Anthony Crivello, a 1993 Tony Award winner for "Kiss of the Spider Woman," is one of the double-cast leads in The Venetian-based "Phantom -- The Las Vegas Spectacular," which offers top-notch performances down to the smallest roles.

Some years, filling up the side of a pyramid with your show's logo would be enough.

But in 2006, no amount of unique advertising could save "Hairspray," the Broadway musical whose quick and untimely death is explained by several complicated factors, the two easiest to comprehend being these: the Beatles and "The Phantom of the Opera."

Those shows hinted at what it takes -- either the world's biggest band or its biggest-grossing musical -- for a Las Vegas show to compete with the nightclub lines that stretch longer every night.

For pure return on investment, however, the year's biggest hit has to be one you won't find on this list, which doesn't add points for box office success (or subtract them for rip-off ticket prices). "Menopause The Musical" packs them in seven days per week in the Las Vegas Hilton's Shimmer Cabaret. Innovation breeds imitation on the Strip, so this raises hopes for more smaller venues down the road.

Likewise, headlining residencies by Toni Braxton and -- from out of nowhere -- Prince suggest more big names on showroom marquees of future hotel expansions. In 2006, however, the familiar dominated, even when the familiar was new to town. Here are my Top 10 shows:

1 "PHANTOM -- THE LAS VEGAS SPECTACULAR": Chances are, you already know whether you like this musical. If it's not your favorite, you might still enjoy this relaunch, which loses a lot of the flat humor and repetitious music in a fastidiously pruned 95-minute edition. That brings full focus to the Gothic atmosphere of the custom theater at The Venetian, the top-notch performances and the hands-on direction by Hal Prince.

2 "LOVE": The mighty Marvel Team-up of the Beatles and Cirque du Soleil at The Mirage is doing the turn-away business everyone expected, and might have impressed jaded locals even more had it been the Strip's third Cirque instead of its fifth. Nonetheless, a few moments -- such as the climactic "A Day in the Life" -- are the finest Cirque has to offer.

3 PRINCE: His Royal Badness has never played by the rules. And that's a good thing when it comes to shaking up Las Vegas with three-hour funkathons that meet the nightclubs on their late-night ground and give club kids a taste of the old school.

4 LIZA MINNELLI: The comeback of the year found the 60-year-old diva mostly back at full tilt as drama queen and gay icon, playing the part with more strength and less struggle than before her sad fade from the Strip in 1998.

5 CLINT HOLMES: Going out on a high note Sept. 30, the classy showman who bridged the old and new Las Vegas closed out his Harrah's run with the best segments of the past five years.

6"KA": Insert "O" or "Mystere" here if you wish, and you can't go wrong with either of Cirque's more familiar and even-keel shows. But "Ka" deserves a chance to change your mind. The bad rap -- that it's boring or unfathomable -- has clouded its astonishing, one-of-a-kind achievements.

7"BLUE MAN GROUP LIVE AT THE VENETIAN": The bald blue guys no longer surprise us, but they still provoke both the mind and the senses in a hi-tech custom theater.

8 THE SECOND CITY: This past summer's cast wrote a new edition of a sketch-comedy revue that says a lot about American society and puts this season's "Saturday Night Live" to shame. Well, so does "Menopause The Musical," but you get the idea.

9 STEVE LAWRENCE AND EYDIE GORME: Who better to offer the final serenade at the Stardust than this vintage Vegas couple? The spangly duo still sounded great as they brought down the curtain on the classic showroom, best remembered for "Lido de Paris," on the final weekend in October.

10 "HAIRSPRAY": Sure, the manic musical was trimmed to almost literally a footrace by a 90-minute running time. But the reunion of original Broadway stars Harvey Fierstein and Dick Latessa deserved to be seen by more people.