There’s a show waiting to replace ‘Spamalot,’ but will Wynn bite?

By Jerry Fink

Monday, April 21, 2008 | 2 a.m.

After the quick closing of “Avenue Q” two years ago and last week’s announcement that “Spamalot” would end its run July 13, it may be a long time before the bright lights of Broadway shine again on a Steve Wynn property.

But that doesn’t mean that musicals have done a swan song on Wynn properties.

There’s a feeling of deja vu when Wynn describes the type of production that would be acceptable to him.

“I’m as dedicated to the musical theater as I ever was,” Wynn said after the announcement was made Thursday that “Spamalot” would end after 18 months. “But I look now for a product, a show, that we can produce ourselves, that we own, that has the musical quality of something as good as the Beatles or something like that. A show that has a capacity for spectacle but has a script that we own and can’t travel and never does get to go to New York — the New York drama critics, if they want to see it, will have to buy a plane ticket and come out here.”

Mr. Wynn, meet Jerry Herman.

Oh, excuse me. You already know Mr. Herman, legendary composer and lyricist known for such classic Broadway musicals as “Mame,” “Hello, Dolly!” and “La Cage Aux Folles.”

When Wynn owned the Mirage in the late 1990s, he commissioned Herman to write a Broadway-like musical for the property. The result was “Miss Spectacular,” the story of a girl from the Midwest trying to make it in Las Vegas.

The show didn’t get off the ground — impressionist Danny Gans came to the Mirage instead — but Herman’s musical is still there, waiting in the wings.

During an interview almost two years ago Herman was still optimistic about seeing his show produced.

“I haven’t given up,” said Herman, now 76. “I would love to have it done, but it needs somebody like a Steve Wynn to get behind it and believe in it. That’s what it needs more than anything else.”

Herman says Wynn was ready to do the show, but then he sold his interest in the Mirage to MGM.

“My contract with Steve was part of that, so suddenly I found that my show was owned by Kirk Kerkorian,” Herman said.

So the show did not go on.

Wynn can be forgiven for being a little gun-shy when it comes to production right now.

He spent millions revamping “Le Reve” to meet his qualifications.

He pulled the plug on “Avenue Q” after only nine months.

And he declined to renew a contract with “Spamalot,” even though the show wasn’t doing that badly at the box office.

“I have no regrets about bringing ‘Spamalot’ ” to his namesake casino, Wynn said.

But he had to decide whether to extend the contract for the production when it ended July 13. And the producers were asking to take the show on the road, he said, which the contract forbids. Also at the same time, Danny Gans was renegotiating his contract at the Mirage. Also at the same time, Wynn was looking for a name entertainer to attach to the Encore, his new resort north of Wynn Las Vegas.

All the pieces of the puzzle fell into place — “Spamalot” is hitting the road, Gans is moving to the Encore theater in February, and “Le Reve” will be the brand for Wynn Las Vegas.

“ ‘Spamalot’ had a good 18 months, bringing in 8,000 to 10,000 people a week,” Wynn said. “Eighteen months is a good run for a Broadway show. Maybe we get another year out of it, but I don’t think of it as long-term as Gans.”

He says Gans is perfect for the Encore theater, which probably will also feature other acts.

“He will anchor the room as a room for performing artists,” Wynn said.

He has always been high on Gans, who debuted at the Stratosphere in 1996, jumped to the Rio in ’97 and moved to the Mirage three years later.

Gans consistently sells out his 1,200-seat theater.

Wynn says only a handful of artists have that kind of drawing power week after week — among them Celine Dion and Siegfried & Roy.

“No one else has been able to do that, not for 40 weeks a year,” Wynn says. “It’s an extraordinarily difficult thing to do. For a man to do it for 5 years or 10 or 13, as Danny has done, means there’s a depth, a richness to his performances that wears well with people.”

Wynn doesn’t see bringing another Broadway show to the Strip, at least not anytime soon.

He says there are three kinds of entertainment — concerts, such as Celine Dion, Danny Gans and all other performing artists; circus shows, such as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey and Cirque du Soleil; and there is legitimate theater — dramas and musicals.

Wynn says Vegas is No. 1 for concerts, but not so hot with the legitimate theater because they are shows you can see elsewhere.

“By the time we get a show it has already been in New York or on tour,” he says. “What does best here is the show that you can’t see anywhere else, like Siegfried & Roy or Danny Gans. Look how well Celine did when she was unavailable in any other city. She did big business, 40 weeks a year, 20,000 people a week. That’s pretty good.”