Broadway To Vegas
SHOW REVIEWS CELEBRITY INTERVIEWS GOSSIP NEWS
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Copyright: August 15, 1999
By: Laura Deni
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FINDING COMFORT IN FOOD
RICKY MARTIN loves junk
food
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Sometimes what you really need is to wrap your mouth around comfort food. The kind of stuff
that makes you feel good. Granted, one man's soul food is another man's heart attack,
but we're not talking nutritional balance. We're touting the benefits of the emotional well being
that only gotta have it foods can supply.
Even glamorous stars, who live on a carrot stick a day, have times when they treat themselves to
feel good foods. When the famous are in distress what pig out foods placate their problems?
RICKY MARTIN prefers Doritos, Snickers and Twix bars. JULIO IGLESIAS, JR, who
performs August 26 at Studio 54 inside the MGM-Grand Hotel, Las Vegas, can't get enough of
either McDonalds or Burger King hamburgers. CHERYL TIEGS is another hamburger lover who
wants a side of french fries and onion rings. KATE WINSLET prefers sausages and
gravy.
LAUREN HOLLY likes potato chips, cheese and crackers and keeps Twizzlers in her dressing
room. CHER, who wraps her tour at the MGM-Grand Aug. 27-28, eats bar-b-que potato chips
and M&M chocolate candies. CONNIE STEVENS can't get enough of red licorice.
Taking comfort in ice cream are MACAULAY CULKIN and his wife RACHEL MINER who dig
into ice cream sundaes. REBECCA ROMIJN-STAMONS wraps her tongue around Haagen-Dazs
Cappuccino Commotion, Dawson's Creek star KATIE HOLMES dives into Ben &
Jerry's Cherry Garcia while SAUNDRA BULLOCK takes solace in any flavor.
DAISY FUENTES after a hand cramping autograph
session would enjoy a sip of champagne Photo By; Laura Deni
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BRITTANY MURPHY eats raw cake batter with a glass of skim milk. BRITNEY SPEARS
wants an Oreo milkshake and mashed potatoes while STEPHANIE SEYMOUR prefers apple pie
with her ice cream. Any kind of pie makes BRAD PITT happy.
Touched By An Angel star ROMA DOWNEY finds heavenly pleasure in a couple of
Guinness Stout while DAISY FUENTES enjoys La Grande Dame Rose Champagne. In the same
mind set is BRIDGET FONDA who goes for Beluga caviar.
DYLAND MC DERMOTT chows down on a chicken salad sandwich with mustard, pasta with
goat cheese and chocolate chip cookies. Also a chocolate chip cookie fan is ANNETTE BENING
who first enjoys pasta and chicken.
MARIAH CAREY goes for chicken tacos while JENNIFER GREY is into lox and cream
cheese. BETTE MIDLER, who brings in the year 2000 by performing in Las Vegas, finds cheer in
eating potato salad made from her mother's recipe.
LORIANNE CROOK will take comfort in any kind of lasagna. RAY ROMANO wants pizza.
PAULA ABDUL reaches for the macaroni and cheese. Another Dawson's Creek star,
MICHELLE WILLIAMS, needs her peanut butter.
LUTHER VANDROSS named after a box of
macaroni
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LAURA SAN GIACOMA has to have
cheese.
Then there is LUTHER VANDROSS. His middle name is RONZONI - his mother named him
after the only kind of macaroni she could keep down while pregnant with him. Luther, who has
been known to enjoy most foods, really delights in the soul food of waffles and chicken sausages.
Most men would follow DIANE SAWYER anywhere but when it comes to her taste in comfort
food ELVIS would head up her food fan club. Diane concocts a bacon, peanut butter, chili sauce
and mayonnaise sandwich.
DEFROCKED JUDGE GETS TALK
SHOW
What happens to a judge who is removed from the bench for controversial behavior? He gets his
own radio talk show.
Richard "Deacon" Jones, a former Douglas County, Nebraska judge who was bounced from the
bench last year, has landed a gig with KFAB radio in Omaha beginning Aug. 23. The opinionated
Jones will host a 7-9 p.m. weekday gab fest.
The Nebraska Supreme Court determined that Jones had violated judicial codes of conduct
because of foul language, abusive temper and an ongoing vendetta against a fellow Judge, Jane
Prochaska. The charges against Jones included setting off firecrackers in Judge Mark Ashford's
office, used offensive terms when discussing Prochaska to other judges, hindering the functioning
of court business by signing court documents with false names such as "Adolf Hitler," "Snow
White" and "Mickey Mouse" and setting bail in amounts such as a "zillion pengos."
KFAB Program Director Kent Pavelka indicated he thinks Jones' sense of humor will translate
well to radio. Perhaps the station intends to pay him in pengos with a check signed by Mickey
Mouse.
