Though Las Vegas has never courted Broadway as it has on the current level, musicals have a history on the Strip dating back to its golden age. These highlights from a checkered and oft-forgotten past are reminders that theater has always been a risky business.
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1961
"Flower Drum Song"
The successful December opening of Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Flower Drum Song" at the Thunderbird won producer Monte Proser the rights to bring more of Richard Rodgers' stage works to the Strip. This version starring Jack Soo -- who later became part of the "Barney Miller" station house -- also inaugurated the 90-minute shortened, or "tab," edition for Las Vegas audiences.
1968 ""Fiddler on the Roof"
Theodore Bikel first played Tevye in a Caesars Palace staging of "Fiddler on the Roof" that offered a midnight show. The bygone Circus Maximus showroom also hosted Tony Randall in "The Odd Couple" before he played Felix on TV, "Sweet Charity" with Juliet Prowse and "Mame" with Susan Hayward and Loretta Swit. Caesars would offer more musicals in future decades, including "42nd Street" in 1983 and "Smokey Joe's Cafe" in 2000.
1975 "Mind With the Dirty Man"
Porn star Marilyn Chambers was such a smash in "Mind With the Dirty Man," her "legit" stage debut, that she opined, "You hear people say New York is the place to break in, but before too long that may change to Las Vegas."
"Mind" was just one in a long line of dinner theater productions at the Union Plaza produced by Maynard Sloate, providing work for such thespian stalwarts as Bob "Gilligan" Denver and James "Book 'em Danno!" MacArthur.
(Chambers' stage career was more successful than that of Linda Lovelace. Her Aladdin vehicle, "My Daughter's Rated X," closed quickly in 1977.)
1993 "Starlight Express
The Las Vegas Hilton gutted Elvis Presley's famous showroom to install a circular skating track and a $12 million production of "Starlight Express." Andrew Lloyd Webber said his musical on skates was a piece "for people who perhaps don't normally go to the theater." The show held on four years but closed in late 1997 -- a year shy of its original five-year contract -- and was never perceived as a runaway hit.
1999 "Chicago"
The modern mood for Broadway musicals began with "Chicago," which opened at Mandalay Bay in March. The revival with Ben Vereen and Chita Rivera lasted just shy of a year. It was neither an embarrassment nor a home run.
2000 "Notre Dame de Paris
A new century brought a pop-opera adaptation of "Notre Dame de Paris" to a new hotel, Paris Las Vegas. But Victor Hugo's classic suffered from a frenetic pace and insipid English lyrics, not to mention the fact that everyone died at the end. After five months, so did the show.
