La Cage

After Star Trek, we trekked over to the Riviera (aka "The Riv"). There, we gambled a bit more and I lost $16 on the penny slots. We had started feeling a bit peckish, so we went to Ristorante Italiano for appetizers and desserts. While there, some characters came in to interact with other diners. Aileen figured out that they were actors from "The Sopranos Last Supper," a cocktails and appetizer show (variation on Dinner Theater). Then, a third character came in and my sister gasped, "It's Christopher!" (Aileen, correct me if I'm wrong.) It was a clearly audible gasp, which, of course attracted attention, so they came over to investigate. Aileen is watching the show and has gotten to the second season, so she knows enough to be dangerous. She got them talking, in character, of course. It was very entertaining -- something about them writing a screenplay or making a movie or something. The photo above is one I took, sort of by accident.
The food we had was pretty standard (and tasty) Italian fare, Salad Caprese, Antipasto Misto, Cannoli, Tiramisu. I only have a picture when we were done.

After that excitement, we went to La Cage, a drag show, or as the link says, a "female impersonator" show. It was very cool. Stacey knew how to slip a few bills to the usher to get us better seats. A photographer took both a group photo (which we ended up buying one of) and individual shots (which we did not). Aileen began her conquest of all the guys in Las Vegas (actually, it had started with the Borg guy). The show was fabulous and the impersonations very good. During the show, I suspected (then was confirmed later) that the voice was the real celebrity singing, and the show was lip-synced. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed by this, but meh, what can you do? The Celine Dion guy did a great job of mimicking her moves while singing. The other really fun ones were Cher, Madonna (including a big, fat, comedic Madonna), and Bonnie Raitt (correction, Stacey points out it was Reba McEntire). The best impersonator (actually seemed to be singing for reals) was the Judy Garland guy. Bravo! The best outfits were Frank Marino, aka Joan Collins. He must have had a dozen costume changes (doing the intros for each "celebrity") and each dress was better than the last.
We weren't allowed to take pictures ourselves, but I'm sure you get the picture. If you've seen The Birdcage, you have a bit of an idea of what we saw, though Nathan Lane does his own singing there.

After the show, we walked down the strip, taking in the lights and sounds of Vegas. We stopped at the Bellagio, which had some sort of garden theme in their lobby. It was so gorgeous, it takes my breath away just thinking about it. There were butterflies hanging from the ceiling and a snail in the garden, mostly made of flowers and moss. And there was an Ent! Squee!

Eventually, we made it down to the MGM Grand, where we waited, exhausted, for a shuttle to the hotel (Residence Inn, off strip). We made it to our rooms in one piece, and so endeth the first day.
Tomorrow: The Paris Bathroom!