Producer offers behind-scenes look at ‘Cannibal!’

It's often fun to get a behind-the-scenes look at a production, and actor/producer Jason McHugh shared some surprising stories about "Cannibal! The Musical" at the Onyx Theatre last weekend during a talk-back session with the audience.

The Trey Parker 1996 film version -- about the Alfred Packer cannibal trial in late-1800s Colorado -- didn't inspire film critics, but spawned some well-received stage productions, including Insurgo's mounting at the Onyx, which plays through April 5.

McHugh is eager to promote the live show, but hasn't written a stage translation. He provides directors with the screenplay and leaves the adapting to them.

McHugh is writing a book on what it took to get "Cannibal!" made and promoted. Among his tribulations: The film was submitted to the Sundance Film Festival and apparently wasn't even good enough to receive a rejection notice. It found its audience anyway. The stage version is infinitely superior, and I suspect we'll be hearing from McHugh again. ...

Received the following e-mail from Dominick Sabatino, who's been commissioned by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Forum Series to present "An Evening of Italian Music": "I am inviting you to attend with a guarantee should you not be satisfied with our presentation (that I will prepare) a terrific home Italian dinner concocted by yours truly. And as most other Italians say, 'My cooking is the best. Please come.' "

How can I resist?

Sabatino says the concert will feature "some of the best young talent from California, Vegas and New York." The programs include Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini. It's set for 7:30 p.m. April 2 at UNLV's Doc Rando Hall. Admission is free. I'll be there, but somehow I suspect I will not collect my meal. ...

The six-year-old off-Broadway production of "Tony n' Tina's Wedding" at the Rio remains in great shape. What strikes me is that for all the production's silliness -- the audience sits at tables as if they were guests at a ceremony for the union of the planet's two most loony families -- there's a core of reality that is genuinely moving. The actors create legitimate three-dimensional characters and pull you into the story. Not an easy feat with such board comedy. ...

Two new efforts are being made to unite local theater folk. A publication related strictly to Vegas theater hits the stands April 1, titled "Stage One LV." And Kristen Hertzenberg, who plays Christine in "Phantom -- The Las Vegas Spectacular," has a new Broadway Vegas Web site (broadwayvegas.blogspot.com) to "provide a steady stream of stories, photos, invitations and links to anything noteworthy and newsworthy happening in and around the Las Vegas Theatre community, all from an insider's perspective."

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at DelValle@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.