Kelly Daniells at the Mandalay Bay

Here's Kelly rushing to a hair appointment, after a long Saturday rehearsal in preparation for her opening as 'Sophie' in "Mamma Mia," on January 30th (just a week away!) Behind her is the "Mamma Mia" gift shop window.

Jason McDowell flew into Las Vegas from Sacramento for the weekend, and the two of us sat around waiting nearly two hours for Kelly to make her appearance. I convinced a reluctant Jason to come with me and enter the theater and try to watch the rehearsal, but we both bailed out when the security guard escort explained the rules: not only would he have to stop rehearsal, but he would have to get explicit permission from the director, and each and every actor onstage, in order to allow us to just sit there.



Interesting statue in the lobby of the theater at the Mandalay Bay.


Kelly seems to be adjusting relatively well to her new home. The culture shock isn't as great for her as it is for other singers from New York, who were unfamiliar with strip mall living and 24-hour-a-day conveniences.

Unlike her show mates, Kelly has little experience working in professional Broadway shows, and so sometimes conversation runs dry, but that situation is rapidly changing, day after day. Kelly doesn't seem terribly attracted to The Strip: it's excessive glitz seems to strike her as glitzily excessive, and she avoids The Strip when possible. She seems to be in it for the superior singing opportunities.

Kelly's reaction to The Strip is different than my first reaction was. One of my first memories (in 1975) was of two, old, chipped, muscle-man statues, done in a Roman motif, and covered with gold-colored spray paint. The muscle proportions were wrong, and the effect was so cheesy that I could only shake my head. Even the poverty-stricken, decadent, late-Empire Romans wouldn't have put such garbage on display. I couldn't help but fall in love with the ridiculousness of it all. Sure enough, the statues soon vanished, as things, good and bad, vanish so quickly in Las Vegas. Maybe Kelly will have a love-at-first-sight moment someday for some aspect of The Strip, but it hasn't happened yet, and who knows, maybe it never will.