Tuesday, October 07, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Cast members angry about abrupt send-off, single week of severance pay

Well-wishers on Monday visit a memorial for Roy Horn in front of The Mirage. Photo by John Gurzinski.

"They'll take care of us, don't worry," Emma Rendon said she told a fellow dancer in "Siegfried & Roy at The Mirage" on the day after Roy Horn's injury.

But now, she and other cast members are angry about an abrupt Saturday send-off from the show that included one week of severance pay. MGM Mirage officials did not announce until Monday that the show had no chance of reopening.

"Honestly, we thought we were a little better than that and appreciated a little more than that by (show producer) Feld Entertainment. Siegfried and Roy (themselves) would give the shirts off their backs for us."

Before and even during a Saturday night meeting for cast and extended crew members, Rendon said she was more worried about Roy Horn than about her own future.

But after that larger meeting, show producer Kenneth Feld separated the cast members on his payroll from those stagehands and ushers who work for MGM Mirage. That's when Feld told them that, for the dancers at least, the show was over and they could clean out their dressing rooms that night.

"To end like this? And on this night? Nobody was prepared," she said. "It left a dirty taste in my mouth."

Phil Misiura, the show's general manager for Feld Entertainment, said the producer wasn't required to offer any severance pay at all, but felt the severance was fair, using Broadway shows as a standard of comparison.

"How many thousands of people got laid off after Sept. 11?" Misiura noted of a contract provision for catastrophic circumstances that could have excused the producers from any severance pay.

Along with the extra week, the dancers were paid for the Friday show that ended abruptly when Horn was injured, plus Saturday and any of three sick days that hadn't been used. Their insurance benefits were extended to the end of the month.

In a statement, Misiura wrote, "Feld Entertainment ... exceed(ed) their contractual obligations to the cast members by providing financial assistance, grief counseling, benefits and assistance in placing affected personnel with other productions."

Many dancers already have day jobs, including Renden, who works as a massage therapist at the MGM Grand Hotel. But Renden said she and other dancers feel it would have been fair to pay out the annual contract, which ran through Nov. 25, and to extend health benefits for three months.

Dancers note that stagehands and other MGM Mirage employees have a better chance of being reassigned within the hotel or transferred to another one.

Feld Entertainment also produces "Disney On Ice" and the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Since 1999, Forbes magazine has listed Feld as one of America's richest people. In 2003, the magazine claimed that Feld is the 328th richest American, pegging his net worth at $775 million.

"He could have paid (the difference) out of pocket change," Renden said. "He's not a liked man right now."

Renden said dancers had "to fight as a group" for a raise after she joined the show three years ago. "We were working in the best show and not even making as much money as the worst show."

When Siegfried Fishbacher had a lingering bout with the flu that caused the show to be canceled for three weeks in early 2001, dancers said he paid them out of his own pocket.

"From what I heard, Siegfried was highly upset that -- these were his friends and family, too -- that they were let off like that," said another dancer, