www.HeraeaLV.com 702.701.0201 HeraeaLasVegas @HeraeaLV

S at u r d ay, M ay 4 t h P a r t y S ta r t S at 2 : 0 0 P Mall woMen wearing derby hatS will be entered into a drawing to win the winning ticket of the derby.

Special brunch menu includes chicken and waffes and a cornbread Skillet.

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[ upcoming ]

may 4-5 California Hotel and Casino hosts the 16th annual Lei Day Polynesian Festival (TamaevaArii.com) may 8-12 34th annual San Gennaro Feast (SanGennaroFeast.com)

A GrAnd AffAirThe grande dame of Las Vegas epicurean fes-

tivalsUNLVinostretched over four days this

year. The biggest bash at the 39th annual event

was, as always, the Grand Tasting, which took

place at Paris Las Vegas and featured more

than 500 international wine selections, as well

as food prepared by UNLV culinary students

and an extravagant auction, whose grand prize

was a World Whiskey Tour for 10. Influential

Las Vegas restaurateur Elizabeth Blau (right)

was honored with the Dom Prignon Award

of Excellence. Once again, UNLVino raised

scholarship money for the universitys William

F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration.

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LocaLs InvIted to dIve Into PooL seasonAs another Memorial Day approaches, so, too,

does another summer of daylife, the poolside

answer to Las Vegas powerhouse nightclub

scene. This year brings a lot of positive change

for locals, with hotel pools seemingly going the

way of most everything else in town and looking

to offer deals that appeal to the citys captive resi-

dent market. In this case, the deal is free entry.

Whether or not attending a pool party is your

idea of a good timeit can get really lets call

it stupid at some of these booze-n-skinfests

well, thats something youll have to decide for

yourself. My sole purpose here is to give you

the seasons first comprehensive list of potential

targets. The rest is up to you.

The list below identifies pools that grant free

entry with a Nevada ID. Trust me: Everything has

been checked and verified, so its valid as of right

now. Trust me again: Many of these policies will

change, some more than once, so try to call ahead

or have a backup plan in case you get denied.

A resort often has multiple pools, some of

which have outside operators, so when a specific

pool is mentioned, the stated policy is for that

pool only. A good example is Caesars Palace,

where there are seven different pools that make

up the resorts Garden of the Gods, but only the

Venus Pool Clubwhich is the actual name of

Caesars topless poolhas free admission Mon-

day through Thursday. Heres the rest of the list:

Free for All: Locals are welcome to hit the pool

at Hooters free of charge any day of the week. The

same is true at the Rios Voodoo Beach and the

Voo (no longer topless); the Stratosphere; the Pond

at Green Valley Ranch (which previously was only

open on weekends); and Planet Hollywood (though

the powers that be are reconsidering this one).

Free for All ... Kind of: Want to check out the

Palms pool scene gratis? You can ... but only until

the end of April. Among the other resorts that

have asterisks afixed to their free-for-locals pool

policies are the Cosmopolitan (free with a players

card, availability permitting); the Cosmos Mar-

quee Dayclub (free Monday-Thursday only); Hard

Rock (Monday-Friday); Palms Place (Monday-

Thursday); Rumors Gossip Pool (free daily unless

theres a special event with a cover charge);

Silvertons Sway Pool Lounge (Monday-Friday,

with a $5 charge on weekends); The Mirages

Bare Pool Lounge (Mondays only); Tropicanas

Bagatelle Beach Club (open weekends only);

and Venetians Tao Beach (Monday-Thursday).

And then theres Mandalay Bays topless Moorea

Beach, which is always free for women. Ditto for

men ... on Thursdays ... from 11 a.m. to noon. (Yep,

thats a one-hour entry window.)

Anthony Curtis is the publisher of the Las Vegas

Advisor and LasVegasAdvisor.com, a monthly

newsletter and website dedicated to finding the

best deals in town.

It dIdnt take a genius to fgure out that the last thing MGM Resorts International was going to build was more hotel rooms; it already has plenty of them. Condos, mean-while, didnt pan out at CityCenter (to put it mildly), so its no surprise that MGM shelved its plans to build a condo tower in front of Mandalay Bay. And room renovations and improvements at existing resortsas necessary as they arewont give the company the wow factor it will need to compete.So whats a casino mega-con-

glomerate to do for its next big move? With the recent announce-ment of The Park, MGM decided to go back to urban basics and plan a street-level experience. The project is comprised of retail/dining de-velopment between New York-New York and Monte Carlo, a renovation of the Strip-front facades of both resorts and a 20,000-seat arena operated by sports and entertain-ment giant AEG.Cynics will say that MGM is just

copying Caesars Entertainments Linq, which also features dining and retail on underutilized space between two casinos. But that doesnt matter. What matters is whether this is a smart movein particular be-cause its the antithesis of CityCenter. CityCenter was pitched as an

urban development that would remake the way people interacted with space along the Strip. But it had severeand I mean severedesign faws that made it impossible to make it truly urban and walkable. Some people thought CityCen-ter was too bold a project for Las

Vegasthat visitors couldnt handle a development that wasnt a large Y-shaped tower. But in truth, City-Center was too conservative; it had too limited a vision. Instead of master-planning just

the 76 acres that ultimately became CityCenter, the visionary move would have been to master-plan the entire span of Las Vegas Boulevard from Tropicana to Flamingo on both sides, taking into account the pieces that MGM controlled as well as the ones it didnt. In other words, the smart move would have been to fgure out how to maximize the value not only of those 76 acres, but also of the entire block. Instead, CityCenter is aloof from the sur-rounding Strip-scape.The Park appears to be a move

to do just what MGM should have done at CityCenter: use undevel-oped space not just to create new revenue streams, but to enhance the value of what the company al-ready has. With more action along the Monte Carlo/New York-New York nexus, MGM will give visitors a reason to spend the afternoon around a stretch of the Boulevard they currently hurry past on their way to see the Bellagio fountains. Even without the arena, this would re-energize that stretch.It will also likely have a spillover

effect for both the Tropicana and MGMs Mandalay Mile properties. But is that good for Las Vegas?

Will it just siphon visitors away from Caesars Linq?I say yes to the frst question

and no to the second. If you look at the history of casinos in Las Vegas, theyve really only thrived when they compete against each other. Going back to the neon explosion of the 1960s, progress has come when one resort builds the biggest neon sign in town, and then another tops it by 10 feet, and does something more elaborate to boot. At the end of the day, Las Vegas gets the Stardust and Dunes signs, and puts new international icons on the map. Strip casinos have been doing this

for years, with neon, pools, buffets, entertainers and nightclubs (but, unfortunately for serious gamblers, not table-game odds). Competition made the city a better attractionand a better value for visitors.During the Great Recession,

thanks in part to overconcentra-tion, Las Vegas lost some of that. Now it appears to be back.Along with Linq and Resorts

World Las Vegas, The Park will broaden the possibilities for visitors to Las Vegas, which is only going to help the city as economic uncer-tainty continues and the travel market becomes more competitive. Thats why The Park will likely be a positive, not just for MGM Resorts, but for the whole city.

