Las Vegas Spotlight: February 2007

As befitting their reputations as institutions of higher learning, UNLV and the College Conservatory of Southern Nevada are educating audiences in the classics this month. UNLV’s Nevada Conservatory Theatre offers up Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie (February 9-18) in the Judy Bayley Theatre, with a surprising star: Sandy Duncan will play Amanda, the controlling matriarch of the Wingfield family. Meanwhile, CCSN presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare’s comedy of romantic entanglements and misunderstandings, on February 9 and 10.

The much-beloved Broadway musical The Producers has finally settled in to its snazzy new home at the Paris Casino. Brad Oscar and Larry Raben star as scheming producers Max and Leo alongside Leigh Zimmerman as their sexy Swedish secretary Ulla and international star David Hasselhoff in the role of flamboyant director Roger DeBris.

On February 25th, actress/singer Rebecca Spencer, who currently plays Madame Giry in Vegas’ still-running Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular, will perform Rebecca Spencer in Concert at the Clark County Flamingo Library Theater. The concert’s set list includes jazz, pop, opera, and Broadway songs, most of them from Spencer’s critically acclaimed solo albums, Fair Warning and Wide Awake and Dreaming.

Theatre in the Valley presents an evening of one-acts by the wordy and witty Tom Stoppard, and the punchy and pause-ful Harold Pinter. The unifying theme is that the two chosen works, Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter and Stoppard’s The Real Inspector Hound, are both British crime comedies. The former is a menacing and tension-filled dark comedy about two hit men waiting to find out who their next victim will be. The latter is a murder mystery spoof about a couple of theater critics who get caught up in the action of the play they are reviewing. The double feature plays February 9-18.

The latest Las Vegas Little Theatre mainstage production is Milan Stitt’s provocative drama The Runner Stumbles (February 16 -March 4). The play begins with the death of Sister Rita; her superior, Father Rivard, is charged with the murder. In flashback, it is revealed that Father Rivard fell in love with the nun after being transferred to her Michigan parish. As more information about their relationship comes out through character testimony and flashbacks, a surprising climax leads to the revelation of the murderer’s identity. Walter Niejadlik directs this production, which stars Brandon Alan McClenahan and Daci Overby.

Lastly, on the Strip, a new slew of closings have been announced, but you can’t say you aren’t being given fair warning. Forever Plaid, the musical comedy revue about a male singing quartet, has announced it will be packing up and leaving the Gold Coast on April 1. Celine Dion’s A New Day will come to a close on December 15; and Mamma Mia!, the most successful of the ‘Broadway to Vegas’ transfers, will take its “Money, Money, Money” and run in summer 2008.