Revised 'Phantom' Going to Las Vegas
By JESSE McKINLEY

Published: July 25, 2004

Andrew Lloyd Webber, the British impresario who brought singing cats, flying chandeliers and other splashy special effects to Broadway, is preparing to mount what may be the most expensive theatrical production of all time: a $35 million Las Vegas production of his blockbuster musical "The Phantom of the Opera."

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Officials with Clear Channel Entertainment, the show's co-producer, said late last week that the Las Vegas "Phantom," cut to roughly 90 minutes and radically restaged, would open in a custom-made $30 million theater at the Venetian hotel and casino in early 2006.

Their hope is to sell the show, one of the longest running, most successful and widely seen musicals ever — its cumulative world gross, since opening in London in 1986, is $3.2 billion — as a new experience to millions of Las Vegas vacationers, bored gamblers and musical theater fans.

"We understand the power of a universal and marketable brand," said Scott Zeiger, the chief executive of Clear Channel's theatrical division. "We've seen Las Vegas emerge as the second-largest live entertainment market in North America, after New York, and we believe that `Phantom' is perhaps the most popular entertainment property ever. So we think it's a perfect match."

The souped-up "Phantom" is the second major Broadway production to recently announce long-term plans in Las Vegas. Early last month producers of "Avenue Q," the Tony Award winner for best musical, announced that they would forgo a traditional tour in favor of an extended run in Las Vegas, a move that surprised much of Broadway and upset many theater presenters on the road.

The "Phantom" announcement is less of a shock — the rumor that it would move West has circulated for nearly two years and has recently been the source of heated speculation online and in Las Vegas newspapers — but nevertheless seems to signal a rapidly evolving relationship between Broadway and the Las Vegas Strip.

Broadway boosters say this new connection is the result of the explosive growth of Las Vegas as an entertainment outpost as well as the continued strength of Broadway, which has seen a 30 percent increase in attendance over the last decade.

"These hotels are under such pressure to differentiate their brand, because the gambling is the same everywhere," said Jed Bernstein, the president of the League of American Theaters and Producers. "So what helps them be different is the entertainment, and Broadway has become that type of popular entertainment currency."

In the case of "Phantom," that currency is being minted by a host of A-list Broadway names, including the show's original director, Harold Prince, who will direct the new "Phantom," and the architect and set designer David Rockwell ("The Rocky Horror Show," "Hairspray"), who will design the theater at the Venetian.

For Lord Lloyd Webber, who composed the musical and originally produced it with Cameron Mackintosh, the open-ended run in Las Vegas represents the culmination of a project that he first conceived in the mid-1990's as well as an opportunity to attract some of the 35 million tourists who visit Las Vegas annually. (Mr. Mackintosh is not involved in the Las Vegas production.) Meetings with Mr. Prince about how to reshape and trim the show began in earnest last year in New York and London.

In a statement, the composer, currently finalizing a film version of the musical, called the deal an "exciting development in the `Phantom's' long life." Mr. Prince, speaking through a show spokesman, echoed that, promising "some new surprises" from the Las Vegas production.

It will not be the first time Lord Lloyd Webber has put down roots in Las Vegas. His 1984 musical "Starlight Express," which included stage tricks like dancers on roller skates, ran for four years to middling success in the mid-1990's at the Las Vegas Hilton.

Since then, however, Las Vegas audiences, long treated to a nonstop barrage of tribute shows and fading lounge singers, have shown signs of embracing Broadway-style musicals. In February of last year, for example, "Mamma Mia," a runaway international hit based on the music of the Swedish supergroup Abba, opened a permanent run at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, where it has consistently sold out. That followed a successful yearlong run by the musical "Chicago," widely considered a trailblazer, which opened at the Mandalay Bay in 1999.