David G. Schwartz is the director of UNLVs Center for Gaming Research.

The Meaning of MGMs Park

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last winter, BuzzFeed got a pony. Well, technically it was a min-iature horse named Mystic, and she came by for a visit one morninga surprise treat for hitting a Web-traffc goal. Sure, a cash bonus might have been more practical, but a little pony with pink ribbons in her mane and a tiny gold party hat that stuck up like a unicorns horn? So much cooler. And judging by the photos that employees quickly posted on Facebook and Twitter, Mystics visit was basically the best day ever. At least until the time Grumpy Catthe famous cranky-look-ing felinestopped by.It was enough to make even

a Google employee jealous. Not that Googles New York offces dont have their own enviably

cool visitorsStephen Colbert, Lang Lang and Toni Morrison, to name just a few. Employees also get razor scooters. And pool tables. And arcade games. And subsidized massages. And free gourmet meals. And a full-ser-vice dessert truck permanently parked on the eighth foor.These days, visitors to a New

York offce are as likely to stum-ble into a game of pingpong as they are to fnd suited work-ers shuffing through a grim landscape of carpet tile and cu-bicles. Thrillist has a kegerator; building-mate Foursquare has shuffeboard and a beer of the week. Etsys Dumbo headquar-ters blends homemade coziness and high-end design so master-fully it could make an Urban Outftters executive weep.Until quite recently, such

perks were considered the eccentric luxuries of twenty-something tech prodigies, edgy advertising frms and cash-fush startups. Corporate America dis-missed the cool offce as a feet-ing phenomenon. But the wild successes of companies such as Google and Facebook have made even the stodgiest CEOs contemplate the potential ben-efts of video-game consoles and French-press coffee. A pingpong table in the middle of your offce used to imply that you were run by a 24-year-old. Now a lot of companies want to imply that theyre run by a 24-year-old.Indeed, the cool offce has be-

come a national fxation. And in the countrys collective imagi-nationan imagination fed by countless magazines, blogs

and secondhand storiesit is a utopia of lofted ceilings and abundant natural light, where no one ever seems bored or blocked or fatigued (how could anyone be tired with both a nap room and an espresso ma-chine?), where workers always appear to be seriously having fun, furiously exchanging ideas or seriously having fun as they furiously exchange ideas. Even the after-work hours are better. Rather than rushing home to drown their sorrows in drink, workers hang out in their hip, bar-like lounges, knocking back craft brews in celebration of yet another ridiculously productive day of creative cathexis.In this way, the cool offce goes

so far as to suggest that the inher-ent tensions of the workplacebetween labor and management, between our authentic selves and our professional selves, between working for love and working for moneycan be over-come. Its a paradise wrought by the Protestant work ethic, where creativity and massive profts can be merged painlessly, a delightful feedback loop in which greater happiness yields greater produc-tivity yields greater happinesssalvation by way of pingpong and Stumptown coffee.Last October, French beverage

conglomerate Pernod Ricard moved into an 82,000-square-foot space at 250 Park Avenuea buttoned-up 20-story tower in Midtown that has traditionally been a great favorite of white-shoe law frms. While the loca-tion and the building seemed an obvious choice for a huge

Amusement Perks

How the cult of cool ofces took over the

cubicle world

By Kim VelseyThe New York Observer

Many offices are now much more than just places where people work.

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international corporation, the distillery-chic space was not: ex-posed 14-foot ceilings, concrete foors, vast walls of brick and glass, plus a massive bar, a game room and huge terraces.They all want some kind of

cool vibe, said Scott Spector, a principal at the Spector Group, the architectural frm that designed Pernods space, adding that even law frms and hedge funds are requesting the facto-ry-meets-art-gallery look. While the frst cool offces

started appearing more than a decade ago, theres now been a fundamental shift in offce de-sign. What were once features found mostly at tech compa-niesopen, collaborative areas, kitchens, game roomsare becoming standard.

Cool has conquered all, Spector said.A decade ago, workplace inno-

vation revolved primarily around where people worked. Working remotely was all the rage, and being able to work in your paja-mas was talked about as though it were one of the great hopes of humanity that could fnally now, through the miracle of technol-ogy, be achieved. Companies contemplated the cost-saving potential of vastly reduced work spaces, and workers welcomed the end of commuting and sim-pler child-care arrangements.But like other work-space

panaceas before it, telecom-muting proved less than revo-lutionary. (Its worth noting that the cubicle, maligned though it is today, was seen as an innova-

tive solution to the problems of the modern offce when it frst debuted in the 1960s.)Now innovation is all about

whats cool, said Lenny Beau-doin, a senior managing direc-tor of CBREs global corporate services. Beaudoin, a work-place strategist who helps the real estate companys clients revamp their workplaces to en-hance productivity, is working with a number of traditional companies that want to create cooler, less traditional offces in happening neighborhoods.The new offce is part

hospitality, part retail. People work 24/7, and they want their workplaces to appeal to their lifestyles, he said. The idea of going into a high-rise and sitting in a cubicle all day,

the tyranny of the traditional offce, thats going away. Its about lifestyle integration.Google has been criticized in

the past for using its admittedly amazing amenities to lure work-ers into longer and longer days at the offce. But its offces remain the envy of workers everywhere, because many Americans arent offered any trade-offs for their devotion to their desks, let alone a package of extravagant ones. The modern offce is transform-ing into a workers everythingthe place where someone not only works, but eats, exercises, relaxes and socializes.Just the prospect of moving to

a cool offce is enough to make some workers giddy. Ryan Alovis, the CEO and founder of ArkNet Media, a midsize Long Island startup, was surprised at how psyched his 16 employees were when he told them theyd be ditching their traditional offce in Valley Stream for a hip, college-campus-like complex in Garden City.Theyre so hyped up, every-

ones freaking out, he said. I walked by my VP of operations and he showed me a pool table that they have at L.A.s Hard Rock Cafe that he wanted us to getevery time you hit a ball, it either reveals a girl in a bikini or it looks like a ball of fre.There will not be the bikini/

fame pool table at the new offce, but there will be a bar, a ftness center, a coffee center, not just coffee, a juicer and pizza parties. You have to wow people, Alovis said. A juicer, a ftness center, a cafeteriapeo-ple expect this now. Tech work-ers are the new rock stars.It should not come as a sur-

prise that corporate Americaits once-promised fnancial security and career stability having vanishedwould be drawn to the cultural blueprint and anti-status ethos provided by tech. While techs DNA is fundamentally capitalist, the in-dustry proved that it could not only make money and be cool at the same time, but that it could make money by being cool.By following the path that

tech forged, companies have an opportunity to remake their images along with their offces. Now companies talk endlessly of creating interactions, of CEOs getting right into the mix of things, of ideas circulating and fourishing in their open foor plans. As though we could wipe out the thankless, unglamorous tasks that make up the entirety of some jobs right along with bad fuorescent lighting.

