Yes, the musical numbers are big crowd pleasers, but there’s a lot more to this show than the music. IMHO, the big reason the show is a hit with critics and audiences (as opposed to Ring of Fire, Good Vibrations, Lennon, All Shook Up, etc) is that it has a good, solid story that pulls in the audience and keeps them captivated for the length of the show.

Look at Avenue Q. It’s a terrific little show with a subtle, meaningful life-lesson plot. For almost three years now, New York audiences are filling the theatre every night, standing on their feet cheering, and the crowds in Las Vegas are staying away in droves. Spamalot and Hairspray have sold their souls to the Las Vegas devil and cut their shows down (at about 110 minutes on Broadway, I was amazed that Spamalot was still considered too long for Las Vegas). Despite Steve Wynn’s blustering, Las Vegas and Broadway shows just don’t mix.

Let Las Vegas do what it does best: T&A, stand-up comics, over-the-hills pop stars (Barry Mannilow), marginally-talented, over-produced bleaters (Celine Dion) and let Jersey Boys play to real audiences, in real theatres, in real cities.