Singular and star-studded writings on Americas neon-lit playground At once a Technicolor wonderland and the embodiment of American mythology, Las Vegas exists at the Ground Zero of a reverence for risk-taking and the transformative power of a winning hand. Jake Johnson edits a collection of short essays and flash ideas that probes how music-making and soundscapes shape the City of Second Chances. Treating topics ranging from Cher to Cirque de Soleil, the contributors delve into how music and musicians factored in the early development of Vegass image; the role of local communities of musicians and Strip mainstays in sustaining tensions between belief and disbelief; the ways aging showroom stars provide a sense of timelessness that inoculates visitors against the outside world; the link connecting fantasies of sexual prowess and democracy with the musical values of Liberace and others; considerations of how musicians and establishments gambled with identity and opened the door for audience members to explore Sin Cityonly versions of themselves; and the echoes and energy generated by the idea of Las Vegas as it travels across the country.
Contributors: Celine Ayala, Kirstin Bews, Laura Dallman, Joanna Dee Das, James Deaville, Robert Fink, Pheaross Graham, Jessica A. Holmes, Maddie House-Tuck, Jake Johnson, Kelly Kessler, Michael Kinney, Carlo Lanfossi, Jason Leddington, Janis McKay, Sam Murray, Louis Niebur, Lynda Paul, Arianne Johnson Quinn, Michael M. Reinhard, Laura Risk, Cassaundra Rodriguez, Arreanna Rostosky, and Brian F. Wright
Preface Introduction: Flash!--Splash
Jake Johnson
Part One: The Road to Vegas
1 On the Edge of the Desert
Robert Fink
2 Reimagining the Popular on the Vegas Circuit: Helen Traubel, Diva
Populism, and the Labor of Publicity
Michael M. Reinhard
3 It Was Better When the Mob Ran the Town
Janis McKay
Part Two: Overheard
4 Music as Misdirection
Jason Leddington
5 Presence, Absence, and Live Virtuality: Soundscapes in Cirque du Soleil on
the Las Vegas Strip
Lynda Paul
6 Pura Alegria: Young Adult Musicians Learning Mariachi in Schools and
Participating in the Las Vegas Mariachi Scene
Cassaundra Rodriguez and Celine Ayala
Part Three: Second Chances
7 The Master and the Mob: NoĖl Cowards Musical Identity in the Golden Age
of Las Vegas
Arianne Johnson Quinn
8 Elvis in Vegas: The King of Rock n Roll and the City of Second Chances
Brian F. Wright
9 Celine Dion and Chers Vegas Residencies: The Envoiced and Embodied
Spectacle of Feminine Aging on the Vegas Stage
Jessica A. Holmes and Michael Kinney
Part Four: Virtuoso Fantastique
10 Viva Viagra: Vegas, Elvis, and A Little Blue Pill
James Deaville and Kirstin Bews
11 Shall We Go for It? The Hermeneutics of Celine Dions Las Vegas Show
Sam Murray
12 Liberaces Surfaces: Democratic Virtuosity, American Fantasies, and Vegas
Pianism
Pheaross Graham
Part Five: Making Book
13 Comedy Tonight: Broadway Musicals on the Las Vegas Strip
Arreanna Rostosky
14 Trouble Is, We Dont Make the Rules: The Las Vegas Years of Jazz and
Classical Violinist Ginger Smock
Laura Risk
15 For Adult Audiences Only: A History of LGBTQ Performers on the Las
Vegas Stage
Louis Niebur
Part Six: Leaving Vegas
16 The Real Deal: Impersonation and the American Dream in Branson and Vegas
Joanna Dee Das and Maddie House-Tuck
17 Salaciously Family Friendly: The Unlikely Porousness of Sin City and the
American Boob Tube
Kelly Kessler
18 Representation and Value in Michael Daughertys Las Vegas Works
Laura Dallman
19 Specters of Mine: Musicological Research in the Desert of the Opera
Carlo Lanfossi
Contributors
Index
Jake Johnson is an associate professor of musicology at Oklahoma City University. He is the author of Mormons, Musical Theater, and Belonging in America and Lying in the Middle: Musical Theater and Belief at the Heart of America.
