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Thursday, October 15, 2009

Garth Brooks defies Encore Theatre curse


Steve Wynn supplied Garth Brooks with a private jet as part of the deal to bring the country-pop star out of "retirement" to Las Vegas for a five-year residency at Danny Gans' "cursed" theatre at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel-casino on the Strip.

Brooks will play four weekend one-man shows a week (one on Fridays and Sundays, two on Saturdays), and may even draw some regular working class folk to the high-end Wynn and Encore hotel casinos on the Strip. They say all tickets will be $125. Brooks says that along with the bundles in cash, Wynn gacve him a jet so "I'd be able to go to soccer games, to practice, all this stuff.

"Taking care of my children and family is so important to me, and that will be the same for the next five years, except I'll play music."

In the five and half months since Danny Gans' death, Beyonce, Whoopi Goldberg and Larry King have taken the stage at the Encore Theater while Wynn hunted for a permament replacement for the unique musical impressionist.

Some in Vegas consider the Encore to be "cursed" in light of Gans' sudden passing, the failures of Broadway transplants Avenue Q and Spamalot, a medical emergency during Goldberg's debut-- and a show starring Larry King.

The Las Vegas Sun noted yesterday:

"Wynn also said in July that while Gans' 'tickets made money but not much,' the show brought visitors into Wynn and Encore restaurants and the casino floor. Wynn called the loss of Gans as a performer at Encore 'not a cataclysmic event by any means' from a business perspective, 'but a personal loss.'"

Photo: Las Vegas Review-Journal

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