{"id":289724,"date":"2023-09-14T18:11:56","date_gmt":"2023-09-14T23:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=289724"},"modified":"2023-09-15T14:37:40","modified_gmt":"2023-09-15T19:37:40","slug":"new-vegas-show-celebrates-italian-contribution-to-american-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-vegas-show-celebrates-italian-contribution-to-american-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"New Vegas Show &#8216;Heist&#8217; Celebrates Italian Contributions to American Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cHeist\u201d is a new show about to debut at the Rio in Las Vegas. It spotlights Italian songwriters whose music was appropriated by the American market without the American public realizing their origin.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_289725\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-289725\" data-style=\"width: 858px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-289725 size-post-thumbnail-858xAUTO\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/heist-858x634.jpg\" alt=\"Heist\" width=\"858\" height=\"634\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/heist-858x634.jpg 858w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/heist-430x318.jpg 430w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/heist.jpg 1111w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 858px) 100vw, 858px\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-289725\"class=\"text-description\">&#8220;Heist&#8221; stars the five-piece band Limoncello, featuring Tony Sgro, Nieve Malandra, and Tony Silva. The band members are seen on stage, above. (Image: Limoncello)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cPretty much every song that ever became a hit somehow came from Italy,\u201d the show\u2019s producer, Tony Sgro, told <em>Casino.org.<\/em> \u201cNo, not really, but <em>a lot of them <\/em>did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sgro is the Las Vegas attorney, guitarist, and first-generation Italian-American whose five-piece rock and jazz band, Limoncello, performs the show&#8217;s songs and explains their true origins.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\"><p><strong>There\u2019s a scarcity of any sort of tribute to Italian heritage and culture, despite all that exists with both &#8212; especially in Las Vegas,\u201d<\/strong> Sgro said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>A prime example of a heist spotlighted by the show is a song Elvis Presley recorded In 1960. \u201cIt\u2019s Now or Never\u201d became one of The King\u2019s best-selling singles (20 million copies) and a favorite of audiences during his seven-year Las Vegas residency at the International Hotel\/Las Vegas Hilton.<\/p>\n<p>Yet the melody was cribbed, note for note, from \u201c\u2019O sole mio,\u201d a well-known Neapolitan tune composed by Eduardo di Capua in 1898.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost people have no idea,\u201d Sgro said.<\/p>\n<h2>From Wall Street to Vegas<\/h2>\n<p>Another heisted song is the 1982 dance smash \u201cGloria.\u201d Most Americans associate it with Laura Branigan, who sang it in English. But it was actually written and recorded in Italian three years earlier by Umberto Tozzi.<\/p>\n<p>At least his original appeared on the soundtrack to <em>The Wolf of Wall Street,<\/em>\u00a0Sgro said, referring to the 2013 Martin Scorsese film.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Frank Sinatra, the leader of the Rat Pack and the patron saint of Las Vegas, was <em>himself<\/em> heisted from the Italian people, according to Sgro.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you ask anybody in the United States, they will claim Frank Sinatra as an American singer, vocalist, and performer,\u201d Sgro said. \u201cBut both of his parents came from Italy. All Italians know what his heritage and his roots are.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>How to See the Show<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cHeist\u201d opens at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept 28, at the Rio, in the 300-seat theater inside the Duomo &#8212; Italian for &#8220;church&#8221; &#8212; also includes the fast-casual Cupola Italian Caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p>Tickets, $48.99-$68.99, are available via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.heistlasvegas.com\">HeistLasVegas.com.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cHeist\u201d is a new show about to debut at the Rio in Las Vegas. It spotlights Italian songwriters whose music was appropriated by the American market without the American public realizing their origin. \u201cPretty much every song that ever became a hit somehow came from Italy,\u201d the show\u2019s producer, Tony Sgro, told Casino.org. \u201cNo, not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":289725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3313,81886],"tags":[85677,87994,87995,87996,23,83493,87997],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New Vegas Show &#039;Heist&#039; Celebrates Italian Contributions to American Culture - Casino.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cHeist\u201d is a new show about to debut at the Rio in Las Vegas. It spotlights Italian songwriters whose music was appropriated by the American market\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-vegas-show-celebrates-italian-contribution-to-american-culture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Vegas Show &#039;Heist&#039; Celebrates Italian Contributions to American Culture - Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cHeist\u201d is a new show about to debut at the Rio in Las Vegas. It spotlights Italian songwriters whose music was appropriated by the American market\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-vegas-show-celebrates-italian-contribution-to-american-culture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-14T23:11:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-15T19:37:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/heist.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1111\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"821\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Corey Levitan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Corey Levitan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-vegas-show-celebrates-italian-contribution-to-american-culture\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-vegas-show-celebrates-italian-contribution-to-american-culture\/\",\"name\":\"New Vegas Show 'Heist' Celebrates Italian Contributions to American Culture - Casino.org\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-vegas-show-celebrates-italian-contribution-to-american-culture\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/new-vegas-show-celebrates-italian-contribution-to-american-culture\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/heist.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-14T23:11:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-15T19:37:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/281fd7b5480c9afb75e84ffb75039f09\"},\"description\":\"\u201cHeist\u201d is a new show about to debut at the Rio in Las Vegas. 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