The cool offce sells not only an image of a creative hotbed to clients, but perhaps more importantly, to employees. It invites them to see their job as a form of self-expression rather than rote labor, grant-ing fexibility in exchange for loyalty and long hours.There is something vaguely

unsettling, though, something overwrought about the descrip-tions of all the fun being had: the Tuesday-night runs that take off from the offce and end at a local pub, the spontaneous exercise breaks, the craft nights with wine and cheese where ev-eryone makes holiday-themed cards, or mugs, or whatever strikes our fancy!There is a cult-like undertone

in this all-encompassing exis-tence, in the blurring of lines be-tween home and offce, between personal time and work time, between employee and self. The cool offce works to disguise the very basis of the relationship be-tween company and employee: the exchange of money for work. Work is a lot of things, but this is its fundamental essence.As architect Sam Jacob recently

wrote in Dezeen, the rise of the fun offce can be seen as a denial of the very real power structures inherent in labor relations. And even more fundamentally sinister is the idea of work colo-nizing the real spaces of intimacy and freedom: When your offce resembles all the places that you go to escape work, maybe there is no escape from work itself.But for better or worse, Amer-

icans have always embraced that you are what you do. The idea that you are where you workliterally is new. For many of us, the cool offce ministers not only to our immediate needs, but also to our fantasies: fantasies about the kind of people we would like to be, the jobs we wish we had, the lives we wish we were leading. We might not land that dream job, but the dream offce could be within reach!And yet, as much as the cool

offce can seem to matter, it can also matter very little. Of the many conversations that The Observer had with the haves and the have-nots of the offce world, our thoughts returned frequent-ly to what a Google engineer said to us after describing a Vermont ski weekend the company had taken him on, Lang Langs visit, and a lunch of expertly prepared salmon and roasted Brussels sprouts: At the end of the day, whether you enjoy your job or not is more important than get-ting roasted Brussels sprouts.

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Vegas to the Moon!Whats the future of space tourism in Las Vegas?

By David G. Schwartz

Could las Vegas become a launching pad for a new type of touristthe kind whos look-ing for a thrill ride that cant be found behind the velvet rope?In the past fve years, ideas

that once seemed outlandishmedical tourism, a tech corridor, green energyhave been seri-ously considered as viable tools

for our economic development. Why not space tourism?For its frst 40 years, spacefight

was limited to those chosen as part of a national astronaut selection process; mostly Soviet (later Russian) cosmonauts and American astronauts. For a while, it looked like the space shuttle was going to open up space to

civilians; politicians Jake Garn and Bill Nelson few on shuttle missions, but plans to have regu-lar fights of educators in space and more trips by civilians were scrapped when teacher Christa McAuliffe perished in the 1986 Challenger disaster. That tragedy, and the sub-

sequent loss of Columbia in

2003, highlighted the dangers of spacefight, but leaving the green hills of Earth for the depths of spaceeven if its just a couple of days in low-earth orbit, roughly 200 miles upremains a dream for many. Of course, only the elite of the elite can become astronauts. Lacking extensive piloting experience or advanced degrees in the sci-encesand the dedication to be at the top of your feld for most of your adult lifeyou dont have much of a chance to become a professional cosmic explorer.But space tourism may make

orbit available to the nonpro-fessionalthough for the past decade thats meant the kind of

nonprofessional who could pay millions for the privilege. In 2001, the frst space tour-

ist, engineer and investment manager Dennis Tito, few on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station. He trained for several months be-fore the mission (which pales in comparison to the years regular astronauts log before liftoff, but still shows dedication) and con-ducted a variety of experiments in his nearly eight days in space. He reportedly paid $20 million for the journey.But he got to know the thrill

of foating weightless; of seeing the curvature of the Earth; of witnessing a sunrise every 90

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How the reborn Light is raising the stakes in a hypercompetitive businessand what that says about the future of Las Vegas nightlifeBy David G. Schwartz

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By the time the club closed in 2007, it had been surpassed by several bigger venues: Pure (2004), Tao (2005) and Tryst (2005). Since then, Wynn Las Vegas has tripled-down, fol-lowing Tryst with XS (2008) and Surrender (2010). And there are more megaclubs on the way: Hakkasanthe recently opened $100 million, 75,000-square-foot London-via-San Francisco import at the MGM Grandis expected to become the next big thing, which will probably lead to an even bigger club opening sometime next year.The nightclub arms race will

always be about whats next, which makes it somehow endearing that the biggest non-Hakkasan nightclub news of the moment is the re-birth of the club that started the race in the first place. The namesake of the Las Vegas-based Light Group will soon return to the Strip at Man-dalay Bay, where it is taking over the space that used to be Rumjungle.The fate of the previous

tenant speaks volumes about how fckle nightlife can be. At one point, Rumjungle was one of the top 20 highest-grossing venues in the country. In 2006, it pulled in more than $16 million in gross revenues. But changing public tastes, new competition (including from MGM-owned outlets in Mandalay Bay) led to a quick dropoffin 2009, Rumjungles last full year of operation, it earned $6.6 milliona nearly $10 million decline in just three years.But, in the mid-2000s, $16

million was no longer enough. When Rumjungle was at its peak, Tao at the Venetian

dwarfed its numbers, bring-ing in more than $55 million. The frst clubs had proven that there was money to be made in the nightlife business. And in the time-honored logic of Las Vegas, if X is good, the obvious next step is to multiply it by 10. So along came the megaclubs: bigger, louder and more proftable. By applying economies of scale to a proven model, they made nightlife more than an amenityit became a lifeline for casinos facing the recession.In 2012, seven out of the

top 10 nightclubs in the country were in Las Vegas. The leader was XS at Encore, which grossed more than $80 millionthats more than $1.5 million per weekend. Even a smaller venue, like the Ghostbar at the Palms or The Bank (which replaced Light at Bellagio) can pull in $20 million in the course of a year. With all that success, its no

wonder todays nightclub scene is crowded. Meanwhile, clubs are working themselves more deeply into the weft of resort fabric, with dayclubs and vibe dining carrying them into new areas. At the turn of the millen-nium, nightlife started going Vegas. Now Vegas has gone nightlife.

