Curtains Drop on Themed Hotel-Casinos

Nefertiti's Lounge is gone, the Nile will probably never run through Las Vegas again and it could very well take an archaeology degree to find a hieroglyphic in the Luxor casino these days.

The street lamps of New York-New York have been snuffed out. Treasure Island's skull and crossbones belongs to a sign museum now but may as well have been sent to a watery grave. Years ago, the yellow brick road met its dead end at MGM Grand.

Are you sensing a theme yet? Rather, a de-theme?

It's the newest method of remodeling in Las Vegas: taking the theme out of themed hotels.

In the town where implosions became a tourist attraction in the 1990s, buildings have stopped going "boom." Instead, casino operators are blowing off their hotel's theme in favor of the latest Strip trend, vacation luxury.

"Things have changed and Las Vegas has a pretty good case of copy cat-itis," says Felix Rappaport, president of Luxor. A $300 million redesign that took most of the Egyptian theme out of the pyramid is nearly complete. "When people did themed casinos and were successful, others did it, too."

And now the bandwagon is rolling full speed down the Strip again, with resorts jumping on it in favor of a modern design this time. Outside, the buildings look much like they did when built; inside, however, it's a different story. Gone are the little touches that made them seem like adult Disneyland attractions. They're still spectacular but the spectacle's gone.

The move makes sense from a business perspective, says David Schwartz, director of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Gaming Research Center. But the process of erasing themes has left some people scratching their heads. After all, how do you take the Egypt out of a pyramid?

Or the attitude out of New York? And if they're going to do that, what does this mean for Excalibur? Will resort operators go so far as to remove the medieval from the castle?

"I think it's moving away from the themes, big time," says Anthony Marnell, M Resort's chief operating officer and the son of Tony Marnell, the man who designed The Mirage, Treasure Island and Bellagio among others. "In the remodels of these 20-year-old products, you don't see them enhancing the geographical elements. You see them changing the architectural elements and going to the modern, clean side."

But a lot of people aren't happy about it, says Mark Adams, a Las Vegas-phile who runs vegastodayandtomorrow.com, a Web site that tracks casino construction and remodeling projects. He hears from tourists who don't like the new trend.

In the near future, visiting a themed casino will be like ordering a kitsch sandwich but without the cheese, Adams says. And, whether it's in a big bowl of macaroni or a Strip casino, middle America loves its cheese.

"The families love the themes," Adams says. "They want to come and play in adult Disneyland, bring their kids with them. Everything is chichi and cool now, but how many modern chichi hotels can the city support?"

The themes make them unique, Adams says, and in the absence of those, people won't see much of a difference among the properties.

"They will all look the same, feel the same. They won't feel like anywhere special," he says. "They'll be nice hotels with nice carpet. But that's it."

Detheming is bound to have its detractors, casino experts say. Implosions weren't loved by everyone; it's not too hard to find some people who lament the loss of the Dunes to dynamite. But if kitsch has been a constant theme of Las Vegas, it's largely because of the Strip's ongoing renewal of itself.

Themed resorts served as a way of getting people's attention, says Las Vegas historian Michael Green. And it worked.

"I think the issue now is whether the theme has run its course," Green says. "And whether it's worth updating the theme as it exists or trying something different."

Whether the changes will be better doesn't matter, says art critic and UNLV English professor Dave Hickey.

"It doesn't need to be better, it just needs to be different," Hickey says.

Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@ reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4564.