Tommy Tune, Las Vegas Sun, Nov. 4, 2000

0 Singing a New Tune Lisa Ferguson Saturday, Nov. 4, 2000 | 3:44 a.m. Lisa Ferguson is the Sun assistant features editor. Reach her at lisa@ lasvegassun.com or 259-4060. Words alone cannot express Tommy Tune's adoration for Las Vegas. So he also uses paint. The towering 6-foot-6-inch star of "EFX" at the MGM Grand oozes enthusiasm about the city he has called home since 1998. During that time the unlikeliest things have intrigued him -- freeway off-ramps, for example -- and he has incorporated them into the paintings created during his off nights from the show. But the 61-year-old Broadway legend (he's won nine Tony awards) will soon vacate his Mount Charleston abode -- and the Strip -- following his final "EFX" performance on Jan. 15, two years to the day after stepping into the role. That doesn't mean, however, that the city will have seen the last of Tune's work. The man called "a human exclamation point" by the late Andy Warhol talks about wanting to leave a legacy in Las Vegas. Las Vegas Sun: What do you like to paint? Tommy Tune: I did a series of 53 paintings of (U.S. 95 North) Exit 81. As I'm driving on the 95, you get to Exit 81, which is the turnoff for Summerlin (Parkway)/Rainbow (Boulevard). That exit has these wonderful mesquite trees, and they're just so beautifully placed in the rocks. And I saw them every day, every day, every day, and I went, "Well, that's my first series." When your eye isn't new to a place, you don't see it like a newcomer. So that was my advantage coming here -- I saw everything with baby eyes. Sun: How has Las Vegas suited you? TT: It's just been such a gift, such a blessing ... This whole experience at the MGM Grand and being in Vegas has been so wonderful, first of all, from a professional point of view -- learning to deal directly with an audience. That's nothing I had ever done before because on Broadway, the curtain goes up and we play like the audience isn't there ... So I had to learn that I could be in the show and in the audience and bounce back and forth. That's been a wonderful learning experience. Sun: So is leaving the show -- and the city -- going to be bittersweet for you? TT: Oh, I don't have time to be bittersweet. It's just on to the next (thing). I had no idea that I would be here, and I certainly didn't come out for two years. My original deal was for six months and it just kept stretching on. But it's perfect timing. Sun: After two years what are your thoughts on the local entertainment scene? TT: If you can't be entertained here, you just don't want to be entertained. Sun: There has been a move to bring more Broadway-style shows to Las Vegas. Could that work? TT: I think what's more exciting is to create a Vegas (style of) entertainment, not to take a Broadway show and basically just bring it here. I think that could run for a little while. I think there is an audience for entertainment in Vegas that needs something other than just a Broadway show. What works on Broadway is character. The Vegas audience isn't interested in character. Character doesn't read on that scale anyway. When you are a little human being up (on stage) against two gigantic dragons, what's character? Sun: How would you like to be remembered in local entertainment history? TT: Just to be KC (karmically correct), I feel like I would like to leave something behind ... There's an inkling of a (production) show in my head, and I'll see what happens. I can't work on it when I'm doing this show because this uses all of my energy, but there's a beginning of an idea. I might want to be able to leave something behind as a payback, something to bring to the local scene. Sun: Something that would bring you back here to perform? TT: No. You know, I live in New York. I have a big, beautiful home in New York, and, I mean, it's a whole other existence there. This was an incredible chapter in my career. I'm going to write a book about it. Sun: Then it must have been a couple of action-packed years for you. TT: Oh, gosh, yes ... The job was not to come in and create a show. The job was to fit myself into a show, changing as little as possible. And that's a hard job. This has been an incredible, unique experience. When does someone who spent his whole career on Broadway get to start a whole new thing? I think the whole key to a good life is that you just keep learning. I enrolled in (Community College of Southern Nevada) this semester and I'm studying Spanish. I made a 98 (percent) on my mid-term exam. I'm so proud. I got one tense wrong. Verbs! I like to speak in the present tense. It's the past tense that gets me. Sun: Are you eager to get home to New York? TT: No. I don't waste time wanting to be somewhere I'm not ... To be longing for something that I don't have, that's wasted energy. And as far as looking to the future, you just never know what's going to be, so I'm open for it. Lord knows two years ago I never would have thought I'd be living on a mountaintop, in the snow, outside of Las Vegas, doing 10 shows a week at the MGM.