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Liberace Museum
	Location: Just Off The Strip Address: 1775 East Tropicana Avenue Local: 702-798-5595 Website: Liberace Museum Price: $12.50 Adults $8.50 Seniors, Students, Under 10 Free Hours: Tue-Sat 10am-5pm Sun Noon-4pm Vegas4Visitors Rating: A

Liberace Museum: The Low Down

What is it?

A shrine to Mr. Showmanship himself, Liberace, filled with costumes, cars, furnishings, and much more.

Is it worth the cost?

It is if you fall into one of two groups: serious Liberace fans or people with a well-developed sense of irony. It's fun if you go in the right frame of mind.

What else do I need to know?

They have an extensive gift shop and even a cafe. Oh, and be sure to look for the menu from the Riviera from 1955 - we donated that. And by the way, if you know how to play the piano, they'll let you tickle the actual ivories that Liberace once tickled.

What's the bottom line?

Rhinestones. Do we need to say more? Oh, they now offer a free shuttle from various locations on The Strip. Check the website

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Liberace Museum: Full Review

We've always loved the Liberace Museum. Not because of some deep greater meaning behind the rhinestone covered exhibits (or the entertainer himself for that matter), but simply because more than just about anything else in Vegas, this place screams Vegas. Come on! An entire museum devoted to the flash and crass that was Liberace?! In a town that delights in flash and crass? It don't get no better than that ladies and gentlemen.

For those of you who don't know, Liberace was one of the biggest stars of decades gone by. His virtuoso level piano playing secured his position as a musical luminary but it was his outrageous, over-the-top stage shows that really established his identity. Whether he was arriving onstage in a rhinestone covered Rolls Royce or flying across the stage suspended by wires in some bejeweled and feathered get up, Liberace epitomized spectacle and in many ways is to be credited (and perhaps blamed) for all of the giant special effects laden pop concerts hitting an arena near you this summer. That's right Britney, Liberace did it first.

After the performer's death in 1987 of AIDS, a conservancy group with obviously way too much time on its hands set up the Liberace Museum to house his wild and wacky belongings for public consumption.

But what was once a small yet adequately ironic collection of ephemera in a non-descript strip mall has been transformed into a showplace, almost as gaudy and irreverent as Liberace himself was. All new exhibit spaces, displays, a café, a store, and a "walk of fame" are just a few of the improvements debuting after a multi-million dollar remodeling and expansion project finished in May of 2002.

Oh yeah, there's also an entryway shaped like a giant rhinestone topped by a giant pink piano, a huge wall designed to look like sheets of music ("Beer Barrel Polka" of course), and an outdoor patio for parties shaped like a giant record, just in case you worried that the place was getting too serious.

Although it is important to note that they are getting a bit more serious but in a good way. All of the exhibits that you know and love (rhinestone covered cars, pianos, costumes, and more) have been researched and displayed with more information than they used to have and the newer exhibits (the designers behind those outrageous costumes for example) are both illuminating and interesting.

You enter the museum through a rotunda at the satellite building toward the front of the strip mall. That's where you'll see a video about Liberace and his life, view a timeline, and see the cars and piano exhibits. Then you head down the renovated walkway emblazoned with commemorative plaques that lead you to the second part of the museum (the one with the rhinestone entryway) housing costumes, furniture, the café, the store, and a new exhibition room that will feature revolving displays (the first is surrounding Liberace and entertainers in Vegas.)

Of course, this renovation wasn't cheap and some of the cost of it is being passed on to you. Admission has risen to $12.50 per person (discounts for students, seniors, etc.) and while that's a lot more than it used to be it's still cheaper than most of the attractions in Vegas and a heck of a lot more fun than a lot of them also.

It's kitsch, it's camp, it's silly Vegas fun and it's a part of the history of this city that we applaud the folks at the Liberace Museum for preserving. Sure, it may not be a Picasso or a collection of fancy motorcycles, but it is a bit of pop-culture history never-the-less and we're happy to see it thriving in its new home.

Liberace (and his brother George) would've been proud.

By the way, for the true, full experience, be sure to stop by for dinner at neighboring Carluccio's Tivoli Gardens - a great and inexpensive Italian restaurant once owned by Liberace that still contains all the original design and décor that he put in there. It's a hoot.

Updated 12/2/07

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