Description

Book Synopsis
Singular and star-studded writings on America’s 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 Vegas’s 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 o

Table of Contents
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: Noël Coward’s 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 Cher’s 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 Dion’s Las Vegas Show

Sam Murray

12 Liberace’s 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 Don’t 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 Daugherty’s Las Vegas Works

Laura Dallman

19 Specters of Mine: Musicological Research in the Desert of the Opera

Carlo Lanfossi

Contributors

Index

The Possibility Machine

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    £87.55

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    RRP £103.00 – you save £15.45 (15%)

    Order before 4pm today for delivery by Sat 4 Jul 2026.

    A Hardback by Jake Johnson, Celine Ayala, Kirstin Bews

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      Publisher: University of Illinois Press
      Publication Date: 10/10/2023
      ISBN13: 9780252045417, 978-0252045417
      ISBN10: 0252045416
      Also in:
      Media, entertainment, information

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Singular and star-studded writings on America’s 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 Vegas’s 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 o

      Table of Contents
      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: Noël Coward’s 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 Cher’s 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 Dion’s Las Vegas Show

      Sam Murray

      12 Liberace’s 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 Don’t 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 Daugherty’s Las Vegas Works

      Laura Dallman

      19 Specters of Mine: Musicological Research in the Desert of the Opera

      Carlo Lanfossi

      Contributors

      Index

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