Imagine a monthly show with local singers and musicians where they only perform original material. You’re probably saying to yourself: Wait, a Las Vegas show ... with no covers or tribute acts? But one such show has been happening for 20 years.
The Composers Showcase of Las Vegas began in 2006 as a way for local music directors from the Strip to share and perform their new theatrical songs. It began modestly at a dive bar called Suede in the "Fruit Loop" (the name locals gave an area popular with the LGBTQ community), graduated to the former Liberace Museum, and then skipped around various spaces before settling in 2012 at the then-brand-new Smith Center — where it has held court ever since.
On April 29, the showcase moves from Myron's cabaret room to the bigger Reynolds Hall to celebrate two decades of building and supporting Las Vegas' musical creators, hailing from all musical pedigrees and genre preferences.
"We're really going to honor the 20 years," said TCS cofounder and host Keith Thompson, who is a composer and singer/songwriter himself. "We're going to start with a narrative that's going to explain from where we came, and then where we're headed, as far as the initiatives that we've been able to offer as a nonprofit, and the new things that are happening in the future. So we're taking it from what was to what is now to what it's going to be."
The show will be a two-act production featuring a sampling of the 2000-plus composers, songwriters, and singers who have performed during TCS' long run, as well as a 40-person supporting orchestra. Familiar guest performers include singer/songwriters Clint Holmes, Frankie Moreno, Crystal Lewis, and Chadwick Johnson. Thomspon will also honor TCS co-founder Michael Brennan and music director Wayne Green in memoriam.
Thompson credits the longevity of the showcase to a tight-knit arts community that shows up for its own, as well as a supportive audience that, at least for one night out of the month, favors live original music over cover songs, despite little to no marketing or advertising. And just maybe, Thompson — a Broadway veteran and former Strip music director — knows what he's doing as the show's host and de-facto producer, who carefully selects each showcase's performer two months ahead of time.
"I have a standard by which I want it to be very compelling," Thomson said. "I want it to be extremely entertaining. I look for humor. I look for diversity in the acts that we pull together. I'm limited in the amount of time that I have on stage, so I have to be very careful about who and the length of the time that I have on stage, to allow people to come in."
TCS has been more than just a monthly concert. Through donations, it has supported members of the arts community who have struggled financially. In April 2020, it established the TCS Entertainment Community Relief Fund and assisted musicians out of work due to the Covid-19 shutdown.
But the Composers Showcase's lasting legacy so far has been the centering of music originated in Las Vegas, by its creative community, curated each month with the local audience in mind.
"What we're doing is trying to create a platform and a forum for original music for songwriters," Thompson said. "And it's been a very fulfilling thing, that if people would come away becoming fans of original music here in Las Vegas, I think we will have done our job."
Guest: Keith Thompson co-founder and host, The Composers Showcase
