-An esteemed musical director with a long list of Broadway credits, he's carved out a unique space in the Las Vegas music scene.

Keith Thompson, Founder of The Composer Showcase of Las Vegas, is our guest this week on Nevada Week In Person.

♪♪ -Support for Nevada Week In Person is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt and other supporters.

-Welcome to Nevada Week In Person.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

A music professional for more than 40 years, he moved to Las Vegas in 2004 where he worked as musical director for the North American premiere of We Will Rock You.

He held that same role for the Las Vegas companies of Jersey Boys, The Producers, and Hairspray all while writing his own musicals.

The desire to share his original work with his peers led to the creation of a nonprofit that's celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Keith Thompson, Founder and Host of The Composers Showcase of Las Vegas, thank you for joining Nevada Week In Person.

-Thank you for having me.

-Before we talk about the showcase's humble beginnings, will you give our viewers an idea, who are unfamiliar, with what it is like in its current form.

(Keith Thompson) In its current form?

We're at the Smith Center, so the current form has a little bit more sophistication than we used to have.

We do sell tickets; whereas, originally, we didn't at all.

We just-- It was a party.

And now it's definitely more of a show format, but we remain in the volunteer stage because the word "showcase," I think, says it all.

We're showcasing talent, and so we're not booking talent and producing a huge show or anything like that.

We literally are asking the writers to come and do their own music, and we help them produce it; however, they need to so that it makes a good show.

But the emphasis is always on the writing and the original music.

So musical creations, if you will.

-What are the opportunities like for composers and song writers to perform their original music around the country, for example?

-Around the country, well, there are, I mean, there are places that are hot spots for places that are known for original music.

Obviously, Nashville is a big one, but that's country music, a lot of it.

New York, because of all the different styles of music that exist there, and there's so much going on there.

That's where I cut my teeth you know.

I started writing and actually producing the things that I was doing.

LA is big because of film and television.

You also have Chicago which is really, really good; San Francisco; Palm Springs.

Anywhere there's a cabaret room type place where they do that kind of entertainment, you're going to find people writing, and you're going to find people putting on original musical events, if you will.

-What about, though, for 20 years, the same outfit like yours, The Composer Showcase of Las Vegas?

-Well, we had to do some morphing and some growth as well.

I mean, we started out-- It was really interesting.

Can we talk about the beginning of it?

-Let's do that.

-Okay, because the beginning of it was really so funny.

When I moved here from New York, and there was so much energy on the writing and creating, and I had really come off of a couple of interesting pieces that I had been working on.

I taught at NYU, and so I had a piece that had just been produced as one of the fall productions of these student-driven production.

And it was a very exciting time for me.

And I came out here to work, and it just seemed like the next step in my career.

But what I didn't count on was the fact that Vegas is not a place where people think of original music.

They just don't.

They-- I was told, as a matter of fact.

I started asking, Where are the, you know, where are people writing and people, you know, jamming out?

And they literally said, Oh, don't waste your time.

That's a dream that you can give up on.

I was told to give up on my dream.

Yes.

And I was, I almost went into like a grief state, because I felt like I maybe had made a wrong decision.

And then a friend of mine, who was a Broadway guy, too, he was working on Mamma Mia at the time, and I was working on Hairspray at the time.

And he came over to me and he said, You know, you and me and this, this other guy, we all, we're writing, and we have our pieces that we're working on to try to get them produced and get them optioned for Broadway and things like that.

Why don't we just get together one night and just do our stuff for each other and invite some friends.

I said, Well, where are we going to do that?

And he had-- He knew of a place to go where there was a stage and a piano and a light, one microphone.

It was funny, because the piano bench that there was, was broken.

So you have to sit sideways.

And so you remember something called a phone book?

-Yes.

-So I borrowed the phone book.

They actually had one, and I put it down there and sat up higher so I could play the piano.

And that's what we did.

We all played the piano and sang our own songs or had some friends come over and sing our songs.

It was one of the most fulfilling-- It fed my soul, you know?

And so after it was over, everybody got back into their lives, and they said, Yeah, that was fun.

Let's do it again sometime.

I said, No, let's do it again next month and the next month, and then we started doing it.

So it really was me just desperately trying to find what we, what I came from, you know, what I loved.

-Well, and it makes me think when you came from New York to Las Vegas, was that hard in and of itself?

Did you question that move?

-Yeah.

I mean, I didn't know a lot about Las Vegas.

I had been through here on tours before, but there wasn't a Smith Center, so we were always in, you know, either a casino showroom that was adapted, you know, or it was never a completely fulfilling experience to be here, which is weird, because it's the entertainment capital of the world, right?

So I-- The pitch to come out here for us to, me and another partner of mine, there was something called Broadway West that was happening.

And so they were looking for people from New York who knew how to do theater, because that was the big thing.

And it was.

It was like Mamma Mia had just opened in 2000, and then this was 2004.

So we were-- I think maybe Mamma Mia opened a little bit after 9-11, actually.

So but still, that's what, that was the thing that made us attracted to this.

-You were gonna be like a pioneer.

-Uh-huh, yeah.

And we were told, Oh, and it's a big deal, so you'll be able to retire here and the shows will run forever and, you know, we got 10-year leases on the theaters and things like that.

And that just did not happen.

That was a lie.

It's a phase.

It was a phase that Vegas was going through.