So thE LiGht thAt opENS on Memorial Day Weekend will do so in a very different Las Vegas from the original, and its going to be a mark-edly different venue. For one, Light will be joined by Day-light, and its going to be part of a bigger interest that Light Group parent Morgans has in Mandalay Bay: THEhotel is be-ing rebranded the Delano and will be run by Morgans, and

its also managing Red Square and Citizens Kitchen & Barboth within steps of Light.And theres more. This time,

Light isnt just a nightclub; its a nightclub with a twist. That twist is Cirque du Soleil, the Montreal-based performance troupe that has become as inextricable a part of the Vegas tourist experience as all-you-can-eat buffets and Elvis impersonators. Think Cirque performers on poles. Think Cirque performers bounc-ing off a two-story acrowall behind the DJ booth. Think Cirque performers literally fy-ing through the air on tethers. This, Lights builders promise, will make the club one-of-a-kind, and the most revolution-ary thing to hit Las Vegas since

the last revolutionary thing.The Cirque twist speaks to

the evolution of Las Vegas nightlife, which parallels the changes that began taking place on the gaming foor 20 years ago. It once was enough for a casino to simply be a gam-bling hall, with plenty of games and free drinks. Then compe-tition heated up and casinos started playing dress-up, pre-tending to be medieval castles, pirate islands and even refned Italianate lakesides. Gambling ceased to be a compelling gimmick, and the answer was to pile gimmicks on top of gimmicks. It worked for a few years, but in 2005 Wynn Las Vegas frmly rejected a theme in favor of a more nuanced ambience of customer service

and delicious design surprises, and designers across the Strip throttled back on theming.Looking at Light, it seems

that Vegas nightlife is now where casinos were around 1993. There was a time when clubs just needed booze and beats. Now, they need some-thing else to stand out. Enter the nightlife gimmick.And if Cirque-meets-clublife

is successful, that might make Light the frst Vegas nightclub, version 3.0.

AS uSuAL iN LAS VEGAS, the hype machine is pushing the redline with Light. The group has invested a great deal in the Mandalay makeover, and expectations are high. The designers were asked to

When Light opened at Bellagio in December 2001, it pointed the way to the next wave of nightclub development in Las Vegas. It was the frst casino nightclub designed around the then-novel concept of bottle service, and as the clubs success became apparent, it inspired more than its share of imitators.

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deliver something that was both entirely different from the once-successful, now-passe Rumjungle, and suffciently wild to impress an increasingly jaded target audience.It delivers without dispute

on the frst count. Un-like Rumjungle, which was partially open to public view, Light presents a blank face to those who arent inside: Most of the frontage is taken up by bamboo facade with more than a passing resemblance to a stylized suns rays, two sets of nondescript black doors and the Light marquee.Walking by, you might hear the

muffed sounds of a great time inside, but make no mistake about it: This is a private party.After passing a hostess stand/

VIP check-in, guests will ascend a red-and-black carpeted stair-case; at the top, theyll come out onto the mezzanine level. To the left is the main bar; to the right, the massive open space that contains three tiers of tables and, oh yeah, the dance foor. Flush against the foor is the DJ booth, with a massive LED display above it; youve also got a catwalk and the acrowall back there for the Cirque acrobats.The new Light is deeper than

the old Rumjungle space, since theres no restaurant (the club is bucking the vibe-dining trend, with hungry club-bers presumably directed to Red Square or Citizens). Its taller too, with the drop ceiling ripped out and several tiers of tables and the mezzanine level

in the newly acquired airspace.That means more tables,

which means more bottle service, which means more money. As it will be confg-ured on opening night, the new Light will have nearly 100 tables. The original Light, by comparison, had 33 tables at its biggest build-out.Even with the club empty,

one thing is certain: This isnt just a place to have a good time; its a place to be seen having a good time. Those moneymak-ing tables are stacked in levels, stadium-like, around the dance foor, which becomesalong with the DJ booth, the LED wall and every square foot between foor and ceilinga perfor-mance space. Thats where the twist comes

in. With Cirque artists fipping and slipping through the air, theres going to be plenty of visual energy. Each DJ, accord-ing to a Light spokesperson, will meet with Cirque and get a customized show. Whats being

packaged here isnt just a night out, but an evening of immer-sion in the crafted spectacle of a night out. The club itself is a performance of nightlife. The real challenge is how the

space will fow when its flled with clubgoers, waitresses, bouncers and acrobats. With whats touted as the loudest sound system on the Strip, it will be intense, to say the least. But will the room stand up to the rigors of the modern night-lifestyle?Josh Held, the architect

behind the new Light, has planned for that. I always tell my team to design as if we are designing the interior of a zoo full of wild animals, he says. Any type of abuse you can imagine will happen, and the design has to look fantastic regardless. Special linings were used in the upholstery to prevent punctures. Floor and wall materials are of a differ-ent grade than one would usu-ally specify. Every surface that

can be stood on or jumped on will be, so we over-design those surfaces to withstand the abuse.

With A prActicEd dESiGN and an ambitious goalto remake the Vegas club experi-encewill Light do its forebear proud? All signs point to yes, but you never know for sure in Vegas. When he opened Circus Circus back in 1968, Jay Sarno was sure that the acrobats spin-ning over the heads of the craps tables would enhance the expe-rience for gamblers. Turns out, most players werent as absorbed by the game as he was, and the idea fopped. Light is banking that Cirque

fantasy will heighten the oth-erworldly party vibe for which people come to Las Vegas. If it is successful, there will be imitators, who will scale up the formula even more. If not, there will be no shortage of people ex-plaining, in hindsight, why this couldnt have worked.

Whats being packaged here isnt just a night out, but an evening of immersion in the crafted spectacle of a night out.

A rendering of a big night at Light (left), and a photo of the bar awaiting its first patrons (below).

SATURDAY, MAY 4, 2013 FREMONT STREET EXPERIENCE

Register TODAY at www.komensouthernnevada.org702.822.2324

JOIN US FOR THE 18TH ANNUAL SUSAN G. KOMEN SOUTHERN NEVADA

RACE FOR THE CUREOnline Registration is Now Open!

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marquee dayclubThe Cosmopolitan

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April 26 Keidyspins

April 27 AviciikicksoffWetWonderland

April 28 EDXspins

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MoonThe palms

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April 26 MarkStylzandExodusspin

April 27 TaboooftheBlackEyedPeasspins

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LavoThe palazzo

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April 28 ViceSundayswithguestDJMr.Mauricio

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Gastro Fare. Nurtured Ales. Jukebox Gold.

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[ Scene StirS ]

Jules Verne and rick Moonen haVe your next round RM Seafoods second floor will close May

3 for a reconceptualization that will mesh

nicely with Mandalay Bays other new

draws: Light Nightclub, Daylight Beach Club

and Cirque du Soleils new Michael Jackson

show. When it reopens in late June as Rx

Boiler Room (pronounced Ricks), the

more casual venue will reflect Moonens

taste for all things Thomas Edison, H.G.

Wells, Jules Verne and steampunk.

Encouraged by the property to reinvent,

Moonen says ideas ran from steakhouse

(but thats not fun, thats not me) to a

so-called gastrolab. But while avant-garde

techniques would surely be a part of any

new Moonen project, he felt the term gas-

tro is overused. So, the chef looked inward

for inspiration: When I was growing up, I

was kind of a geek. But back then being a

geek wasnt cool. Now its hip! The Boiler

Room will be both geeky and hip, celebrat-

ing the alchemy of food and drink.

