Wynn Las Vegas

YOU'VE probably heard by now that the Wynn Las Vegas is something of a rarity: a new hotel and casino on the Strip that doesn't have an architectural theme, the way the Venetian, the Paris, the Luxor and countless others do. But it turns out the Wynn does have a theme -- just a very odd one: The theme is midrise office tower in Houston, circa 1983. Those ubiquitous commercials may assure us that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

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Watch out, Rodeo Drive. Before the stores had even opened on Friday morning, shoppers were snapping photos of bling-bling in the windows along the Esplanade, the luxury retail row at the new $2.7-billion Wynn Las Vegas resort. In a city that already boasts lots of high fashion for high rollers, the Wynn adds the third Chanel and Dior stores here, along with Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Graff, Judith Leiber, Brioni and Jean Paul Gaultier.

“Le Rêve” is the lavish aquatic spectacle that’s been holding theatergoers in thrall for five years at a theater-in-the-round within Wynn Las Vegas on the Strip. In place of a traditional stage is a huge circular pool that holds 1 million gallons of water and descends to a depth of 26 feet. Performers swoop, splash, dip and dive into this watery abyss while performing dazzling acrobatics, aerials and dance moves. The audience lets out a collective gasp when performers freefall 80 feet from the theater’s domed ceiling into the swirling waters below.

Wynn Resorts Ltd., a casino company led by Stephen Wynn, said it would build a $900-million addition to its $2.7-billion Wynn Las Vegas resort that is opening next year. The expansion may include a 1,500-suite hotel tower, additional casino floor space, restaurants and retail and convention space, the Las Vegas-based company said. Wynn Las Vegas will open in April, with the expansion on an adjacent 20 acres of land to open in 2007.

"Le Reve," the aquatic show at Wynn Las Vegas, has been cut to one nightly performance less than two weeks after it premiered at the new resort. "We need to create an awareness campaign," Wynn spokeswoman Denise Randazzo said. "We will go back to two shows as soon as we can create a demand."

"If this place is so hard to get into, then what's he doing here?" asked 28-year-old Alex Van de Camp, gesturing to an overweight man standing just behind him on the front patio of Drai's, the white-hot new nightclub on the rooftop of the W Hollywood Hotel. Van de Camp's two friends laughed uncomfortably. He had verbalized what generally remains unspoken in Hollywood: the Darwinian nature of the velvet rope. In this case, the strong and beautiful get into Drai's and the weak go to less-discriminating Sunset Strip bars like Saddle Ranch.

The short list of Broadway hits on the Las Vegas Strip is about to get shorter. After a 15-month run, "Monty Python's Spamalot" at the Wynn Las Vegas resort's Grail Theater will close in July, the casino said. Longtime Las Vegas staple Danny Gans, an impressionist and comedian, will replace the Tony-winning musical. "Spamalot" opened in late March 2007 as casino mogul Steve Wynn's second attempt to infuse the city's Cirque du Soleil-dominated entertainment scene with a touch of musical theater.

McCarran International Airport has debuted its $125-million expansion project, which will allow the nation's sixth-busiest airport to handle about 3.1 million more passengers a year. The expansion comes less than two weeks before the scheduled debut of Wynn Las Vegas, a $2.7-billion hotel-casino that is the first of several major additions underway along the Las Vegas Strip.

* Hewlett-Packard Co. said it would buy the assets of Scitex Vision Ltd. of Israel for $230 million to increase sales of machines that print oversized documents. * Nevada casinos pocketed a record $11 billion from gamblers in the last fiscal year, an 8.8% increase over the previous year, helped by the opening of Wynn Las Vegas, according to a state report.

"If this place is so hard to get into, then what's he doing here?" asked 28-year-old Alex Van de Camp, gesturing to an overweight man standing just behind him on the front patio of Drai's, the white-hot new nightclub on the rooftop of the W Hollywood Hotel. Van de Camp's two friends laughed uncomfortably. He had verbalized what generally remains unspoken in Hollywood: the Darwinian nature of the velvet rope. In this case, the strong and beautiful get into Drai's and the weak go to less-discriminating Sunset Strip bars like Saddle Ranch.

