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Hairspray - Opens at the Luxor in Late February

As I mentioned in a previous column, Las Vegas is going Broadway, with some of the biggest hits from the New York stage coming to town as permanent fixtures. There’s a lot of buzz about Hairspray, which will open at the Luxor in February.

This musical comedy phenomenon is a winner of eight 2003 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Score and Best Director.

It opened on Broadway in 2002 and takes audiences back to 1962 Baltimore, as 16-year-old Tracy Turnblad sets out to dance her way onto TV’s most popular show.

It’s a fun show as you might gather from the reviews it got from The New York Times: “IRRESISTIBILE! If life were everything it should be, it would be more like Hairspray.” The New York Post called it “A great big fat gorgeous hit.”

The only change from the Broadway production is that Hairspray will be modified and run without intermission. We like things to move along here in Las Vegas. Can’t have people watching shows for too long when they should be gambling. Tickets are priced at $85, $65 and $25, with limited $120 Producer’s Circle seats also available. Those are great prices for any show on the Strip.

If you like comedy, and who doesn’t need a good laugh these days, you might want to catch Rita Rudner at Harrah’s Rincon on Nov. 10. I recently talked to Rita about her career and how she ended up in Las Vegas with her own show and own theater at New-New York where she appears nightly, except when she takes a break to perform outside Las Vegas.

First off, did you know she started out as a dancer, leaving her Miami home at the age of 15 to seek fame and fortune in New York? “I wanted to be a dancer on Broadway and nothing was going to stop me.” She checked into a hotel for women and started pounding the pavement. Within a few months, she landed her first job and for the next 10 years, Broadway was her home. But in the early ’80s, Rita said, “I decided to leave it. I was in my sixth Broadway show and I looked around and asked myself, ‘What area of show business isn’t crowded?’ And I came up with female comedian.”

The reasons for the switch in careers, she says, is that “whenever I would go for an audition, there would be at least a thousand people for one part. I also wanted to be more independent in the sense of doing things for myself. When you’re a dancer, you move the way other people have choreographed the number; if you’re an actor, you speak words other people have written. I got tired of people telling me what to do.”

She started writing material for herself, asking “What’s unique about me? How can I write a joke? It took me two years to write two minutes of material.” Her first time on stage, at New York’s Catch A Rising Star comedy club, Rita says “was very scary. I remember wearing a denim skirt and red-checked blouse. I was dressed like a cowgirl for some reason.”

She later met husband, Martin Bergman, and the two of them found they made a great team. “He comes up with the ideas and I do them.” They turned their talents to screenwriting, and for 10 years worked and lived in Hollywood. It wasn’t very satisfying. “In Hollywood,” Rita says, “it’s very frustrating, because so much of your work is in development and very few things ever get made.” Las Vegas was the answer. “We liked Las Vegas because we got to do things. I kept coming here more and more often to perform. I went from the Hilton, to MGM and then New York-New York built me my own theater.”

There’s a good reason for that — she has earned it and deserves it. Catch her show at Harrah’s Rincon.

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