Salad Is Slaughter

I managed to sleep in Saturday morning; the Wanda Sykes show didn’t get out until midnight so I didn’t get to sleep until 1:00 AM or so.  I was leaving on Sunday so I needed to make my way down to the New York New York business center and print out my boarding pass.  My goal was to get on line at 12:10 so I could get on the “A” list.

I arrived early and wandered around a bit and watched people gamble.  I had some time to kill so I sat down at one of the single deck blackjack tables.  I normally don’t like these because they only pay 6-5 on a blackjack instead of the proper 3-2 payoff but I needed something to do until Southwest would let me print my boarding pass.

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I had some errands to run on Friday. I wanted to go to a show that evening (it came down to a choice between Margaret Cho and Wanda Sykes) and I needed a pair of tickets for Spamalot on Saturday. I picked Wanda Sykes for Friday’s entertainment and decided to walk to the two casinos to buy tickets. I had the time.

My first stop was at Planet Aladdinwood Hollywood. I had two purposes here: one was to buy a ticket for the Wanda Sykes show and the other was to have lunch at Pink’s hotdogs. They’ve really done a nice makeover of Planet Aladdinwood Hollywood. The only evidence of a Mideastern theme are a couple of storefronts in the Miracle Mile mall.

I bought my ticket to see Wanda Sykes and started looking for Pink’s. It’s supposed to be in the Planet Aladdinwood Hollywood casino so I took the opportunity to use their touch screen directory. Just like the last time I was in Vegas, the directory said “coming soon.” How long does it take to put a hotdog stand in?

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Continued from here.

We had eaten those crappy Nathan’s Famous hotdogs as a late lunch and weren’t famished, but we knew we needed to eat something before the LOVE by Cirque du Soleil show or we would be drinking on an empty stomach. We dropped by Il Fornaio in New York New York again, this time for a couple of appetizers. I remember that they were good, but I don’t recall what exactly we had. Oh well.

We took a cab from our hotel down to the Mirage. We didn’t want to deal with either I-15 or Las Vegas Blvd during rush hour. When you walk in to the theater lobby you find usherettes dressed in their ‘60s-style dresses and English bobbie hats. You feel like you’ve fallen in to an Austin Powers movie. The seating for the show surrounds the stage - it is completely encircled by the audience. The performers can arrive on stage via several entrances between seats, up from the floor, and from the roof.

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Continued from part 1.

We landed in Vegas about an hour after our scheduled time. One of the trams from the concourse to the main terminal was under repair - it had a warning sign reading DOA which probably doesn’t stand for “Dead On Arrival” – so we had to wait for the remaining train to arrive. It did after a brief delay and we stepped on board.

Just before we pulled out of the station we were treated to a little show. The local police were escorting a chained hooligan near the tram. The lad attempted a donkey kick on one of the constables, missed, and was treated to a close up view of the glass by said officer. The guy’s face hit the glass rapidly and with great force, demonstrating the practical results of the equations F = ma and KE=1/2mv². You’ve got to wonder what this genius thought he was going to accomplish with his kick besides pissing off the cops.

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We went to see the live version of Disney’s The Lion King last night. I should say up front that I don’t care much for the cartoon movie of the same thing. And not because The Lion King is a rip off of Shakespeare’s Hamlet except with singing and dancing animals. Everyone rips off Shakespeare, not just Disney. Something about that movie just doesn’t work for me and at most I tolerate it. Besides, I think South Park’s parody Cycle of Poo is a much better song than Circle of Life.

Anyway, we went downtown to see the live performance. Overall, it was pretty good but not great. And the problem wasn’t the story line, it was the singers. Very few of them could be considered top tier stars. There were exceptions, of course. Young Simba sounded like a young Michael Jackson and was very good. Both young and old Nala show a lot of potential as well. Mufasa had a decent voice, but when he appeared in the reflection I had to mutter, “Luke, I am your father.”  So, there were bright spots.

But grown Simba? Whenever he would sing I kept thinking, “Is that all you’ve got? Why are you the star?” I was not impressed with him at all. Simba and most of the rest of the cast would have gotten through the first round of American Idol, but would never have made the finals. Their voices just lack the power and emotion I’ve seen in other musicals.

Scar was pretty good, but should have been more evil. And Simba’s mother could have been dropped from the show and no one would have noticed. Also, I find the characters Timon, Pumbaa, and Ed very grating. I don’t know why, I just do.

Of the few live musicals I’ve seen, The Lion King doesn’t compare well.

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