Class acts for ‘That’s Italian!’ on NYE

Fun spots for NYE: Won’t be long before Las Vegas rings in the New Year and there’s a few good deals, several of them being at the Cannery hotel-casinos -- one in North Las Vegas, the other on Boulder Highway. At the North Las Vegas site, the band Sha Na Na will entertain guests with classic rock ‘n’ roll music and lead the crowd in counting down the final seconds of 2008. Performances take place Dec. 31 at 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. I love their music and they’re a fun band, so should be a great time.

Tickets are being offered in a special dinner and a show package. Each package deal includes dinner at one of the Cannery’s restaurants, a ticket to the concert and complimentary champagne cocktail at the show. The package prices are as follows: $109 per person for Gold Circle seating and dinner at Waverly’s Steakhouse; $79.99 per person for prime seating and dinner at Vino’s Italian Restaurant; and $59.99 per person for reserved seating and dinner at the Gourmet Buffet. These prices don’t include applicable taxes, gratuities and fees. Tickets are not available outside the package deal. Waverly’s Steakhouse and Vino’s Italian Restaurant dinners are four-course pre-fixed menus, including pre-selected wine or champagne.

Over at Eastside Cannery on Boulder Highway, get ready for "That’s Italian," the hotel’s offering for New Year’s Eve. The show will feature great entertainers like accordionist extraordinaire Dick Contino; vocalist/pianist Frankie Randall; comedian Pete Barbutti; legendary pianist and conductor Vincent Falcone; and the incomparable Jerry Vale. Now that’s a lineup of talent you won’t see very often. You may laugh, but when I was a kid, like any good Italian boy, I wanted to play the accordion like Contino. My cousin, who was a professional musician, lent me one of his old accordions and gave me some lessons. I actually learned to play songs like "Lady of Spain" and several polkas before I found that girls were more fun.

But I digress. All of the NYE fun stuff takes place Dec. 31, beginning at 7 p.m. and tickets start at an incredibly low $24.95 plus tax and fees. You can get them at the hotel’s ticket sales counter located at the front desk or by calling (702) 856-5300.

Not only for turkey: This is kind of cool. Over at the Palazzo, approximately 225,000 cranberries, donated by Ocean Spray, were poured into the resort’s Atrium pond. The cranberries are a commonly used floral display piece and really adds a nice holiday touch to Palazzo’s interior gardens. If you haven’t seen the display, drop by the Atrium and see the large, white aspen trees covered in a variety of peppermints, snow and candy ornaments. To add to the display the waterfall wall transforms into a holiday theme with white pine, red and silver ornaments, and pinecones. It will all be on display thru Jan. 1.

Put on your dancing’ shoes: Hey, with the holiday season now here and lots of parties going on over the next month or two, now may be the time to learn some fancy footwork. The Derfelt Senior Center offers ballroom dance lessons on Fridays from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m., and lessons for beginners from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Residents 50 years and older interested in learning how to foxtrot, waltz, rumba and dance to several other popular rhythms are invited to meet with instructor JoJo Pupich to learn two different dances each month. The cost is only $5 per person. Advance registration is not required. The center is located at 3343 W. Washington Ave., inside Lorenzi Park. For more information, call (702) 229-6601.

Family fun: Speaking of having a good time, why don’t you bring the family to enjoy the "Razzle Bam Boom Family Christmas Show" on Saturday, Dec. 20, at the Charleston Heights Arts Center. This musical extravaganza for all ages stars the award-winning duo of Mark Beckwith and Obediah Thomas, who will sing all of your favorite holiday songs. Their shows are so popular, they sold out the last three times the pair performed at the Center. Tickets are priced at $3 so you won‘t find a better bargain. Showtime is 2 p.m. The Center is located at 800 S. Brush St. For tickets and information, call (702) 229-6383.

Great Hotel Deals: My friend Anthony Curtis, the man who owns LasVegasAdvisor.com, tells me because of the bad economy, our hotels are drastically discounting room rates this holiday season, with prices as much as 30 percent lower than even last year's record-low rates and heaps of incentives for the savvy traveler. In an extensive survey of 79 casino-hotels, LasVegasAdvisor.com found that more than two-thirds (54) had rates available of $50 or less in December, and 43 had rates below $40. The lowest rate found was just $14 at downtown's newly refurbished El Cortez.

And it's not just the lower-tier hotels running deals. Many of Las Vegas' higher-end resorts also are slashing. The survey found prices of less than $80 at Bally's, Flamingo, Harrah's, Rio, Luxor, Monte Carlo, Golden Nugget, New York-New York, Las Vegas Hilton, Hard Rock, MGM Grand, Paris, Treasure Island, The Mirage, Green Valley Ranch, Red Rock Resort, Planet Hollywood and even the city's newest resort, Aliante Station ($49).

Good luck and I'll see you on the Strip. And don't forget to check out eNeon each Thursday by subscribing (free of charge) to the Review-Journal's weekly newsletter. If you have a question or a Las Vegas experience you would like to share with my readers, please e-mail me at lennylv@netzero.net. Please include your full name and the city or town where you live.