Re-envisioned in tandem by Cleo Design

and the chefs wife, Roni, this will be

Moonens clubhouse, where things happen,

where things get cooked up. In the dining

room, booths will become intimate, robed

in velvet curtains beneath a stamped-metal

ceiling. Tables of reclaimed wood will

include communal dining options and no

white linen in sight. The new menu will rely

less on structure and more on seasonality.

Service could include small plates, large

platters, pairings and chalkboard specials.

Plus: a great sound system? Yes. A killer

brunch? Yep. Local crooners slinking in

for impromptu performances on a Lucite

piano? It could happen, Moonen says.

Moonens core value of sustainable

seafood remains, and will operate alongside

this new farm-to-table lineup of redefined

comfort foods; think buckets of crisp, fried

Cornish game hens, Steampunk Oysters

and deviled green eggs. Looking for your

culinary North Star? There will always be

oysters on the half shell at any Rick Moonen

restaurant opened anywhere in the world.

But the bar is where the fun really starts.

The upstairs entry, formerly easy to over-

look, will be wide open and festooned with

gears and cogs. Inside the lounge, oddly

shaped furniture leads to the bar, where

lead bartender Nathan Greene and his

team will serve original craft cocktails and

classic revisions from beakers, flasks and

barrels. Here, your orange peel is flamed by

a Bunsen burner. Im gonna let these guys

just run free, Moonen says. And when Rx

Boiler Room is open, RMs first floor will get

a little update, as well. I think it has infinite

possibilities. Its certainly more fun than

trying to do fine dining in this environment

right now. The three-star Michelin chefs

have that covered.

For more scene stirrings and shake-ups, visit

VegasSeven.com/Cocktail-Culture.

Get Lunas Poppy Sling recipe at VegasSeven.com/Cocktail-Culture.com.

as cocktails traVel through time and space, they tend to change and evolvesometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. One of the cocktails most approximated for convenience and skewed to refect the current contents of the liquor room is the Singapore Sling, which was cre-ated at the start of the 20th century at the Raffes Hotel in Singapore. Although originally based on dry gin, cherry brandy and lemon juice, an ever-changing cast of support-ing liqueurs, syrups, bitters and other citrus juices (most notably pineapple) has jumped on and off board over in the nearly 100 years since. But it almost doesnt matter which

recipe you useif the ingredients are fresh and the products top-notch, the resulting vaguely Southeast Asian gin punch should be a hit. At Poppy Den in Tivoli Village, mixologist Julian Luna

does his Poppy Sling Caribbean-style, with Pussers Rum (favored over gin by one of the owners), Heering cherry liqueur, Bndictine, house-made grenadine, lime and pineapple juices, plus Bittermens Elemakule Tiki cocktail bitters. While sipping a cocktail may not be enough to trans-port you to Singapore, you can at the very least feel whisked away to Summerlin.

Slinging Praises

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out of the space, face-offs between Signature supporters and intractable library trustees during the public-comment portions of district meetings became exercises in tension. Wed go back every month, and they were hostilevery hostile, Larsen says. Theyd give us three minutes while they were busy tucking things inside their briefcases and getting ready to leave. They couldnt have cared less.Sanity eventually triumphed.

Credit relentless, passionate pleas by Larsen and Broadway Bound (a youth theater group that also rented the space), plus a petition drive within Signa-tures fan base and entreaties to county commissioners and Mayor Goodman, prompting rethinking by library trustees. In what amounts to a gi-

ant phew! the library district relented last fall, slashing the hike to a still-gut-punching 180 percent. Sucking it up, Sig-nature raised ticket prices $5, to an average of $30 for adults and $20 for kids.Where can you go to see a

Broadway [type of] show for 30 bucks? Larsen asks. You cant.Resurrection is onstage right

now, the company in the midst of its comeback run of Camelot that began April 15 at yes, the Summerlin Library theater. Unsurprisingly, the layoff inficted damage. Ticket sales are down some,

Larsen says, noting that by the frst preview, advance sales for the 22 performances were only at 40 percent, though the num-bers were climbing last week. Our being gone for a whole year and the perception that we had quit performing were probably in play. Only time will tell whether we will be as suc-cessful as a year ago. Looking back on the whole

mess reveals something dis-turbing: Quietly, we nearly lost something precious even as we gained something momentous, and relatively few Las Vegans knew or cared, exposing a cultural blind spoteven in our new Smith Center world. Fellow local theaters didnt get it either when it came to Signature. I didnt feel any support from

the smaller companies, Larsen says. The theater community is really split up in this town. We dont trust each other. Its like North and South Korea here.

* * *

What level of theater were we denied while they battled to keep breathing? Consider

the perspective of the Las Vegas Review-Journals Anthony Del Valle, the citys toughest, most respected (and in some quar-ters, feared) theater critic.On 2007s Peter Pan: a bliss-

ful achievement. On 2010s All Shook Up: an orgy of fun and a celebration of being alive. On 2011s Oh What a Night: exuberantly performed, excit-ingly sung and pumped with theatrical pizzazz. On 2009s Thoroughly Modern Millie: Youll say Wow a lot. Theres more musical-comedy talent here per square foot than anyone has the right to ask for in a community production.(Not that its all warm hugs

and sweet kisses. About Signatures The Sound of Music in 2010, he wrote that the inevitable tears come duti-fully and unimaginatively, one among other pointed criticisms over the years. Still, you cant quibble over the consistency of his standards. While Del Valle smiled upon several Broadway tour productions in The Smith Centers inaugural season in the R-J, he also machine-gunned the visiting Anything Goes and The Addams Family.)Conventional thinking sug-

gests that because community theater exists in its own bubble, with its own loyal (if modest) following, The Smith Centers Broadway series of traditional musicals doesnt threaten to swipe patrons. Largely thats true, given that the schedules of the most active local compa-niesincluding Las Vegas Little Theatre, the Onyx, Cockroach Theatre, Nevada Conserva-tory Theatre and CSNs theater departmentare crowded with dramas, comedies, original works, adult-oriented plays, avant-garde pieces and other non-musicals absent from The Smith Center.Not so Signature. Unlike

some other local troupes (PS Productions, Stage Door Entertainment, Huntsman En-tertainment) that offer similar musicals sporadicallyoften merely one-offs on a rotation

at the Super Summer Theatre program at Spring Mountain Ranch State ParkSignature is the steadiest provider, produc-ing three or four annually.Only Signature, then, is even

near the same ballpark with The Smith Center in terms of delivering the same theater genre at quality levels with regularitycreating potential audience overlap. Yet Signa-tures promotional resources amount to a fraction of a frac-tion of Smiths, and it lacks the Broadway brand sex appeal of a tour production.Statistics dont exist (and al-

most certainly wont) quantify-ing whether Signature patrons now save their splurge money on a Broadway tour instead. Or, conversely, whether some Smith Center attendees, newly turned on to musicals, will check out Signature and be

surprised to discover quality showsalbeit on a smaller scale, but also at less expensethat are in no way creatively slumming.Or whether, frankly, it will

make no damn difference.More importantly, Signa-

tures survival has got to count for something. Specifcally, how will high-grade local theater be perceived and valued in a post-Smith Center era, given its overall exclu-sion from that gleaming venue while locally produced classi-cal music (the Las Vegas Phil-harmonic) and dance (Nevada Ballet Theatre) get to snuggle in and call it home?Unreservedly, we say: Glory

be to The Smith Center, that half-a-billion-dollar pearl that has el-evated our cultural cred and widened our entertainment palate. Its enormous positive impact is undeniable. Yet it has also pushed back the goalposts, perception-wise.Once upon a pre-

