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14 Part IV~Fri.July 11,1969 Eogt %wtU* tEimgg ?╟≤ Pzazz'70 Musical Opens in Las Vegas BY CHARLES CHAMPLIN Times Entertainment Editor VFGAS VISITOR LAS VEGAS?╟÷This citadel of chance may well be the entertainment capital of the world, but holding onto the title and making it pay is no easy matter. A lot of the reigning attractions in show business aren't the sort who attract the high-rollers or even customers who can legally buy booze. And the world's supply of Frank Sinatras, who lure the booze-buyers and the gamblers, is severely limited. Increasingly, the town has gone to spectaculars in lieu of spectacular singles -?╟÷the Lido Show, Folies Bergere, shrunken Broadway musicals. One of the most spectacular of the spectaculars, tasteful, vivid and witty, was the Desert Inn's Pzazz '68, which proved that if the spirit is strong you don't need flush. Pzazz 70 (And All That Jazz, Baby), the second edition of the Desert Inn frolic, was previewed for an invitational black-tie audience Wednesday night, with personal greetings expressed by the hotel's general manager, Walter B'itzpatrick, on behalf of the hotel's owner and penthouse resident, Howard Hughes. Hard to Beat Pzazz 70 mostly proves that Pzazz '68 was a hard spectacle to follow. But it still proves that Las Vegas, and producer Frank Sennes and director Donn Arden, can outdazzle and outsplendor the display visible anywhere else. And once again, pretty refreshingly, it proves that the effects can be sexy even if the form divine remains substantially shrouded in mystery. It is a G-rated musical which will nevertheless not leave the adults with any pained sense of cultural deprivation. As before, the costumes (by Bill Campbell) avoid a rainbow gaudiness in favor of disciplined blacks and whites, golds and whites and pinks and whites. The sets (by Harvey Warren) revolve and transmute themselves in an ingenious style reminiscent of Sean Kenny, reaching a triumph off' sorts and a number cf~ brating the celebration > Oi Chicago in the reportedly Roaring Twenties. The opening set is a psychedelic pattern of thousands of light bulbs, d i s p elling immediately any doubts that spectacle is the order of the night. Interspersed with the production numbers are vaudeville turns including a juggler, Montego, who dresses Hamlet - like in black tights and opens his act by juggling bare bodkins. Also on view are some tap dancers, The Little Steps, a male duet?╟÷Monroe and Whiting?╟÷in the Righteous Brothers tradition, magician Marvin Roy and comic Will Jordan. Jordan made the mistake of opening with tired patter before getting to his often remarkable impersonation of Ed Sullivan, Bing Crosby and Sabu, among others. Swing Bands The book numbers celebrate the swing bands of the '30s, St. Louis, San Francisco, Memphis, Hollywood and Harlem. The cast is numerous, young and handsome, but what sets Pzazz 70 rather disappointingly apart from its remarkable ancestor is the substitution of camp for wit, the lack of real invention. It retains the florid and p r e p o sterous nonsense which makes Las Vegas different from Grand Island, Neb., and even Santa Barbara. But the knowledgeable and delicious tributes to Hollywood musicals which were a stunning feature of the earlier show have no counterparts this time around. Pzazz 70 is an amusing and entertaining 100 minutes, but it's not a classic and all that jazz, baby. PZAZZ-ERS - Singers Jimmy Michaels and Wayne Al- britton, holdovers from the last Pzazz spectacular, are a new rock singing team spot-lighted in the new "Pzazz '70 and All That Jazz Baby" which opened July 70 at the Desert Inn. Las Vegas, Nevada Vegas Visitor (Cir. W. 45,000) JUL 241969 -AtLn* P.CB. Est. 1888 "PZAZZ '70" IMPORTS - Singing stars of the new Desert Inn superspeetacular, Britisher Barry Monroe (left) and Canadian Ed Whiting so impressed producer Frank Sennes in their Las Vegas debut last summer, they were immediately signed for the new Donn Arden productions. yr