The second venue I found interesting inside Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas was their House of Blues location. House of Blues (HOB) is a nationwide chain, launched in 1992 by Isaac Tigrett (founder of the Hard Rock Cafe) and actor Dan Aykroyd.
The theming of HOB is very dynamic—not only is it geographic (the southern Bayous of Louisiana and Mississippi) and musical (jazz and blues, specifically New Orleans and Chicago), it is also cultural (voodoo, gospel Baptism as well as Spanish Catholicism, and southern folk art). I've been to a few of their locations before (they tend to sprout up in heavily thematic districts like Hollywood, Anaheim and Orlando), and the design usually follow a similar pattern; both the exterior and the interior are themed as a large, southern, single family dwelling.
The House of Blues at Mandalay Bay is unique among the other ones I have seen because it is completely indoors, inside the main casino floor. This means that special design considerations had to be made to replicate the exterior/interior template of the other HOB locations. The designers decided to leverage the indoor setting to their advantage, and use a trick developed by Disney back in the 1960s for their Blue Bayou restaurant inside the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disneyland—a nighttime sky.
This innovative technique (Disney was the first to implement it in a restaurant environment) was derived from theater scenic design, when it was necessary to stage part of a play outside at night, such as the famous window exchange between Romeo and Juliet. The lights are all dimmed down, the ceiling is painted black (with perhaps a star field effect), and the architecture, including the appropriate foliage, suggests that the audience is outside at night.
The House of Blues at Mandalay is comprised of three distinct themed structures (rather than the single, large dwelling found at most other HOB locations) joined by a courtyard under this false night sky—the house, a church, and two dilapidated sheds.
The house is the restaurant, the church (in a touch of delicious irony) is the bar, and the sheds are the concert venue, marquee, and box office.
In the central courtyard is restaurant seating (presumably cleared when there is a concert) and a large tree. Even upon close inspection I couldn't determine if it was real or not—I suppose it doesn't matter. The overall feeling of the nighttime sky technique was quite effective, and reminded me very much of the prototypical example at Disneyland.
Even here in Las Vegas, inside a national restaurant chain, itself inside a casino—Disney's design influence is inescapable. They have not only codified the language of theming and provided us with the best examples of it around the world; Disney has created techniques so successful that they are copied endlessly.