But a tour of the historic El Cortez in Downtown Las Vegas proves that you don’t have to bring in a wrecking crew to turn a has-been hotel into one worthy of notice. The El is back and she is in many ways better than she ever has been before.

The fabled history of the El Cortez dates all the way back to 1941 when it was built by JK Houssels with 59 rooms and a small casino. Houssels sold it in 1946 to none other than Busy Siegel. It went through a series of owners landing eventually with one of the most famous names in the casino industry, Jackie Gaughan who owns the place today and actually lives in the penthouse atop the hotel tower. Gaughan can regularly be seen in the casino or the restaurants, chatting amiably with customers who are on a first name basis with him.

While the hotel was never a “first rate” property, it had been a solid performer in the Downtown arena until the neighborhood around it declined. The crowded, somewhat dingy, and smoky casino mainly lured an older, locals audience and the rooms were little more than basic accommodations.

It’s amazing what throwing a few million dollars at a building and its surroundings can accomplish.

First there is the neighborhood. The couple of blocks between the relative safety of The Fremont Street Experience and the El Cortez was not a safe one, especially at night. But the city is in the midst of dumping tons of money at the blocks between Las Vegas Boulevard and 8th Street, attempting to turn the depressing row of pawn shops with unsavory characters hanging around outside into a hip nightclub row. The sidewalks have been widened, landscaping is being added, classic signs from the Neon Museum are being installed, and several fun and funky bars have opened up along the stretch.

The El is getting in on the action by turning a parking lot stretching from Las Vegas Boulevard to their front door into a pedestrian plaza. That will deliver people to the new porte cochere, done with flagstone and ironwork details that give the place a much more swank first impression.

Inside the entire casino and most of the public areas have also been redone. They have removed nearly half of the slot machines they had and reorganized the floor to improve sightlines and personal space. New carpeting, wall treatments, gaming tables and chairs, and woodwork combine to turn faded into fashionable. The front desk and lobby bar have been completely redone and more new stuff is on the way including a revised lounge, a new casino bar, updated machines, and much more. It’s almost impossible to believe that it’s the same place.

The renovations carried over to the guest rooms where new furnishings, flat panel televisions, high-speed Internet service, and additional niceties like mini-fridges in some rooms turn boring boxes into well equipped accommodations. To be sure, no one will ever confuse this place for Bellagio – rooms are small, bathrooms very small, and the décor won’t get them a feature in any interior design magazines - but the before and after difference is night and day. These rooms are as good as any other in the Downtown area. In addition to the casino there are several restaurants including a fine steakhouse, Roberta’s, a very popular coffee shop, an even more popular Chinese buffet, and some fast food type outlets. There is no pool or other recreation option, but if that’s important to you, you probably shouldn’t be considering Downtown anyway since only the Golden Nugget has a pool area worth spending any time at.

The service at the El Cortez is another big draw. Many of the employees have been with the property for years. They consider the hotel home and the people who visit their family and you will sense the difference between this and the brusque professionalism of The Strip immediately.

Soak all that in and then throw in the affordability factor. You can get one of their “Vintage” rooms – the very small but perfectly fine rooms that date back to 1941 – for as low as $25 during the week. Come on! The larger and newer tower rooms go for as low as $40 and usually in the $80 range on the weekends. For those kind of rates you are lucky to get a pillow and a blanket.

If I haven’t stressed it enough, it needs to be said again: the new El Cortez is not comparable in any way shape or form to the multi-billion palaces on The Strip. But it isn’t trying to be. Instead it offers solid accommodations in a friendly package for rates that will allow you to spend your money on more important things. Like gambling.