PRESLEY KARATE CHOPPED
VEGAS ATTACKERS
Elvis Presley is dead according to official reports, although he seems to be cited everywhere.
Monday, August 16th , is the anniversary of when the King of Rock and Roll departed this
earth.
ELVIS PRESLEY
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It's as good an excuse as any for a party.
From his birthplace in Tupelo, Mississippi to his resting place in Memphis there has been a
week-long frenzy of memorializing and remembering the entertainer who changed the course of
music.
For nearly a decade Presley reigned supreme in Las Vegas, starring at the Las Vegas Hilton. He
was even enshrined in bronze. A statue of swivel hips is on permanent display inside the main
entrance.
Noted for his movements almost as much as his voice Presley understood his attraction."I'm not
kiddin' myself," he had said. "My voice alone is just an ordinary voice. What people come to see
is how I use it. If I stand still while I'm singing, I'm dead, man. I might as well go back to drivin'
a truck."
Back in his fighting weight days Presley could actually deliver the karate chops that he
choreographed into his performances. In March, 1973 he demonstrated that he didn't need all of
those bodyguards that kept a watchful eye on his Vegas shows.
PRESLEY AND guitarist JERRY SCHEFF
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It was the midnight show at the Hilton Hotel, before 1,750 fans. Presely and his bass guitarist,
Jerry Scheff, also a karate expert, immobilized and knocked to the stage floor four men who had
climbed on stage.
The four men, Roberto Alexander McKenzie, his brother Kenneth
McKenzie, Jr., Marcello Jose
Flias and Mario Manuel Martinez said they had climbed on stage
to shake Elvis' hand. Presley
took the move as a threat and an invasion of his act. Presley and Scheff executed a few but
effective chops and punches.
The four men were then set upon by hotel security guards who
were routinely stationed in the
wings and at he edge of the stage. The four were arrested on
drunk charges. Neither Elvis nor
Scheff were injured and neither pressed charges.
That particular engagement wasn't a good one for Presley and
the beginning of his downward
health and performance spiral. The previous week Elvis spent the night in Sunrise Hospital with a
throat ailment. He left the hospital to do the following evening's dinner show. Again becoming ill,
his physician was called and Presley returned to the hospital unable to perform the midnight show.
He died August 16, 1977 thus enabling his fans to elevate him to a larger than life
persona.
He's the focus of a new exhibit at Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, its first devoted to a
Single artist. There are over 100 artifacts - many on display for the first time. Included are; his
high school diploma, Army dress uniform and fatigues, draft card, a shirt Presley wore in
Jailhouse Rock, his Gibson 3-200 guitar, a jacket he wore on The Ed Sullivan
Show, and the suit he wore when he met President Nixon.
Over 700,000 visitors a year pay homage to Presley at Graceland, his home for most of his life
and now his eternal resting place - he's buried on the grounds - where there are also three
restaurants, and shops devoted to selling everything Elvis.
BEST SHOW OF THE SUMMER
GWYNETH PALTROW causing an
uproar
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Oscar Award winner Gwyneth Paltrow has turned the almost jaded Williamstown, Mass. theatre
town into a star struck, ticket buying frenzy.
The glamorous movie star has taken to the stage, starring in As You Like It. As if she
alone isn't enough to make a person venture out on a hot August night, she has two talented, solid
co-stars in Mark Linn-Baker and Lea DeLaria, that make this a triple threat production.
If you could only see one show in August this should have been the production to eyeball. If you
don't already have your tickets, too bad for you. It's a sold out smash.
Paltrow plays Rosaline with Mark Linn-Baker as Touchstone and the bawdy Lea DeLaria is
Audrey. Barry Edelstein directs.
Why doesn't A&E come in, tape this show, and the backstage antics, do interviews and then turn
it into one of their fabulous presentations?
ANOTHER TOUGH TICKET
Another Oscar winner who has returned to the footlights is F. Murray Abraham. He picked a
small 99 seat off-Broadway ArcLight Theatre. Abraham co-stars with Joyce Van Patten in It's
My Party (And I'll Die If I Want To). The production is directed by Jeannie Berlin, daughter
of Elaine May.
The plot line centers around a man who is certain that he has
111 minutes left to live.
It's been 30 years since Abraham was in an off-Broadway
production. Of course, that was
The Fantasticks, which turned itself into an institution.
Now in its 40th year The
Fantasticks can be enjoyed at the Sullivan Street Playhouse.
For Abraham's starring role in an off-Broadway show he's
raking in the off-Broadway big bucks -
that's $300.00 a week.