Smith time, commu-nity theater left Las Vegans impressed or unimpressed based on their own merits

or demerits. Now its image issues are akin to Sisyphus and that damn boulder. No longer can residents claim their city lacks culture: The Smith Center is a mighty rebuke. Some, however, will dismiss local theater as culturally irrelevant by comparison.Quaint, but not impactful. Di-

version, but not art. Or worse [A library offcial] said,

Now that we have The Smith Center, we dont need [library] theaters, Larsen says.Employing a word likely

never uttered at a Signature show: Bullshit. Lets not allow the refresh-

ing performing-arts awareness incubating inside The Smith

Center to breed cultural small-mind-edness toward whats outside it.Signatures back.

Were better for it. Re-fecting on its journey through adversity to survival, there is poet-ry in a line from King Arthurs soliloquy in Camelot, now onstage at the home that was nearly lost: We shall live

through this togeth-er, Excalibur.

Stage

Camelot by Signature ProduCtionS

2 and 7:30 p.m. (schedule varies) through May 11, $25-$30, Sum-merlin Library

and Performing Arts Center, 1771 Inner Circle Dr.,

878-7529, Signa-tureProductions.

net.

How will HigH-grade loCal tHeater be PerCeived and valued in a PoSt-SmitH Center era?

Community theater royalty: Camelots King Arthur

(James Claflin) and Guenevere (Lila Harper).

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Alex clAreHard Rock Caf on the Strip, April 18

This cats got soul. Taking the stage in front of a packed house, U.K. singer-songwriter Alex Clare

launched into Relax My Beloved, that stirring voice with just the amount of grit shining bright

(though the sound in the venue could have been a bit louder). The set included nearly every song

from his album The Lateness of the Hour, but Clare also delivered new material as promised. The

standout Three Hearts, proved that any forthcoming album will be strong.

This is the first song I learned to play on the guitar, Clare said, as he presented a cover of Lead

Bellys Goodnight Irene. Also throwing it back some in music history, Clare and his band busted

out with a dubstep-y version of When Doves Cry by Prince, though the majority of the crowd

didnt seem to recognize itnot because it was such a variance from the original but perhaps they

were just too young. Enthusiastically applauding after each song, the crowd finally started to dance

around during Up All Night, and then expectedly went apeshit when Clare saved his most recogniz-

able hit, Too Close, for the next-to-last song, ultimately closing out with the song he wrote for his

new wife, I Wont Let You Down. Deanna Rilling

the PostAl serviceThe Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan, April 19

The obsession started a decade ago

when the nation first heard those

three descending chords of The

District Sleeps Alone Tonight. Few

could resist the transcendentally

catchy songs on Give Up, which

elevated the side project (peopled by

Death Cab for Cuties Ben Gibbard,

Dntels Jimmy Tamborello and Rilo

Kileys Jenny Lewis) into something

more. Sadly, that success never

led to a second album. But on April

19, fans got the next best thing: a

reunited Postal Service celebrating

Give Ups 10-year anniversary.

The show began with the same

three descending chords. But instead

of going straight into the scattered

beats of track two, Such Great

Heights, the wiser, less predict-

able Postal Service played We Will

Become Silhouettes. Lewis stole the

show every time she sang, especially

during Nothing Better. She twirled

around Gibbard, harmonizing while

staring into his eyes during the

sickeningly precious duet.

Since the band doesnt have much

material, the performance felt some-

what contrived. With the exception

of an explosive intro to Natural An-

them and a few new songs (Turn

Around and the equally repetitive A

Tattered Line of String), their music

hasnt changed at all.

Refreshingly, the show didnt end

with the much-anticipated Such

Great Heights, but instead with the

inspiring Brand New Colony. The

music dropped out as Gibbard, Tam-

borello and Lewis led the audience in

a chant of the last words: Everything

will change, ooooooo. That combined

with the cascading orange lights

emanating from the stage made for a

touching moment some would have

considered worth the yearslong wait.

Ashley Gates

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in the spirit of a Terrence Malick screenplay, certain rhe-torical questions to be spoken in hushed voice-over present themselves regarding Malicks latest, To the Wonder.Can we ever see enough

sunsets as flmed by Malick and his mighty cinematogra-pher, Emmanuel Lubezki? Is serious spiritual yearning even worth attempting to capture in a series of moving images? And will Malick ever tire of the look of tall grass in the wind, bend-ing this way and that, much as his characters conform them-selves to the dictates and gentle yet unmistakable hand of the flmmaker himself?Shot in Bartlesville, Oklaho-

ma, and in France, To the Wonder fnds Malick pursuing a form of

visual storytelling that is closer to chamber music, or sym-phonic rapture, than conven-tional flm narrative. It skates along the edge of self-parody every second. Compared even with his previous feature, The Tree of Life, this ones bound to frustrate the average meat-and-potatoes flmgoer looking for clear outlines and the usual dramatic builds.Whatever. Minor Malick does

not mean To the Wonder is a noth-ing. It is very much something: supple and a bit mad. What that something iswell, youre the interpreter, as much as the writer-director in charge.It depicts an Oklahoma man

(Ben Affeck); a Ukrainian woman living in Paris (Olga Kurylenko); another woman

back in Oklahoma (Rachel McAdams); and a fourth char-acter, a Catholic priest stricken by a crisis of faith and purpose (Javier Bardem). Affecks Neil, whom we see sampling soil for groundwater contamination in and around his hometown of Bartlesville, has met Marina (Kurylenko) in Paris. Romance has bloomed. Ill go wherever you go, she whispers to us in voice-over, before they explore Mont St. Michel, on an island off the Normandy coast.Where is wherever? Okla-

homa. Its a strange new world to Marina and her 10-year-old daughter, no less so than the land Malick presented in his earlier flm, The New World. At one point in To the Wonder, a classically Malickian transi-tion glides from a shot of the shoreline off Normandy into a gliding frame of grasslands and power lines in the USA. The re-lationship soon sours. Marina, conceived as a twirly force of nature at odds with this land of big-box stores and cowboys, retreats with her daughter to France. Neil takes up with an old fame, a rancher (McAdams) who likewise loves to twirl in the wheat, among the bison.The relationships come and

go; Marina drifts back into

Neils life. Since her voice-overs from the start favor the past tense, we sense impermanence throughout. The flm is a reverie, a memory reactivated, in a land of beauty despite the Sonic drive-ins and drab sub-urban cul-de-sacs.I admire the picture, though

little of To the Wonder gels in the usual way. Bardems priest inter-acts only briefy with the other major characters; hes a state of troubled mind more than a dimensional being. The women competing for Neils conscience and heart are largely nonverbal sprites, endlessly photogenic. The flm is completely insular yet utterly open to everything in nature: the skies, the breeze, the unspoken connections between one human being and another. In this universe, when the mus-ings (visual and verbal) are in-terrupted by a sign of everyday modernitywhen Marina Sky-pes with her faraway daughter, for example, or when someone says something as blunt as My visa has expiredits a shock to the system.However elliptical, To the

