Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

January 17, 2006 4:58 PM Posted by Mike E

What a great find! The changes sound promising and I look forward to reading more of J Root's blogs.

January 17, 2006 5:00 PM Posted by Hunter

I can't remember how I found it but I've been reading his blog for months. Interesting stuff.

No corner of the Internet is safe.

January 17, 2006 8:11 PM Posted by charlie

I saw Q. Q needs many changes. Its long, very predictable and rather monotonous. Its funny for a teenager, but not for the "Wynn Crowd", and I'm not that old.

Q would be funny if it was impromptu and in a lounge setting. Where the very talented performers could interact with the audience.

Proud to say a caught a $100 20 minute power-nap, before hitting the tables again.

I wanted to support the "theatre thing" in Vegas - but it's not for a Saturday night.

Bottom line - a waste of a beautiful theatre. Give me Dana Carvey or a good concert there, and I would make a special trip to stay at Wynn for that night.

January 17, 2006 8:18 PM Posted by Hunter

Wow, I couldn't disagree with you more.

While I don't think that Q losing the intermission and cutting a small bit of the show to fit in 90 minutes is a bad plan, I would never say that Q needed many changes (and since it still needs to be close to the Broadway version, it won't be changed that much).

Personally, I would pay double what I paid to see 'Q'. I am so glad to have another entertainment option for Las Vegas... As far as Dana Carvey goes, when he's at The Mirage I stay away.

Am I the 'Wynn Crowd'? I don't know. At 27 I'm certainly not the demographic he built the place for but I can say that what he built is what I am looking for, not the pseudo Hollywood crap that the Palms and Hard Rock are selling. At the performance I attended, the entire audience was laughing and there were easily people between 21 and 80 in the audience.

January 18, 2006 2:51 PM Posted by socalduck

I'm glad I saw the "original" version. I could probably have my arm twisted to see Q 2.0, if the opportunity arises.

It really is a great show, and a nice change from the Cirque overkill. So long as the musical numbers don't change, I'm not too concerned the changes will negatively impact the overall experience. It sounds like they thought this through very carefully.

January 18, 2006 6:55 PM Posted by charlie

Note - I did think the first 3 scenes were clever and funny. But, since everyone is dog-piling me on this one, here's some more fuel to the fire.

1. We left at intermission, along with quite a number of people in the audience. Maybe 10:30 on a Saturday night is just too late for this show. Call it competing priorities, or a great meal at Bartolotta but we were sleepy. I really felt that I had scene just about everything the show had to offer.

2. Let me guess, Princeton and the crew all got on there feet. They got a promotion, met the right girl (or guy - Rod), and moved into a better apartment. That story sounds so familiar, could it be based off of just about every college graduate that lives in the (or a) city?

3. The audience was fairly sparse, maybe, and I am being generous, the orchestra was 2/3 full.
I felt like I was attending community/campus theatre at the university auditorium. The set was lousy for a theatre of that caliber and for the cost of the performance. I would expect better from community/campus theate in terms of production. Q belongs on the West Side (Off-Broadway).

4. One last bit of heresy - were they lip-synching? I was 6 rows from the stage, dead-center. The performance/voices just sounded dispersed & hollow, like it was simply coming through amplification (albeit very good amplification). It just seemed curious that I didn't get that intimate & direct projection that you can only get from live theatre.

5. I know you think that "he" doesn't make a mistake. But he does. Dragone was flat out of ideas for Le Reve and Q is a loser for this town. Yeah they will both hang around for awhile, like The Aladdin, but both are misplaced and missteps. I would just as well like to see Jimmy Hopper playing out on the Lake of Dreams, vs. that damn snake or frog. When he bought the Desert Inn in 2000, he was a harsh on Sheraton/ITT has I am now. When they asked Steve about DI's management's missteps he said (after slamming the DI's high-roller suite), "...what they really needed was one hell of a steakhouse."

Well he got one thing right, Wynn does have one hell of a steakhouse. Make that two.

January 18, 2006 9:18 PM Posted by Hunter

First thing, you are certainly entitled to your opinion.

As far as real singing in Q goes, I sat in the first row and they actors were almost spitting on me so I can say that they were certainly singing.

I have an honest question, and I'm not trying to sound snotty at all... Have you been to a lot of shows on Broadway?

I ask only because you were critiquing the set and most Broadway shows I have seen in New York have had very simple sets and staging and it seems like most musicals have pretty simple story lines, often with a lot of re-tread of predictable outcomes. This seems to be especially true of musicals written in the last 10-15 years.

It might seem like I don't think Steve can do wrong but honestly, the guy has made plenty of mistakes. In my mind, his greatest strengths are to, A. see trends before others and B. when wrong, not scared to make changes.

I agree that Le Reve was a mistake and offers very little over 'O'. I just happen to disagree on Avenue Q, a show I really liked.

But, no matter what, I appreciate your comments on the blog - the differences of opinion are what make it interesting and I'm glad everyone keeps it civil. Thank you for putting in your two cents!

January 19, 2006 3:22 PM Posted by Hunter

He details the changes in the comments on his blog, plus the Wikipedia seems to have been updated:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenue_Q#Vegas_Show_Changes

February 15, 2006 7:54 PM Posted by suzanne

Avenue Q is closing on may 28. Too bad, they should really close le Reve