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Las Vegas has been known forever as "Entertainment Capital of World," It is emblazoned on Convention and Visitor's Bureau letterheads and sloganed in TV commercials. Vegas has come a long way since just T&A shows filled Strip showrooms. Now we are family entertainment, too! The city has it's own orchestra; Artemis Ham Hall at University presents world-class concerts, stage plays and lecture series. An with Vegas so close to Hollywood (360 miles), Sin City is a natural and sunny draw for film shooting and film festival viewing..

The newest Vegas film festival arrival is New York International Independent Film and Video Festival. What new draw lacks in quality films, it makes up in sheer volume of screenings at Brenden Theaters at new Palms Hotel and Casino, akimbo to Strip. The festival has been held for over eight years in New York, and I hope it catches on in this uncultured landscape, because potential for it is enormous. Even though screenings are limited to one theater, each day saw over 10 films at two hour intervals. Four films were actually produced, filmed or written for Vegas, by Vegans: 'Grip' by Vegas filmmaker Ron Atkins; premier of 'Angel Blade,' by Michael Hemenway who is presently shooting his latest local opus, 'Terror on Strip'; tennis docudrama featuring local home town tennis hack Andre Agassi in 'Beyond Baseline'; and 'If I Could,' a documentary about social problems.

More than 150 short and full-length films from 4,000 entrants were picked to be screened at NYIIFVF event at Vegas stop of tbe festival, which was also presented in New York and Los Angeles.

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MAMMA MIA! is currently most successful musical in world with a total of eleven global productions, eight resident productions and three tours. Ticket sales generate $8,000,000 a week, and four more productions are scheduled to open this year. What is it that makes MAMMA MIA! so successful? Is it music of ABBA? Is it story? Or is it just hype?

To find answer to that question I saw MAMMA MIA! at Mandalay Bay Theater at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas on February, 2004. The show had just celebrated its one year anniversary and had been voted #1 Show in Las Vegas by local news pundits. So much positive press along with kudos from friends made show sound almost too good to be true.

The theater is new and beautiful with comfortable, unobstructed seating. The curtain for MAMMA MIA! has an overlay of undulating blue and purple light that evokes memories of a psychedelic era when lava lamps were in vogue. It sets tone for play which is set on a tiny Greek island where a wedding is about to take place. As advertisements proclaim: It is a story about a mom, a daughter, and three possible dads.

Producer Judy Craymer is credited with having vision to take ABBA's music and find right people to construct a musical. She says, "I knew from outset that MAMMA MIA! had to be much more than just an ABBA compilation or tribute show. The story had to be as infectious as music and provide a strong feel-good factor." It was while working as Executive Producer on West End production of CHESS that she met Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus. This was team's first post-ABBA venture and show was not a hit.

After ill-fated Broadway production of CHESS, Bjorn is quoted as saying, "What I understand after CHESS is that story is number 1, number 2 and number 3, as they say on Broadway. A lyric should take a story forward, and a lot of pop songs are static — they have no drama in them whatsoever."