Herman's Miss Spectacular May Find Las Vegas Future

[Hear the podcast that generated this story here]

According to actress Paige O'Hara, Jerry Herman fans still have a chance of seeing the composer/lyricist's Miss Spectacular reach Las Vegas stages.

In a recent interview on "The Strip" Podcast, co-hosted by Steve Friess and Miles Smith, O'Hara revealed that Herman's lavish musical may yet be produced in Sin City. "Jerry still high hopes for having it done in Las Vegas...is working with other people to get it produced here, and he's hoping he's going to accomplish that...especially with the success of Phantom, I think he has a good chance at it, I think they're more open-minded to it then they were a few years ago."

O'Hara, the musical theatre star currently performing in Menopause the Musical at the Las Vegas Hilton, is attached to star in the prospective project. She relates that Herman (Mame, Hello, Dolly!, La Cage aux Folles) was highly disappointed when original plans for Miss Spectacular fell through.

In development for some years, Miss Spectacular was to have been staged in Vegas in 2004 in a production directed and choreographed by Tommy Tune. In the show, a highly imaginative young woman from Kansas heads to Vegas to pursue dreams of becoming a showgirl. Originally, Vegas hotel entrepreneur Steve Wynn was to have produced Miss Spectacular at the Mirage, but when the Mirage was bought out by the MGM Grand, the merger left no space in which Miss Spectacular could be presented.

A 2002 concept album of the show features Faith Prince, Christine Baranski, Debbie Gravitte, Davis Gaines, Michael Feinstein and more.

O'Hara also told "The Strip" that she is currently on tour with Karen Morrow, Jason Graae and Herman himself in a tour that presents a musical retrospective of the Tony Award-winning composer/lyricist's legendary career. The tour has already played numerous stops around the country and will land at the University of Nevada Las Vegas' Performing Arts Center on October 21st. According to O'Hara, the tour plays mostly college campuses, where master classes are held for students a day before the concert, and where Herman can decide on one student to whom he will donate scholarship money.

O'Hara has appeared on Broadway in Les Miserables, The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Show Boat. Perhaps best known for providing the voice of Belle in the Disney animated film Beauty and the Beast, she has appeared in numerous regional musicals. "Paige O'Hara Sings Jerry Herman" and "Dream with Me" are her solo CDs.

Visit www.paigeohara.com for more information on the performer. To listen to the podcast, visit this link. Tickets to the Jerry Herman tribute tour at UNLV are $35, $50 and $80. Visit www.pac.unlv.edu for tickets, and this link for an entire schedule of the "New York Stage and Beyond" series at UNLV.