Four years after it opened on Broadway, "Monty Python's Spamalot" will finally make its way to L.A. in July as the opening show of the new season at the Ahmanson Theatre downtown. The Tony Award-winning musical, based on the 1975 film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," ended its Broadway run Sunday. Last year, a production opened at the Wynn Las Vegas, starring John O'Hurley. The former "Dancing With the Stars" winner and "Seinfeld" semi-regular will reprise the role of King Arthur at the Ahmanson from July 7 to Sept.

A Las Vegas casino has filed a lawsuit against the NBA and a player's charity seeking payment on a convention bill dating to the 2007 All-Star game. Wynn Las Vegas claims NBA Entertainment, NBA Properties and co-defendant Alonzo Mourning Charities have failed to pay a $50,000 bill for convention and meeting space and related services used during the 2007 NBA All-Star weekend.

Roger Thomas has what many people would consider a dream job: jetting across the globe in search of the finest furnishings and antiques and then buying whatever strikes his fancy -- using someone else's money. That someone else is Steve Wynn, who in 1998 set the standard for luxury in Las Vegas with the opening of Bellagio. A decade later, he's still raising the bar with Wynn Las Vegas, which opened in 2005, and an adjoining new hotel -- Encore -- which will welcome its first guests in December.

The short list of Broadway hits on the Las Vegas Strip is about to get shorter. After a 15-month run, "Monty Python's Spamalot" at the Wynn Las Vegas resort's Grail Theater will close in July, the casino said. Longtime Las Vegas staple Danny Gans, an impressionist and comedian, will replace the Tony-winning musical. "Spamalot" opened in late March 2007 as casino mogul Steve Wynn's second attempt to infuse the city's Cirque du Soleil-dominated entertainment scene with a touch of musical theater.

Dustin and Lindsay Phillips had no idea they were part of the beginning of the end of the Guggenheim's great Las Vegas adventure, a seven-year gamble that is coming to a close with the museum taking its chips -- its paintings -- back home. The Nashville couple hadn't even known there was a Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in the Venetian. They'd come to town "just for Las Vegas," spotted the Guggenheim's entrance around the corner from the hotel-casino's check-in desk, then wandered in.

A $23-million deal is expected to settle four years of lawsuits pitting casino mogul Steve Wynn against the 10 remaining Desert Inn Estates homeowners who had refused to sell him their residences. His firm, Wynn Las Vegas, disclosed Monday in a federal Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it reached a deal Feb. 23 to buy the homes.

Four years after it opened on Broadway, "Monty Python's Spamalot" will finally make its way to L.A. in July as the opening show of the new season at the Ahmanson Theatre downtown. The Tony Award-winning musical, based on the 1975 film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," ended its Broadway run Sunday. Last year, a production opened at the Wynn Las Vegas, starring John O'Hurley. The former "Dancing With the Stars" winner and "Seinfeld" semi-regular will reprise the role of King Arthur at the Ahmanson from July 7 to Sept.

"My mom is the third butt to the right in the sculpture," says Tiffany Koepp, 24. "I watched the unveiling on the local news. It was a big story at the time." Koepp is referring to the famous showgirls sculpture in front of the Riviera on the Strip that since 1997 has been a favorite backdrop for tourists' snaps. Nowadays, Koepp works as the company manager for "X Burlesque," the topless show her mom, Angela Stabile, has produced on the Strip since retiring from the stage.

Where else but in Las Vegas would a con- cierge desk have a guest request a bathtub full of goat's milk (the hotel didn't comply) and another call for a stuffed gorilla to surprise the guest's beloved? In the city that never blushes, outlandish requests and earnest largesse are the order of the day, every day, dozens of times a day. (Nothing lewd, mind you. If it's not legal, the concierge desk won't do it.