellingham Washington (where the forecast is cold and rain for the next week - not so impressive!).

The gambling desire wore off yesterday  - I think we spent a whole $1.50 - and that was only because we stopped off at Fremont Street Experience on the way to the Smith Centre.  It is billed as a 'tourist experience.'  We went during the day, apparently at night it has free concerts, but frankly it was just pretty boring.  There was a flying fox going through the middle of the 'barrel vault' (which was a big canopy across the street and the seedy casinos.)  We went to a 'classic pokie machine' exhibit, which sounded interesting, but it was just more machines to take your money.  Afte $1.50, we gave up and got back on the bus to the Smith Centre.  It did have cheap drinks and food - $2 Coronas and Heinekins, but we weren't particularly interested at 12.30 in the afternoon.

Freemont Street with the Barrel Vault

We were heading to 'American Idiot' at The Smith Centre.  This is where Broadway shows are shown in Las Vegas.  'American Idiot'  was directed by the Tony Award winner Michael Mayer, taking the songs on the award winning Green Day album, American Idiot and making it into a 21st Century Musical.  It played on Broadway for a year, nominated for 3 Tony's including best musical and won 2.  It has been touring since December 2011.

The night before, we had seen Love (the Beatles musical by Cirque du Soleil), which was just as good as we remembered it the first time in 2007.  Superb music, telling the story of the culture and times during the lives of the Beatles, through their music, fantastic acrobatics, trampolining, roller skating in a purpose made theater. It highlighted how dark the Beatles music got in the later days, but fortunately lifted you up at the end so that you could go out and face the world.

Then last night, we went to the brand new (only been running for 3 weeks) show called 'One' based on Michael Jacksons' music.  Before we went, I discovered that the shows generally run in 'preview' format for 2 - 3 weeks so that changes can be made based on audience reaction.  We however, paid a full  $300 for our tickets, which were in the second row and terrible seats.

Seeing the three performances in the order that we did (which was accidental), showed the difference between a musical and a cirque du soleil show, but also the difference in polish between a new show and one that has been running for years.

The Smith Center - Reynolds Hall

Love was smooth, professional and with 2 - 3 performances a day, not totally full.  American Idiot was a brilliant production with the director tying together the songs from the album and about 6 other Green Day songs to tell the dark and sad stories of three teenage/young men from a small town in America.  They are heading off to 'The City'.   As they are about to leave, Will discovers he is about to become a father and stays.  He is stuck in suburbia, drinking himself to a stupor, sitting on the couch, resenting everything.  The childs mother leaves him, takes the child and has another relationship which works out.

Johnny and Tunny go to the City where Tunny is depressed and eventually joins the military.  He goes off to war, loses a leg and meets a nurse.  Johnny meets St Jimmy and spirals into a life of drugs and sex with whatsername.  He falls in love with whatsername, but can't tell her.

In the end all three come home to the small town, having achieved little.  The set, costumes, music, live band, singing and total performances were fantastics. It is big music and some of the voices struggled at that start of some of the songs, but then caught up.  For a fan of Green Day music, it was the highlight of my stay in Vegas.

American Idiot stage after the performance - no photos during the performance  - the stage was the entire set, fascinating use of the set.

'One' on the other hand, was a huge disappointment to me.  It definitely still had it's training wheels on.   From the start, where the queues were moving so slowly (we just wanted a bottle of water), to having to find the seats by myself, to the terrible seats.   The second row meant that we missed quite a bit of the action that was happening overhead and on the side walls.  There were several bits that were superfluous and distracting (like the gold woman supposedly playing a guitar - but we were close enough to see she wasn't).  It was really just an expose of the music, and showed how brilliant Michael Jackson was as a performer.

While there were talented dancers, there was no one of his calibre.  Lots of technical mistakes, timing mistakes in the dancing, and the whole thing was quite disjointed.

Highlights for me were 'Thriller' and the zombies, and the biggest highlight was the hologram of MJ for a whole song - 'The Man in the Mirror'.  It got a standing ovation, but I think that is because many of the people there were just MJ fans through and through.

Set before One started

The guy in the beanie was the lead character, I'm still not sure what the point of him was...

Being so close to the front it was interesting to see the costumes up close.  The majority were full body suits - but made to look like flesh in between the skimpy clothing - obviously easier to get in and out of.

It has promise, but very disappointing for $300US worth of tickets.

The three shows highlighted how much work goes in to getting the performance just right.  I think a bit more 'previewing' should be done on One though...

Onto the next stage of our trip - catching up with Dave and Kay in Bellingham/Anacortes in Washington State.