El Cortez
600 E. Fremont St.
Las Vegas, NV 89101
800-634-6703
website

Highs: Very inexpensive to stay here, beautiful refresh of everything.
Lows: Rooms are small.
Location: 6 – About a block from the Fremont St. Experience.
Price: 10 – One of the cheapest major hotels in Vegas.
Value: 7 – Recent upgrades to the property mean great value.
Rooms: 6 – Small but nicely furnished and well take care of.
Casino: 8 – A major revamp has improved this one enormously.
Amenities: 5 – Rooms have a lot, but not everything.
Facilities: 5 – There isn't much to do here besides sleep and gamble.
Service: 10 – Like most Downtown places, very friendly.
Fun: 6 – We consider saving money to be fun.
Bonus: 9 – Major bonus points for bringing The El back to life!
Vegas4Visitors Grade: 72

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Now in an extended run at Paris Las Vegas, this shortened version of the show is competing for your attention in a crowded marketplace of flashier, more original productions and the question is whether or not this offers anything or fresh on a story that has been told a lot in the last few years.

That story, for those of you who haven’t seen any of its incarnations, is about two theater producers who team up to scam little old ladies out of their money by putting on the worst show in Broadway history. The show? “Springtime for Hitler” of course; a zany romp through the Third Reich written by a crazed Nazi with swastika wearing pigeons. To ensure its failure, and their financial gain, they conspire to hire the worst actors, the worst director, and the worst of just about everything else, which results in a cast of over-the-top characters and the inevitably wacky situations.

The musical, based on its own merits in a vacuum, is deliriously funny, madcap and loud and irreverently caustic like much of Mel Brooks’ finest works. The music is true to Broadway form and earned all of those trophies it won. The actors in the Vegas version are all vets of the New York theater scene and their performances here are pitch perfect, although sometimes it’s difficult to tell if the characters are just that much like Lane and Broderick or if the actors doing them now are. In other words, “The Producers” is a musical classic – one you should see once in your life.

But here’s the deal: once is enough. I saw the Los Angeles version of this show and when I saw the movie version I felt like I was watching a carbon-copy, no matter how nice it was to see Lane and Broderick in the roles that they so clearly defined. Seeing the Vegas version after that was officially too many for me and actually made me focus more on the story’s flaws than its merits. For instance, it hadn’t really occurred to me until this time how despicable most of the characters are. Previously, I had been so wrapped up in the manic energy of the whole thing to care, but this time the mean-spiritedness of it came through. Perhaps that was because I saw it almost back-to-back with the imminently good-natured “Monty Python’s Spamalot” but regardless, repeat viewings of this particular show do not seem to add anything.

The loss of David Hasselhoff in a dress in one role and the addition of Tony Danza in another non-dress role really don’t change my mind on the whole situation.

So if you have never seen “The Producers” in any of its incarnations, this is an absolute gem of a production that provides you with an opportunity to catch a classic. But if you have seen it before then save your time and money. There are worse ways to spend 90 minutes and $150 in Las Vegas but there are better ways as well.

Vegas4visitors Grade: B-

The Producers
Paris Las Vegas
3665 Las Vegas Blvd. S.
Las Vegas, NV 89109
888-BONJOUR
website Showtimes:

Question: Any news on the Lady Luck? It seems a shame that they closed the place and then just left it sitting.

Answer: As a matter of fact there has been some recent news regarding the shuttered Lady Luck, but whether or not it will actually amount to anything is yet to be seen.

To catch everyone up who hasn’t been paying attention, the Lady Luck was purchased in 2005 by a group of investors who planned to completely revamp and expand the property. They shut the place down in early 2006 and began demolishing portions of the building to make way for new construction but then everything came to a halt as financing reportedly dried up and the hotel has been sitting there derelict ever since.

The investors swear they are “thisclose” to acquiring the funding to finish the project and even expand it to land across the street but the mayor and city council have gotten tired of the big promises and no action. So they have started conversations with another company that may come in and do something dramatically different with the hotel.

According to a story in the Las Vegas Review Journal, the CIM Group is in negotiations to take over the building but rumor has it they won’t be turning it back into a casino hotel. Instead they specialize in hip live-work condo and commercial complexes like the ones they operate in Hollywood, something many people feel is crucial to the long-term redevelopment of Downtown Las Vegas.

If they get their hands on the joint, it could be converted into non-gaming loft space with some sort of retail and/or entertainment aspect at its base.

An announcement on the deal is expected within the next month or so.

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