COLUMN: Mike Weatherford

Actresses view role differently

This is a tale of two Tinas, one that sheds a little light on the working world of local show business.

The Tinas are Melissa Adamson, the new star of "Tony 'n' Tina's Wedding," and Jennifer Marie Alaimo, her predecessor who opened the interactive show at the Rio and had played Tina in the long-running New York production.

Both are dance-trained and petite, roughly 5 foot 4 ("in heels," Adamson adds). The similarities largely end there.

Alaimo grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., so the comedy about two working class, Italian-American families is second nature to her.

"I grew up knowing girls exactly like Tina" and might have been one herself, she says, if not for a chance to attend a performing arts high school.

Adamson is a "laid-back California girl" with beauty pageant experience. It's definitely more of an acting stretch to bring Tina to life as "a brat" whose cutesiness conceals a temper. The wedding is "a power struggle for her to control the entire evening."

Alaimo left the hit comedy to be a dancer in "Crazy Girls," the Riviera's low-rent, lip-synced topless show.

Adamson came to "Tony 'n' Tina" after auditioning to be a principal singer in "Storm." She lost interest when she saw the costumes. "They were a little too `showgirlie' for me."

But she moved here, literally overnight, to play Tina.

Let's not jump to any conclusions. Thespians in particular might be shocked that Alaimo would leave a smart, think-on-your feet production to join the chorus line of a jiggle show.

Why'd she do it?

Simple: Shorter hours and better benefits.

"Nobody thinks about the other aspects of it," she says. "It's a lot less work for a lot more money in a very pleasant atmosphere."

"I don't have to worry about anything," she adds, and working from 7 to 11 p.m. "frees up my whole day." As a veteran Tina, Alaimo also "worried about the integrity of the show," down to the condition of her wedding dress and the cleanliness of the tuxedos. "I assumed this big burden of keeping it true to form."

The 20-year-old Adamson also has no romantic delusions about the integrity of theater. "If you get a play it's not a good thing in L.A.," she says. "You spend two months rehearsing something that could close in two days."

But Tina is a good résumé credit, and her manager convinced her the improv skills will prove valuable. This fast-tracker started college when she was 15, graduated at 18 and is now pursuing a master's degree in broadcast journalism.

She was "getting tired of driving in and out of L.A. (from Fullerton) for auditions while trying to work on my master's." Ironically, she scored a part in a French music video after she got here.

Opportunity knocks, and in as many different ways as there are shows on the Strip.

Mike Weatherford's entertainment column appears Tuesdays and Sundays.

E-mail this story to a friend:

Click here for a printable version of this story

Comment on this story.

BEST OF LAS VEGAS