ent000832-008

Las Vegas Sun 4/28/74 HALLELUJAH HOLLYWOOD Beautiful to Look At By DUNNE TRAHAN SUN Staff Writer Busby Berkeley and the great Hollywood extravaganza are only a cellulbid memory buried with the elan; of the Ziegfeld era, gum-popping chorus girls and stage-door- Johnnies. The ultimate of nostalgia's rW-born child, the Las Vegas stage show, premiered Friday Bight at the MGM Grand Hotel sacrificing the charm Jnd punch of the Follies for ~e slick sophistication of a wless visual spectacle. .Hallelujah Hollywood is the jlnnacle of a Strip production show. Donn Arden, director of the multi-million dollar, tribute, was commissioned to assemble the most lavish revue in the history of show business and plays every trump known to the theatrical world. Hallelujah does every standard bit one better. Instead of one animal act, the show offers a veritable zoo of wild beasts ranging from* disappearing Siberian tigers to a dolphin encased in a 20 ft. pool. The usual chorus line is replaced by a huge troop of nearly a hundred dancers crowding the gigantic stage. The show offers more costume changes, more songs and more bare skin than any other predecessor. Arden attempts to awe^ his audience with the last word in lavish production but only succeeds in the technical end of the spectrum missing the mark in the talent department. Stunning sets and costumes, affecting a forgotten Hollywood aura of glamor, easily steal the show while the real stars must claim a distant second the artistic opulence. Hallelujah is a visual masterpiece. Every number is perfectly coordinated with flawless staging and striking costumes which makes for, quite ajgt eyeshow. Award winning Hollywood j designers * Bob Mackie^ and : Ray Aghayah drape the cast in great sMi&of feathers and rhinestones. The pair inject a certain amount of verve into the usual showgirl dress of spangles and plumes and THE MUTE ?╟÷ Donn Arden's Halleluiah Hollywood h, among other things, a full grown pirate ship, complete with full-grown pirates ?╟÷ who pillage the village ?╟÷- capture and rape the native girls ?╟÷ only ^o have their ship burn, explode and sink; Hallelujah Hollywood happens twice nightly in the Ziegfeld Room of the MGM Grand Hotel. skillfully add a touch of old time Hollywood to the revue. Art director Michael Knight can also claim quite a large amount of credit for the sets which are a highlight in the well-directed show. Arden made his best bet however when he chose the music for Hallelujah. Songs are taken from the stockpile of MGM musical hits ranging from Cole Porter ballads to Gershwin standards. Although visually the MGM revue lives up to its pretension as a breathtaking extra Vaganza, talent-wise- the show is a little less than spectacular. None of the principle performers are given enough time on stage to develop a rapport with the audience so consequently the stars blur into an indistinguishable mass of frills and dancing feet with the exception of lead nude dancer, Trica Lee. Martin Ross and Diane Findlay are also good while the rest of the cast is highly forgettable. The routine where MGM greats, such as Groucho Marx and Mae West, were parodied was especially painful. The best moments of Hallelujah, however, were a few short film clips representative .of Hollywood former allure. These brief frames rhjade it clear the grandeur of the legendary musical had vanished in a puff of nostalgia, pxtravaganza Las Vegas style is *he new crown- er) king and those who prefer the former glamor as does this reviewer will just have to get used to it.