And then, but it lasted like 16 years about, right up to the end of 2016 when Jersey Boys finally closed.

And so I was so fortunate to be part of that scene.

And of course with that, a lot of the actors and performers came from New York or LA or San Francisco or whatever, and we were all part of a community, right, because we were here together, doing what we loved.

And then, like in any show, once you're doing the show, you find that you look for things to do after the show, because you're doing the same thing over and over again eight times a week.

So I was able to very easily get these very talented people to say, Yeah, let's sing one of your songs.

And I said, Yeah, we're doing this little show, "Composer Showcase."

Started at this just nasty little dive bar.

-Called Suede.

-Suede, yes.

-Near the university.

-Not there anymore.

Suede is-- It was a boit.

Do you know what a boit is?

It's a night club.

It's like a seedy little, you know, it's like one of those colorful-- -How do you spell that?

-B-o-i-t.

Look it up.

Google!

It's a funny word for me, so that's why I use it.

But it was an interesting time to find a place like that off the Strip.

You know, like we were working on the Strip, but we wanted something that was close to the airport.

That's like where it was.

It was in a little, a tragic little area of town called the Fruit Loop.

-Yes.

And then you move from there to-- -Liberace Museum.

-How long were you there at the museum?

-At the museum?

Three and a half years.

-And then the Smith Center?

-Well, we had a year and a half that we had to survive, and we didn't know how we were going to do it.

I was looking at other venues, and nobody knew what we were talking about because it was a really-- It was a secret.

I mean, we were-- The community had our little hidden-- We didn't had no budget for advertising or anything like that.

I wasn't business minded like that.

We were doing this for the love of it.

We were doing it for the community.

And that's how it all kind of happened.

The Liberace Museum was closing.

And the last night that we were there, a man named Paul Beard, who was the COO of the Smith Center that had not been open yet, said, Oh, this is great.

If we were open right now, we would ask you to come and start doing it there, but it's going to be another year and a half.

-I said, Okay, well, we'll see if we can make this happen.

And so thanks to some angels who came into my life, we were able to continue this venue, that venue, until it was time for the Smith Center to open.

And the month that they opened, they asked us to come, and we've been there ever since.

-Any angels you'd like to mention?

-Sure.

There's a fellow.

Have you ever heard of Cockroach Theater?

-No.

-Cockroach Theater, a group of theater people from UNLV opened a professional theater company, but it was acting.

It wasn't musical or anything like that.

But they were-- And it became the Vegas Theater Company, which is now at Art Square theater here in town.

-Okay.

-All these years later, it got-- I guess they couldn't market "Cockroach."

[laughter] But I met, I was introduced by another fellow who was an angel to me, named John Saltonstall, who had a scene shop.

And he said, You need to meet Will Adamson from Cockroach Theater, and you guys can make this happen and you'll make this happen.

So without ever having seen a Composer Showcase or had no idea what we were doing, he said yes.

When people say yes, you know, that's what it takes.

It takes here's the dream, here's the idea, let's just do it.

-Fast forward, and you have now had over 2,000 songwriters and composers who have performed.

-Well, think about it, 20 years.

-Yeah.

And how are you doing this?

Do they approach you and say, Hey, I'm going to be in town; I would like to perform some of my original music, or are you searching them out?

-It's a little of both.

I do keep my eye on who's around, who's writing, and I let other colleagues of mine recommend.

But very often I, now, we're at the point where people hear about us and they let me know they're interested.

And so I check out their music to make sure that it's what we, you know, it's up to a certain standard, because I'm not talking about it has to be a hit song.

I'm talking about just in general, we don't, we want-- Our audiences, now they pay Smith Center prices, so we want to make-- -But the tickets are still like $20, right?

-I think they're more like now 30, but they're-- -Inflation.

-Uh-huh.

-Talk about what that money goes toward.

-Well, our-- we have-- Originally, we were what we call an operating budget, because I do not make money off of this.

-And neither do the performers.

-No.

I'm lucky if I break even, because one thing I don't believe in is pay for play.

So if you're going to come and you're going to bring three of your band members or something to do your song, I'm not going to make you pay to be in a room where you're giving your artistry, your talent, your passion.

I just don't do that.

I'm a terrible businessman, I guess, but, I do manage to break even most of the time.

And that's really all is expected.

I had a, once again, another angel came to me, Albert Mack.

So Albert said, you know, I love what you're doing.

I just wish that we could help you more.

If you were a nonprofit, then we could.

My family's foundation could help support you, maybe open a scholarship fund for you.

And I said, How do I do that?

So I found out.

I applied for the nonprofit status.

It took about six months, but we got it.

And we've maintained it quite, you know, everything above board, got to be, you know, by the book.

-And you help aspiring composers.

But during covid...?

-Oh, well, okay, during covid, a new mission, a new aspect, a new initiative.

And that was that we felt like our community, which has been basically holding us up all these years, now needed something.

And so I reached out to some people who had means and said, Help us.

And they could donate to our nonprofit for a tax deductible donation.

We built a fund called the Entertainment Community Relief Fund, and we started taking applications.

And it's, it was like a tsunami of applications, you know what I mean?

Like, we started having to fundraise just to keep up with them, you know?

-Yeah.

Wow.

Keith Thompson, thank you so much for joining Nevada Week In Person, and congratulations on your success.

-Thank you.

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