Against All Odds, a Vegas Theater Scene With a ‘Sense of the Wild West’
The New York Times
Local artists straddle aesthetic and artistic worlds in the land of mega-spectacles and oversize flash.
If there is anything most entertainers master, it’s how to juggle gigs. In New York City, they may have sidelines in real estate or hospitality. In Las Vegas, their day jobs are, well, also in entertainment.
“That’s the beautiful thing about Vegas — you’re going to find people who do everything,” said Katie Marie Jones, a busy local actress who also works as a magician’s assistant on the Vegas Strip and an on-ice host at the home games of the Golden Knights hockey team. “If you have multiple wants and talents, or if you’re open to learning new things, it’s easy building a career here because there’s so much.”
This town has been world-famous as an entertainment destination for decades, and it keeps evolving. These days the Strip hosts Cirque du Soleil spectacles and comedians, razzmatazz magicians and pop residencies. Visitors can also attend Spiegelworld’s immersive “Discoshow” and an interactive installation by the art-tainment group Meow Wolf at Area15, which is dedicated to immersive projects. Major touring musicals stop off at the Smith Center, and three major-league professional sports teams have moved in relatively recently.
What’s a lot harder to find is theater on a smaller scale, an assembly of midsize institutions that would add up to the equivalent of Off Broadway.
A homegrown professional scene does in fact exist in Las Vegas, except visitors tend not to know it because the Strip sucks up all the attention. It’s scrappy, sure, with its rock ’n’ roll energy but the theater makers here are especially resourceful and don’t fit in boxes. Over a long weekend late last fall, a few things became clear: there’s a palpable hunger to make theater against the odds, the locals who can keep it viable are ready for it and the artists enjoy the freedom of straddling aesthetic and artistic worlds.
What started as “the dance app” spawned countless memes, launched lucrative careers and shaped entire industries. Here’s how it got here.
The director developed such a distinct style that “Lynchian” became a go-to term for any sort of surrealism onscreen. These scenes from his work get to the heart of what that term embodied.
With support from Dan Campbell, the Lions’ wildly popular head coach, Detroit Army’s apparel has emerged as an unlikely alternative to the team’s licensed gear.
Larry Pennington, a fashionable former educator, was looking to share some advice on home décor and thrifting. He became an unlikely social media darling.
The director himself came off as almost performatively normal. Masterpieces like “Eraserhead” and “Mulholland Drive” said otherwise.
Eleven years ago, Spike Jonze’s tech drama imagined a budding romance between a man and his virtual assistant. If anything, the film was holding back.
In “The Harder I Fight the More I Love You,” the singer and songwriter outlines the personal and professional challenges that have shaped her career.
His new clothing collection has words and letters in a foreign language, the message of which is unclear. But people are buying it.
After roles in “Memento” and “L.A. Confidential” made him famous, Pearce turned his back on Hollywood. At age 57, he’s returned in “The Brutalist.”
Are the most intense scenes in “Nosferatu,” “Anora” and “Babygirl” supposed to be funny? If not, why are people cracking up?
Our fashion critic offers a young reader debating whether modesty is compatible with current trends advice on navigating personal style preferences.
A visual style originally meant to make TV series appear epic and distinctive has become awfully familiar
First came the Hadids. Then Bradley Cooper. Now, with luxury inns going up, the area around New Hope, Pa., has become a rival to the Hamptons.
Whether it’s Elphaba in “Wicked” or Celie in “The Color Purple,” the star doesn’t choose parts “frivolously”; she wants roles that stay with viewers.
In the three years since her breakout role in the fantastical series, she ran off to join the circus — twice. Season 2 may raise her profile even more. What’s next?
President-elect Donald J. Trump becomes part of the club. Melania Trump joins the first ladies.
Daniel Harding scaled the heights of classical music. Then he set out to conquer the skies.
Archivists from the Kinsey Institute are helping the family of the sex therapist Ruth Westheimer with a common quandary: How much of someone’s stuff do you keep?