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Thank you for your interest. Laura Deni P.O. Box 60538
Las Vegas, NV 89160
SWEET CHARITY
LANCE BURTON will host a magic
show Aug. 22 at the Monte Carlo Hotel, Las Vegas, to benefit the Zelzah Shrine Temple of Las
Vegas. Funds raised will help the Shriners assist area children who are in need of medical care.
Appearing with Burton is hypnotist Peter Reveen, magicians The Pendragons, comic-magician
Fielding West, and Canadian magician Greg Frewin. Tickets $20.
JUDITH IVEY stars in Voices
In The Dark at the LongacreTheater, NY.
THE SOUND OF MUSIC starring
Richard Chamberlain opens Aug. 27 at the Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis with performances
through Sept.5
TITANIC opens Aug. 24 Fox
Theatre, St. Louis. Performances run through September 5.
RENEGADE COMEDY THEATRE in Deluth, Minnesota, before moving out of their Holiday Center digs, will
stage one last production, Ian Taylor's Tarantara, Tarantara, a historical and hysterical
look at the famous theatrical team of Gilbert and Sullivan. The production opens Aug. 19 and
continues through Aug. 29. All of their comic operas are featured, including The Mikado,
Pirates of Penzance, and Trial By Jury. The Renegade players will give it their all
in the swan song performance of their existence on the Holiday Center ground floor. The theater
company is being displaced by an Office Depot retail store.
SOCCER PLAYER ACTS Richard
Lester, who kicked the ball around for the New York Cosmos, has taken to the footlights of the
American Theatre of Actors, NYC. He's part of the cast of Pearldivers. In its first
fully staged production, directed by David Hayden, the cast also includes; Tom Delahanty, Calvin
Gladen, Sean Heeny, Kevin Lee, and Michael Worth. Set in London's East End, a squalid squat is
the home of Ally - an Irish Sociopath; The Prof - an English book thief who's unhappy with his
sexuality; and Terry and Ronny - lifelong friends who crossed over from Ireland together and are
content to make a living as Pearldiviers (Casual Dishwashers). Pearldivers is the second
part of a Tricolour Travellers Trilogy, examining the myth of home as seen through the eyes of
the Irish.
A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN the George Abbott, Arthur Schwartz and Dorothy Fields' 1951 musical
based on Betty Smith's popular novel about a troubled Irish family at the Royal Palm Festival
dinner Theater, Boca Raton, Florida through Sept. 12.
LIVE SAX ACTS begins its New
York Theatre Premiere Aug. 24 at DTW Bessie Schonberg Theater. The show is created and
performed by award winners David Dorfman and Dan Froot. The production is the opening
attraction for dance Theater Workshop's Carnival series. Live Sax Acts presents some of
the complexities of friendship, the trials and tribulations of competing male egos, as well as testing
the boundaries, expectations and taboos. Chicago native David Dorfman has been honored with
four fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. Los Angeles based Dan Froot is an
award winning composer, dancer, saxophonist and performing artist.
DUKE ELLINGTON TRIBUTE
Aug. 21 Planting Fields Arboretum, Oyster Bay, NY. Event features Clark Terry, Al Grey,
Marian McParland, Yvette Glover, Savion Glover, and The Pratt Brothers Band.
WHO'S WHERE
B. B. KING BLUES FESTIVAL 1999 starring B.B. King, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Tower of Power and
Indigenous Aug. 21 at the Joe Louis Arena, Detroit.
WYONNA on stage at The Palace
Theater of Myrtle Beach, S.C. Aug. 20
BRIAN SETZER ORCHESTRA
Caesars Palace, Las Vegas Aug. 20-22.
TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS Hard Rock Hotel, Las Vegas Aug. 21
LYLE LOVETT Aug. 19 at the
Portland, Ore. Meadows.
NEIL DIAMOND Aug. 19-20 Rose
Garden, Vancouver.
RAY ROMANO performs at the
Desert Inn, Las Vegas Aug. 20-21.
THIS AND THAT
CAN'T REPLACE THEM the
producers of Death of a Salesman have wisely determined. Thus, when stars Brian
Dennehy and Elizabeth Franz take a well deserved week off beginning Aug. 31 the Tony Award
winning show will go dark until the stars return September 7.
TICKETS GO ON SALE Aug 23
for Dame Edna: The Royal Tour.Show opens at the Booth Theatre, NYC Sept.
15.
CONTACT a dance play by
Susan Stroman and John Weidman in a limited engagement Sept. 9-Nov28 at Lincoln Center,
NYC. Tickets now available.
Mention BROADWAY TO VEGAS for Special Consideration
Call (800) 942-9027
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Next Column: August 22, 1999
Copyright: August 15, 1999. All Rights Reserved. Reviews, Interviews, Commentary,
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