2012 in Shows: ‘Surf’ crashes, but safety mostly rules

So we waited all year for Shania, and the horse she rode in on. But she kind of reminded us of Ann-Margret.

There was a new Cirque du Soleil, which looked a lot like the older ones.

A newish Blue Man Group, too. Familiar Vegas comfort food, like those Twinkies they consume onstage. (You can't have a year-end story that doesn't mention Twinkies, can you?)

It was all as predictable as "Dancing With the Stars: Live in Las Vegas," except for maybe that week Mike Tyson spent at the MGM Grand regaling us with stories of his wild life.

Nothing that arrived on the Las Vegas show scene in 2012 was a huge mistake or misfire, except for that estimated
$10 million blown by the naive first-time producers of "Surf the Musical." That ode to the Beach Boys rehearsed for longer than it actually ran last summer at Planet Hollywood Resort.

But nothing beyond Shania's promotional horseback ride up the Strip really put us in the national news, either. Old-fashioned ticketed shows seem to be losing focus in Las Vegas as fast as they're losing billboards to nightclubs promoting star DJs and celebrity cameos.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS

■ Shania Twain's grand entry, floating down from the rafters of the Colosseum at Caesars Palace on a custom chopper. We waited a year and a half for this country-pop superstar's comeback, and it damn sure wasn't going to be Garth Brooks in a hoodie on a bare stage.

■ Or even Tony Bennett on the same Colosseum over Labor Day weekend. The 86-year-old national treasure needed only a small combo and little soft shoe to charm us.

■ Assembly-line robots pounding out a drum solo as the highlight of the new Blue Man Group show that opened at the Monte Carlo in October. Wall-E was soon on the phone for a long, serious talk with his manager.

■ Tim McGraw and Faith Hill grasping hands, looking into each other's eyes as they sang a stark "I Need You." Too bad it was the last song, and the rest of the show wasn't as cool.

■ Mike Tyson saying, "Some of my cocaine buddies are in this audience. I still love you!" when he wasn't tearing into Robin Givens or Don King in "The Undisputed Truth," the everything-but-dull stage biography he offered at the MGM Grand in April (and took to Broadway in July).

■ Not necessarily a memory I hang onto willingly, yet still unforgettable: Carson Kressley and Joey Fatone twisted into simulated sexual positions in their "Cirque du so Gay" spoof at "Dancing With the Stars: Live in Las Vegas." The show was just the kind of sure-thing TV branding the Tropicana - and the Strip as a whole - needed. But some parents might have assumed it would be safe for the kids.

THINK SMALL

A slow-but-steady Las Vegas tourism recovery wasn't enough reason to go crazy and start blowing money on "King Kong" musicals. (Leave that to Australia.) Even Cirque du Soleil, the one company with deep enough pockets, played it safe and imported "Zarkana," which already had been making money for two summers in New York.

The "Surf the Musical" debacle sensibly reminds us why we're more likely to see riskier or adventurous ideas floated on low budgets and in small venues. It was a good year on that front.

"American Idol" Taylor Hicks and his blues-rockin' band squeezed into the Bally's lounge, and they'll be back in the new year. You don't get wet there unless someone knocks over a drink. But at "Evil Dead: The Musical" you pay extra to sit in the V Theater's "splatter zone" and get spurted with stage blood during the campy heir to "Rocky Horror."

Brad Garrett blew some of his "Everybody Loves Raymond" residuals on an attractive comedy club at the MGM Grand. But Eddie Griffin needed only a dumpy little room at the Rio to max out for his weekly stand-up shows.

And if they can get some business issues ironed out over there, The Phat Pack - three big-singing "Phantom" alumni - will remain the best thing that ever happened to the Plaza's vintage showroom.

AU REVOIR

Speaking of "Phantom," the new stuff won't make us forget some of the shows we lost.

Chief among them was "Phantom - The Las Vegas Spectacular," which closed Labor Day weekend because it was never going to recoup. And it was never going to recoup partly because it was a first-rate reworking of the Broadway musical that spared no
$35 million expense.

Crazy Horse Paris was a stylish topless show faithful to its chic Parisian origins. Producers hope to bring it back, but for now we settle for some of the striking dancers moving over to the worthwhile "Shades of Temptation" at New York-New York.

And poor Elvis went down with Cirque's first certified Las Vegas failure, "Viva Elvis" in August. But you'll see him again in 2013, both in a relaunched "Legends in Concert" at the Flamingo, and in "Million Dollar Quartet" at Harrah's Las Vegas.

He's still the king of this town, baby, no matter what the year.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at
mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.