Hairspray at the Luxor Casino and Hotel, Las Vegas/Gambling Fantasies

Tracy Turnblad seeks local fame by dancing her way onto The Corny Collins Show. Played by Katrina Rose Dideriksen in this Rhythm and Blues stage musical at the Luxor Theater (which is part of the Luxor Casino and Hotel complex) in Las Vegas Nevada. www.lasvegashows.com Tracy gets an opportunity to dance on the show and is recognized for her star potential. Does instant fame go to her head causing her to seek perfume endorsement deals? No! She becomes a social reformer initiating a campaign to include the sons and daughters of Rock and Rolls prime movers and original innovators: the Rhythm and Blues musicans and singers of the late 1940's and early 1950's. Hairspray is a social commentary on the historical cultural relationships between groups of Americans that were unnaturally separated by the economic conditions of that era. It is ironic that today those barriers are gone and that some American's choose cultural separation through their choice of music, magazines and films.

This version of Hairspray is a shortened version of the Broadway hit. I did not mention the older members of the cast because this musical has become part of the language in the media and most american's are familiar with those performers. My focus is on up-and-coming talent. There is not much information available on Katrina Rose Dideriksen because she is so new to the stage. I'm sure we will be reading and writing a lot more about her in the future.

A dance called The Madison is the focal point of this colorfully staged production of the Broadway hit (and long-running ) musical Hairspray at this luxorious theater. A line dance with choreographed moves like the Double Cross, Cleveland Box and the Birdland and as many variations as their are locales in the shows Baltimore, Maryland broadcast area.

You Can't Stop the Beat is the song that best describes this musical: Because the world keeps spinning round and round and my heart's keeping time to the speed of the sound, I was lost untill I heard the drums, then I found my way because you can't stop the beat. And you can't stop new talent either. Katrina Rose Dideriksen is an earnest Tracy Turnblad performed to a standing ovation.

The Madison music and the several groups that used it as their theme vehicle was a typical of the feelgood music of that long gone era. 1962 was probably the height of group dancing popularity, so growing in complexity that it was superceeded by the simplest dance of all, The Twist.

Gambling in Las vegas. There are all kinds games to be played in Vegas. You will note that in the other United States that have legalized gambling it is called Gaming, which lets you feel much better about any money lost. It is just another type of entertainment that you can breakdown to what it costs per hour, how expensive it is depends on how much you wager.
The most interesting action is found in the Sports Books. What a fanatsy, being a fulltime wiseguy betting on the games as the seasons finish with their championship games and the training camps start for whichever sport that is starting it's season. There are very few days a year when a pro game is not being contested. Even Christmas day has several big games that get so much media attention they seem more important than they really are, because they don't have a great effect on the league standings.

Odds, point spreads and lines are posted for college and professional games shown live on GIANT SCREEN televisions with bets only being taken on events taking place outside of Nevada. Perhaps this is the reason why Las Vegas, the fastest growing city in the United States, does not have professional teams of it's own. The gambling fortunes made there could buy a couple of entire pro regional divisions.

Futures bets are offered as well as straight, real-time wagers. One spring baseball season I figured that since there were so many big-name trades that the betting lines would be off until the season had progressed through some of the early regional series matchups. The house was right , as usual 97.35% of the time. Another early retirement dream dashed.

Thoroughbred horse racing is becoming a thing a thing of the past. Live closed-circuit broadcasts from race tracks allow coast-to-coast wagering and is killing off attendence at the grandstands along the final stretch.

The Race Books provide local newspapers, racing forms and tout sheets offering information on races from tracks in California, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey and New York but with all the information available it is still instincts over all else in picking the ponies.

Some railbirds spend their entire adult lives trying to develop "Surefire systems to pick the winners." You don't have to develop one from scratch. Barnes & Noble Booksellers and Borders really serve us well by carrying a large selection of gambling books than ever before. Although buying books over the internet is inexpensive and fast the big mall bookstores really serve us well. Gambling books is one of those subjects that it is worth while to make the trip to the mall. The books are written with various "attitudes" and have personalities. Amarillo Slim has written several books that are funny as well as informative about his lifetime spent successfully gambling.

I have had some funny experiences playing cards and I was suprised to find out that any type of gambling over the internet is illegal in the United States. The American operators of online casinos have warrants out for their arrest and cannot reenter the US from the countries that they operate their businesses in, they have become "men without countries". This was an ancient legend, a cautionary tale taught to schoolchildren to instill a fear of loss of their citzenship if they were unpatriotic in thought or deed. It appears this has become a reality for those online entrepreneurs. This will change as soon as the reveneuers figure out a 100% method of taxing every transaction.