IT HAS ALWAYS amazed me how corporate America is frightened of change and to be caught rocking the boat. Receiving the weekly check, come in and get out in a 20-year "sentence" and leave without notice is the focus of many an executive.

The entertainment portion of the hotel and casino business is no different. Each person that rises to a notable position will not rock the world with a new and unique concept for fear of failure. Even if something is not really working it seems that the mindset is that "at least it was a hold-over of somebody else's choice and taste and could really not be blamed on me."

It is this behavior that brings us to the juncture at which Las Vegas stands.

The Cirque thing was a great idea and certainly merits a few of its type within the same city. But we must ask ourselves if every showroom is a cirque production, won't that just cancel itself out?

I liken it to liking the color blue and deciding to paint the walls in your home blue. Now people seem to like the blue walls so you go out and buy blue couches, lamps and rugs. Eventually everything will be blue and become zero. If there is no contrast and variety then the thing that you originally thought was different and unique will become lost and will have faded into a virtual din and just be.

This Broadway trend is on the same line. Almost nothing has worked in Las Vegas in the way of "New York-style musical theater." Momma Mia has stood the test of time, but attempts with Hair Spray, We Will Rock You and Avenue Q have failed and The Producers can't work for very much longer.

People come to Las Vegas and have a pre-conceived notion as to what the experience will be like and it is usually a "Las Vegas-style" show that they envision whether in a showroom or an upscale lounge.

As a legitimate musical theater actor and performer I love the fact that I can see a great Broadway production without heading back to NYC. I believe that one or maybe 2 showrooms should support a slightly scaled down and 6-month run of the popular shows on Broadway. Limited 6-month runs and a repertory cast with celebrity stars brought in would work like a charm.

The cost would be cut down to a fraction of the current budgets needed by entire companies coming in from scratch. The follow-the-leader mentality prevails and will welcome and bid farewell to more and more Broadway shows as well as see more Cirque themes such as Elvis, Barney, The Brady's go Cirque or what ever else they can dream up to bastardize the original theme.

There is also the new 2- or 4-wall headliner/stand-up thing happening. Though I have opened for Dennis Miller and Dana Carvey in the past, it's hard for an audience to feel as if they got their money's worth after seeing famous comedians on a large blank stage with one mic stand, one bottle of water and one union spot operator as the production support.

Let's be daring execs! Let's wiggle the entertainment thing around again. Let's find unique people to get on stage with supporting casts and cover all the bases of entertainment.

I believe that an audience wants to connect with an individual(s) on stage and feel as if they know them. It is then that they have a vested interest with that entertainer and take a piece home with them and feel like they were part of something very personal and very special.

If you make it feasible for the visitor to stay in your hotel from breakfast to bedtime, for lunch, dinner and a show, than you are sure to have all the allotted revenue from that visitor deposited into your slots, on your tables and in your property.

If this concept sounds familiar, it should, it was the concept that Las Vegas was built on.