LAS VEGAS -- And just when you thought it was safe to return to the Vegas showrooms comes the news that Michael Flatley's "
Lord of the Dance" has made a surprise comeback. The show ran for decades (or at least it felt like decades) at New York-New York, but closed earlier this year to make way for a new Cirque du Soleil production. But it's hard to keep a good Irish jig down, and the show has now moved into the showroom at the Venetian for an open-ended run.
The best nontraditional marketing award goes to the people at
The Palms, the new (as of last year) hotel-casino just off the Strip, which as been showing up pretty much everywhere on television. It of course played host to MTV's "Real World," which in between frequent bouts of roommate hijinks basically plays like an extended ad for the hotel.
A few weeks ago, the hotel hosted a different type of hijinks when the WB's "Jamie Kennedy Experiment" invaded with hidden camera antics, including a very funny fake wedding in Ghost Bar.
But the biggest coup may have been the hotel's appearance in a couple episodes of one of the highest-rated shows on television, "C.S.I." on CBS. Some nervous suit types may have sweated a bit over the storylines, which saw a poker player get poisoned and a movie star commit a gruesome double murder, but the hotel came off as a flashy, slightly decadent playground for the hip and happening, an image they've been successfully cultivating since before the doors opened.
While judges and lawyers are trying to decide the future of the
bankrupt Aladdin, more bad news came a few weeks ago as the adjoining Desert Passage mall closed its money-losing food court. The themed mall was considered to be one of the only successful aspects of the troubled Aladdin, but news of the food court's demise could contradict that theory, especially since such venues are traditionally one of the highest revenue generators in malls. Word on a new owner for the Aladdin is expected to come in the next couple of months.
And finally, the
bad luck award goes to the Skillet Cafe on West Charleston Boulevard, about 3 miles west of the Strip. The 1950s-style diner on the busy road was damaged a few weeks ago when a car left the road and plowed into the wall, causing minor injuries and a lot of broken glass.
Nine days later, as the owner was receiving estimates for repairs, another car flew off the road and crashed into the building, this time causing much more serious damage and sending eight people to the hospital with relatively minor injuries.
I'm thinking that this is now the absolutely safest place on earth to have lunch. I mean, what are the odds of it happening a third time?
This Week's Trivia
Q: Excluding IMAX and other speciality theaters, how many first-run movie theater complexes are located directly on the Strip between Mandalay Bay and Stratosphere?
ANSWER
The Weekly Trivia Question is sponsored by the
Online Memorabilia Museum at Vegas4Visitors.com
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