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ent000830-011
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    University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Libraries

    NIGHTS & DAYS IN LAS VEGAS Pzazz '6S is coming to the Desert Inn, opening in the Crystal Room September 28. A revue artfully created, staged1 and directed by Donn jfcrd.en and produced by Frank Sennes. Starred in the show will be the Snyder Brothers, Rudy Cardenas, The Agostinos, Galla Shawn. Production numbers will be built around a group of 18 girl dancers, IS show girls, nine boy dancers, nine boy singers and six principal girl singer-dancers. "Pzazz" 68 will feature scenes based on the great glittering era when Hollywood reigned supreme in the world of film and fame. There will be a Fred As- taire - Ginger Rogers tableau with a stage backed by mirrors, a salute to motion pictures incorporated a real life waterfall, a boom town episode complete with burning oil field and a finale reminiscent of the time of the Foreign Legion, recalling the days of Beau Geste Should be a great Show!! WHERE I STAN0 HANKGREENSPUN The first night curtain comes down. The critics rush to their typewriters and the newspaper presses are held until the last line which can send a performer . zooming to heights never before reached in the entertainment world, or break the hearts of the cast and the producers. And all the while the typewriters pound, so do the hearts of those waiting for the reviews. They wait in dressing rooms, too nervous to see or talk to anyone. They sit in fancy restaurants but can't eat?╟÷it's a waiting period with the performer existing in a vacuum. All the compliments, flattery and laudation of the audience do not quite fill the void of that almost desolate period from the time the curtain closes to the moment they open the newspapers to see what the critics have to say. Of course, that's the way it's done in New York with the big Broadway shows and stars and big newspapers. Las Vegas is a small town, comparatively, with newspapers which can't afford to hold up thp presses merely for a show review?╟÷and if we could, who'd do the review? It is a small town in everything hut entertainment, for nowhere do the entertainment lights gleam brighter. Las Vegas today is the entertainment capital of the world and the shows open and close and performers, with baited breath and halted hearts, wait for critics' reviews which just don't appear. The columnists might mention the performance in passing some few days later, but the excitement of show openings is missed entirely by the newspapers. From the time the curtain went up on the show at the Desert Inn Thursday night no one could have had any doubts as to the reviews. Naturally the performers, the producers, directors and staff all wailed expectantly, but they needn't have worried because it is a smash hit. In the movies they give four stars to the best pictures and on Broadway the critics rave means a long run. There's no question that this fabulous production rates as many stars as there are in the heavens and critics raves from coast to coast. Like a meteor flashing across the night skies blazing a trail of brilliant light and fantastic beauty, "Pzaazz ! 68" opened at the Desert Inn. Frdtn the rousing opening to the resplendent closing the audience sat electrified and entranced knowing they were watching cne of the greatest shows ever produced in Las Vegas, or anywhere else for that matter. "Pzazz" has only one place to go, after it runs here for a year or so, and that is Broadway. in New York 1 have seen the best Of them?╟÷Flo Zeigfield's Follies, George White's Scandals, Earl Carroll's Vanities. I was in the audience on opening nights at the New Amsterdam Theater and the Winter Garden, so I feel like I have some background to be a critic. * Not even the best of Zeigfield can compare with what is presently on the stage of the Desert Inn. It reminded me of a Broadway opening where the audience is so carried away that they rise as one at the close of the show and start calling "author, author". They called for them at the Desert Inn too and got them all. Walter Fitzpatrick, welcomed the audience and introduced Bob Maheu who brought greetings from Howard Hughes. In turn ; he introduced those responsible for the show, Frank Serines, and Donn Arden, and the latter paid tribute to all the members of the cast and crew. It was a sentimental moment and so emotional that I even saw a few tears of joy stream down the faces of the cast and some of the audience. I have watched Donn Arden since the Desert Inn opened in 1950, and although my eyes are getting a little tired, I have to say this is the most beautiful aggregation of gorgeous girls I have ever seen on one stage, and they were put there by a guy with a reputation for finding beautiful girls. Everything was perfection- fantastic sets?╟÷special effects with over 25,000 bulbs lighted at one time. . .125 beautifully colored birds in one scene and dozens of other spectacular innovations. The costumes were elegant.. .sets unique. Zeigfield in his finest day never did anything like this. What was so delightful were the refreshing young faces of the stars, the entertaining acts and the new talent. The Snyder Brothers are fantastic dancers, comics and singers. This was the first time I had ever seen them?╟÷or even heard of them?╟÷but they are names to remember for they became headliners overnight. A last minute addition to the show?╟÷his name doesn't appear on the program?╟÷was one of the freshest, brightest young comedians. . .Jeremy Vernon. Rudy Cardenas, one of the world's finest jugglers amply proves his right to that title, and famed Irish tenor John McCormack would have been justly proud of his 23 year old grand-niece, Bambi McCormack. Every single act was top caliber?╟÷professionalism at its finest. Each act, each number was so beautifully produced, so re- freshing and delightful, that it would be impossible to choose ; a show highlight. There is something for everyone from the psychedelic lighting effects, the modern boomtown, the fabulously beautiful rnirrored ballroom numbers, the lovely, nostalgic and sometimes comic routines of the Bob Hope-Bing Crosby-Dorothy Lamour Poly- nesian Paradise, and the authentic, rousing and dramatic Beau Geste number at the end of the show. They even wrap those beautiful girls in Christmas ribbons in one number and they look so delectable you wish you could be Santa Claus. It was the most stupendous production ever brought to Las Vegas. It has to be a hit from now on, for it is an all-time winner. There's no question about it?╟÷ from now on in Las Vegas the word is "Pzazz!" Arden, whose revue, I "Pzazz! 68," opens at Las Vegas'I Desert Inn Thursday (28), in May| will stage eighth edition of "Le Lido De Paris" at Stardust, Las'.