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Author: Patrick Green
ISBN: 0-9759022-8-8
Price: $17.95
Web Direct Price: $9.95
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| Today’s savvy travelers rely on NIGHT+DAY Las Vegas — with its opinionated listings, insightful descriptions, and witty, intelligent writing — to get the sophisticated edge in travel. From the trendiest tables, hippest hotels, top shops and galleries, to the hottest nightspots and coolest attractions, NIGHT+DAY Las Vegas is packed with expert recommendations and insider tips. |
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HOME » DESTINATIONS » LAS VEGAS
NIGHT+DAY LAS VEGAS
With an unparalleled scene, nightlife that goes until dawn, the world’s best chefs competing to outdo each other, and a bevy of once-in-a-lifetime experiences, today’s Sin City is all about excitement.
September Love Letter
As summer winds down, take in the best of Sin City’s culinary scene at a fraction of the price. During Las Vegas Restaurant Week (Aug. 30–Sept. 5), more than 80 restaurants offer prix fixe menus at three different price points, most between $20 and $50 (threesquare.org). One exception is Joel Robuchon’s “Tease in the Kitchen,” an event that’s one part culinary adventure, one part burlesque entertainment, happening Aug. 31 at 10:30pm ($70).
In other F&B news, Numb Bar just opened at Caesars Palace, serving ready-made frozen beverages, custom-blended drinks, and cocktails on the rocks (caesarspalace.com). If draught beer is more your speed, head to New York-New York’s Nine Fine Irishmen (ninefineirishmen.com), McFadden’s at the Rio (riolasvegas.com), or the Mandalay Bay race and sports book (mandalaybay.com), all allow patrons to pull their own pints. For winos, there’s d.Vino Italian Food and Wine Bar at the Monte Carlo (montecarlo.com) and the Hostile Grape at the M Resort (themresort.com); each showcases enomatic dispensers and an extensive by-the-glass menu.
September marks yet another month closer to the debut of the Cosmopolitan, which now has a website, featuring sneak peeks of what’s to come (cosmopolitanlasvegas.com). The other new kid on the block, Rumor (rumorvegas.com), is getting rave reviews for its restaurant, Addiction, while the Tropicana continues its makeover with a comedy club by Everybody Loves Raymond star, Brad Garrett (tropicanalv.com). At the Hard Rock, edgy punk bar Wasted Space is closing (from what we’re hearing some time before spring 2011) to be replaced by a state-of-the-art sports book with wireless betting (hartswastedspace.com).
On September 11, the Erotic Heritage Museum kicks off its second year with an eroticized performance of Shakespeare’s “Salome,” as well as a series of new exhibits. Of note, “Hung In Vegas” will showcase works by artists living with HIV, while the “History of Prostitution” will focus on that oldest and perhaps most disreputable of professions, the sex trade ( eroticheritage.org).
Geraldine Campbell
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LAS VEGAS (2010):
Cirque du Soleil
 Since Cirque du Soleil arrived in Vegas in 1992, its combination of daring feats, spectacular costumes, and state-of-the-art custom-sets, has wowed audiences. The Quebec-based troupe is to the 21st century what Ringling Brothers was to the 19th century: This is what today’s circus looks like. And while there are still clowns, jugglers, and variety acts, the similarities stop there. Las Vegas’ seven Cirque du Soleil shows, from the Beatles-themed Love to the naughty, adults-only Zumanity, are extravagant masterpieces that have come to epitomize Vegas entertainment.
Cirque du Soleil started in 1984, with about 20 performers touring Quebec in what was intended to be “a dramatic mix of circus acts and street entertainment.” When the group made its debut in Sin City eight years later, it was still something of a struggling start-up, a group of contortionists, street performers, and acrobats performing under a blue and yellow big top. But with the opening of Mystere just a year later, the nouveau cirque had officially arrived. Today, the company employs 1,200 performers in more than 50 different countries. In Vegas alone, 450 performers have put on 22,271 shows for more than 33 million guests in the past 18 years.
While there are common elements in each performance, every show is different. The original, Mystere, is most like a traditional circus show, with strong men and an oversized baby-cum-ringmaster, while the newest, Viva Elvis, is more of a musical—a tribute to the King, with acrobatic interludes. And then there is “O” where variety acts meet artful splish-splashing and death-defying leaps into a 1.5 million-gallon pool. From a set perspective, Ka is perhaps the most spectacular, with two moving platforms, five stage lifts, 3,300 lights, and an 1800-pound boat.
The company’s founder, Guy Laliberte, a Quebecois accordion player and fire-eater-turned-billionaire-poker-player, has said that the circus is a great equalizer: “You can have all kinds of people forgetting about where they come from, forgetting their political differences, forgetting about their differences of color, and just being entertained and enjoying the same thing at the same moment.” Which is not so different from what Vegas is all about.
Check out our choice for the world’s foremost Urbanistas in other cities:
The Urbie Awards.
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