Wonder clearly speaks to, and from, Malicks own experi-ence. Its conjecture, of course, but he appears to be atoning for past relational sins with

his story of Neil, described as a taciturn but incredibly loving man. (Its not an unfattering self-portrait, to be sure.) Weak people never bring anything to an end themselves. They wait for others to do it, Marina says in voice-over. Is Bardems priest too weak to break up with God, or too strong to do so?So, to get back to the rhetori-

cal questions: Can we ever see enough sunsets as flmed by Malick? The answer is no. Is serious spiritual yearning even worth attempting to capture in a series of moving images? The answer is yes. Malicks images may run together, gliding in and out of windows, up quiet streets, in ways that induce a trancelike state (or, if youre not with it, sleepiness). But Malick is a true searcher, true to his preoccupations and def-nitions of soulful rhapsody. To the Wonder repeats its central motifs aplenty, yet you may fnd yourself thinking about life, and living, and love, while sorting through the movie. Even if it drives you nutz.Oh, and: Will Malick ever

tire of the look of tall grass in the wind? The answer is no. He will not.

To the Wonder (R)

Wonder to BeholdTerrence Malick delights in picturesque

landscapes and obtuse love triangles

By Michael PhillipsTribune Media Services

Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams and amber waves of grain.

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[by tribune media services]short reviews

42 (PG-13) This carefully tended portrait of Jackie

Robinson, the man who broke Major League

Baseballs color barrier, settles for too

little. Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman)

endures long odds and societal racism to join

the Brooklyn Dodgers. Harrison Ford is fun

as the general manager who brought him up,

Branch Rickey. The film treads too carefully,

a primer, a story that protects and enshrines

Robinson. It feels like a production watched

very carefully by his survivors. Boseman is

highly capable, but the filmmakers failed to

ask much of him.

Evil Dead (R) This remake of Sam Raimis 1983 cult classic

offers plenty of reasons to jump and turn

away. Mia (Jane Levy) has quit drugs, and

her withdrawal confuses her senses. Her

brother and her friends have brought her to

the cabin in the woods to cure her. But is she

seeing visions of demonic possession, or is

this simply the cold turkey playing tricks on

her mind? Theres a demon that jumps from

human to human, and more splashing of bodi-

ly fluids than one knows what to do with. All

in all, its OK, and likely a franchise ... again.

The Place Beyond the Pines (R)

Luke (Ryan Gosling) is a motorcycle stunt

performer traveling with a two-bit carnival.

Coming through small-town New York, he

learns he has fathered a son with a local

waitress (Eva Mendes). Luke turns to bank

robbery while also trying to establish a

relationship with his son. Then, the story

switches to the police officer (Bradley Coo-

per) who is plagued by becoming known as

the hero who pursued the moto-bandit. Its

a fine film with really solid actors playing

well-written, authentic characters.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation (PG-13) The action is nonstop in this sequel. But do

we really want our action to never end? Like,

ever? The plot concerns the murder of the

Pakistani president, stolen nukes, a frame-up

job by COBRA disgracing the Joes. The Joes

fight back. Spoiler alert: They win. Sure,

theres Channing Tatum as Duke, Dwayne

Johnson as Roadblock and even ole Bruce

Willis as the original Joe, but the movie plays

out like a video game, and certainly weve

learned by now that there should be a dif-

ference.

somethings wrong. tom Cruise, or rather, Jack Harper, his character in the placid new science-fction adventure Oblivion, cant shake his dreams of a woman giving him the big eyes on the ob-servation deck of the Empire State Building.Its 2077. Earth has been dev-

astated by a war with invading aliens. Most of the remaining populace has been relocated to a Saturn moon. Jack has recently undergone a manda-tory memory wipe and now goes about his work, a couple of weeks prior to his own exit from Earth. Hes a security guard and all-around Mr. Fix-It living and working high above whats left of Earths sur-face in Tower 49 with his lover/colleague Victoria (Andrea Riseborough).But who is this woman in

Jacks dreams? I mean, its Olga Kurylenko, also starring in the new Terrence Malick flm To the Wonder, but who is she?A sort of Partial Recall,

Oblivion gives you a lot to

think about. And too much time to think about it. The script by Karl Gajdusek (an interesting playwright) and Michael Arndt, based on an unpublished graphic novel by the director, Joseph Kosin-ski (Tron: Legacy), weaves a tale involving governmental conspiracy, a revolutionary underground movement (Morgan Freeman plays the supercool head of the scavs, or scavengers) and various pro forma battle scenes that pit Cruise, in his spaceship or on his futuristic motorcycle, against a cadre of scowling, moonfaced mechanical fying drones, equipped with ma-chine guns stolen from Attack of the Clones.Jack knows somethings up

when his HAL-9000-styled boss, Sally (Melissa Leo, seen only on video monitors and oozing the sort of fake charm that spells trouble), orders him to stay away from a crash-landing site. Does Jack follow orders? No. He follows his instinct, and rescues the surviving member

of the downed U.S. spaceship. She is the woman of his dreams, played by Kurylenko, and from there Oblivion springs a surprise or two.Surprise is a relative term.

Kosinskis rhythm and visual style are pretty square for such a squirrelly script: Each grave, purposeful exchange of dialogue (some of it pretty thick in terms of expositional backstory) is laid out very

carefully, as if were idiots. The movies not bad for a while, but its made of spare parts from a lot of other mov-ies, among them Total Recall, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the 2001 riff Moon, a certain recent play by Caryl Churchill (cant say; spoiler) and a few others.Whats interesting about it

is its tight focus on a handful of characters. Oblivion is odder and less conventional than

your average forgettable star vehicle; at times it feels like a fve-character play taking place in a digital-effects lab. But theres not much energy to it. When you go to a futuristic, dystopian, post-apocalyptic barn dance starring Tom Cruise and his space guns, you expect a little zap with your thoughtful pauses.

Oblivion (PG-13)

end of days (and ideas)Tom Cruise stars in this

post-apocalyptic sci-f rehash

By Michael PhillipsTribune Media Services

Kurylenko and Cruise neither crash nor soar in this could-be clunker.

