‘Lion King’ not (yet) clearing out for Jackson; bankruptcy factors in Smothers Brothers’ stunner

By John Katsilometes

Tuesday, May 18, 2010 | 1:15 a.m.

"Disney's The Lion King" celebrated its first anniversary Saturday. Clearly, it was the time to ponder the late Michael Jackson.

"The Lion King" has survived in an economic jungle without resorting to eating its own paw for survival, but the Mandalay Bay Theater production surfaced unexpectedly in the immediate wake of the announcement that Cirque du Soleil planned to develop a Jackson show in Las Vegas. Cirque says it will stage the show in an MGM Mirage venue, which is not a surprise. Six of Cirque's seven Vegas productions are staged at MGM Mirage hotels. The one that isn't, "Mystere," is at Treasure Island, which was an MGM Mirage hotel until Phil Ruffin purchased it last year.

The Pin-The-Production-On-The-Strip game started swiftly after the Jackson announcement, and Mandalay Bay Theater figured prominently in the discussion. "The Lion King" seems to have the same sort of shelf life experienced by "Chicago" and "Mamma Mia!" previously in the same theater. The argument is, it might make more sense for MGM Mirage to halt its standing Disney production to make room for Jackson than it would to snuff out an existing Cirque show.

But David Schrader, executive vice president of Disney Theatrical Group, says it is way too early to expect the Lion to desert the herd of MGM Mirage hotels.

"It's all speculation," Schrader said during a phone interview Monday morning. "We have an open-ended deal (with MGM Mirage) and we're charging ahead. For (Cirque) to snag a significant property, an awful lot of things would have to come together."

When "Lion King" opened a year ago, skeptics doubted it would be able to sustain an audience through its entire 2.5-hour performance, intermission included. That's inordinately long for a Vegas audience, especially one laden with children. Notoriously, full-length, 2.5-hour productions don't work well in Vegas, where show-goers usually get antsy after 90 minutes or so. But Schrader said there is no talk of cutting the show back, that the audiences stay with the production as-is.

"That's not something we're considering," he said. "There's no talk of it."

"Lion King" is offering a 2-for-1 ticket package through June 20 for Nevada residents with a valid ID (tickets must be purchased before June 1). Once seen as an indication that a show is struggling, locals' ticket specials have become commonplace for most upper-end Strip shows. The hope is that expanding the audience to include a higher ratio of Las Vegas residents will lead to greater tourist appeal, as those who live here suggest shows to those who don't.

"We clearly now are seeing periods of really strong leisure tourism, and periods where it isn't so strong," Schrader said. Late-May and early June are periods where attendance flags. It picks up in the summer.

"We have had some incredibly strong foot traffic, but we need to know how much they are spending," Schrader said. "We need to be in that group of four or five things people feel they need to do in Las Vegas. Summer should be really solid, but we need to account for the periods prior to the invasion."

He means, of theater-goers. Not of Michael Jackson.

Smothers surprise

The announcement by Tom and Dick Smothers on Sunday that they were retiring from the stage took the audience at Orleans Showroom by surprise (read this account of the show from my colleague April Corbin). But the likelihood that the brothers would call it quits was evident in February, after Dick Smothers' Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. I found a months-old reference to this probability Monday while poking around for information on the brothers' performing career, which dates to 1959 and ended this weekend.

Dick Smothers, the one with the mustache and without the yo-yo, filed for bankruptcy protection in federal court Feb. 17 in Tampa, Fla. He has a home in an exclusive residential area, Bird Key, near Sarasota. According to a story from HeraldTribune.com of Sararasota, Smothers' attorney wrote in a court filing that the 71-year-old entertainer "has no stable source of income at the present as his brother, the other half of his comedy act, is contemplating a complete cessation of his entertainment work, and bookings for future shows are inconsistent."

That "complete cessation" is in line with Smothers' sagging income. Having made $43,300 per month from Smothers Brothers shows during the duo's tours across the nation, he reported that he expected to see his monthly income drop to $7,400 (in Social Security and pension payments) after the duo stopped performing. And that happened, strangely enough and with scant fanfare, this weekend in Las Vegas.

We'll stand

Andy Rooney used his 1 minute, 42 seconds of network airtime Sunday night to state that a drop in gambling revenues from last year is a good thing. The house always wins, Rooney reminds, and those who play as if they can win are actually losers.

"Suckers, is what we are," he droned, starring dully into the camera. He also intoned, "There's only so much money in the world, and if it's lost at a gambling table, it's money that isn't spent on things America makes. I mean who's best for this country — a machinist at an automobile plant in Detroit or a blackjack dealer in Las Vegas?"

That depends, Andy. What if the machinist is single and the blackjack dealer is supporting a family, and one of those kids might grow up to be someone important? Like, a network TV executive who ignores critics and continues to provide a weekly forum for an enfeebled yet inexplicably popular broadcaster?

How do you measure, exactly, the value of an experience in life, and who is or isn't "best for the country?" Most people enjoy games of chance without tail-spinning into financial ruin, understanding to win is to beat the odds and having fun trying to beat the house. They seek an emotional boost in the same way they spend money on films, concerts, sporting events or production shows. It is a form of entertainment. If you believe that, ask: Is the machinist at an automobile plant in Detroit better for the country than the guy who helped build that city's Ford Field? Is the machinist better for the country than the woman who works the box office at the home of the Detroit Lions, a team whose purpose is to play football for the entertainment of fans across the country — including machinists?

Rooney says, "gambling produces nothing." Wrong. Gambling seeded Las Vegas. Love it or not, it is something.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.