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The Host (PG-13) This movie version of Stephenie Meyers

departure from the Twilight series is painful

to watch. Earth has been invaded by aliens

called Souls. Some Souls called Seekers

locate humans to serve as hosts for other

Souls. Saoirse Ronan plays Melanie, whose

body is sublet by a Soul named Wanderer.

Melanie and her Soul become frenemies,

and Melanie arm-twists her visitor to return

to Melanies cave-dwelling survivalist clan.

Then Wanderer falls in love with Ian (Jake

Abel). And then ... you get the picture. Its

agonizingly slow and just not very good.

Olympus Has Fallen (R) This movie is Die Hard in the White House,

where terrorists appear out of nowhere

to storm Washington, take over the White

House and seize the president (Aaron

Eckhart) and most of the cabinet. Their

only hope is ex-Secret Service agent Mike

Banning (Gerard Butler), the only man

who knows how to get into the fortified

presidential bunker where the hostages

are. Banning stabs, shoots and strangles

his way through legions of terrorists.

There are much better thrillers out there.

Admission (PG) In this fraught romantic comedy, Portia

(Tina Fey) is a Princeton University

admissions officer with a secret. Her

live-in boyfriend, a professor played by

Michael Sheen, treats her like a doglit-

erally. But on a road trip, Portia visits a

new-age alternative high school, run by

John (Paul Rudd). John believes a prom-

ising applicant just might be the same

boy that Portia gave up for adoption. Fey

and Rudd are smooth as silk together,

but the film is only half good.

Spring Breakers (R) Writer-director Harmony Korine is a resolute

sleaze monger. This helps Spring Breakers,

in which not-so-innocent debauchery turns

sociopathic. Its about four teenage girls,

three nasty (Ashley Benson, Vanessa Hud-

gens and Rachel Korine), one nice (Selena

Gomez). Determined to have a memorable

vacation, the girls get some spending cash by

fake-pistol-waving in a restaurant. But things

steadily move into a more dangerous space,

with an impressive turn by James Franco as

a lively gangsta rapper.

The Croods (PG) Its Ice Age with humans and less ice. The

Croods are a brood of cavepeople; theres

Ugg (Nicolas Cage), Ugga (Catherine

Keener), Eep (Emma Stone) and some oth-

ers. Earthquaked out of their dwelling, the

Crood brood embarks on a search for a new

home. They come across Guy (Ryan Reyn-

olds), a caveboy who knows about fire and

has ideas. Guy leads the Croods toward a

place he calls Tomorrow where survival

lies. Not a whole lot here, and like most

Dreamworks vehicles, its way too much.

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (PG) All of the skilled actors on display in this ab-

surd comedy cant save the film. Las Vegas

magicians Burt (Steve Carell) and Anton

Marvelton (Steve Buscemi) have a stale

act, and Burts become a terrible person.

They cant stand each other. And theres

a dangerous new kid in town, a Jackass-y

performer (Jim Carrey) who gives the

bloodthirsty public what it wants. While Alan

Arkin and Olivia Wilde manage ably in their

scenes, the rest of the movie is poor

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Bullshit artist, you say? Utter bullshit.So insists 84-year-old Tommy

DeVito, founder of the Four Seasons, whos itching to answer back after this writers oral history of Jersey Boysthe musical based on the groupwas published in Vegas Seven earlier this year. Among the comments was this quote from Jersey Boys co-writer Rick Elice, recalling the genesis of the plot and characters:The audience [would]

recognize that Tommy is a bullshit artist from the frst words out of his mouth.While Elices comment irked

DeVito, a longtime Las Vegan, one senses hes torn: still disgruntled over his depiction in a show that hit Broadway nearly eight years ago and Ve-gas fve years ago (now at Paris Las Vegas) but grateful for his revival in the public eye. And unsure how to express that ambivalence.Nonetheless, he deserves his

say about thatand his color-ful life.

What was your reaction to Elices comment?When I read Seven, I was like,

What was the statement I said that was bullshit? I dont care what they say about me, but I know hes wrong. I started this thing, so when I hear things, its more sensitive to me.

Publicly, you seemed OK with the musical, even at-tending the Broadway open-ing, so what bothers youan incident that was misrep-resented or your overall characterization or Elices statement? I dont think I was as rough as

they wanna make me, and I like to see the truth and only the truth. Yeah, I went to jail seven or eight times. Im not proud of it, but Im not ashamed of it. My neighborhood was rough. If you come out alive, thats an achievement. Whatever hap-

pened when I was out there scuffing and getting arrested and doing things I wasnt sup-posed to do, that was my life. I was around mob guys all my

life. [Mob boss] Gyp DeCarlo (depicted in Jersey Boys) was a really, really good friend of mine. I didnt ask him what he did when he woke up in the morningHow many guys ya gonna kill today? I still talk to his wife at least once a week. But there was so much bad in there that it turned good. I remember [co-writer] Marshall Brickman said, I wish I had two Tommy DeVitos to write about. I guess if it aint broke, dont fx it.

What did prison teach you?You can learn an awful lot

there, especially at a place like Rahway [now East Jersey State Prison]. There should be more places like Rahway. You make your balls, they call it. If you dont, theyre gonna stab you in the back or hit you with a pipe. I did it in the frst couple of days, just hit somebody with a pipe from the bushes. From that day on, they walked that way instead of walking toward me.

Favorite Seasons song?I was partial to Rag Doll,

the way it happened. Gaudio and I came out of the studio in New York. Every time you came out, some little kid would clean your windshield, and youd give them a buck. This little girl ran up and was cleaning the window. Bob only had fve dol-lars. I said, Give her the fve dollars, whats the difference? She was so poor, like a little rag doll. Bob called me about an hour later and said, You gotta come up here. He played it for me. It was great.

Youve had extreme highs and lows in life. What was the highest high?The Rock and Roll Hall of

Fame was the cream of my life. We were lucky at the time we [formed the Four Seasons], but

I cant say we werent talented. Frankie [Valli] and his three-and-a-half octave rangeI picked him when he was 15, hangin on the corner. And Bob Gaudio with his ingenuity in writing these songs, and Nick Massi was a master of harmony.

Do you still communicate with Valli and Gaudio?I talked to Frankie two

months ago. Every once in a while hell call and say, How ya doin? I have to give him a lot of credit. I respect what he accomplished, but he went through a lot with the family, losing his daughter. I lost a son, 26 years old. I thought it was [drugs], but it was bad rhythm in his heart. Frankies kind of sick himself. I take up prayers for him, whether Im

mad at him or not. I call Bob once in a while.

Despite quibbles with the story, has Jersey Boys been a positive in your life?I thought to myself, what

a shot in the arm, after all the stuff I went through. Its phenomenal. Like, youre not through with it. Its a nice feel-ing at this age.

Tommy DeVitoThe Four Seasons founder on his Jersey Boys

depiction, his relationship with his former

bandmates and lessons learned doin time

By Steve Bornfeld

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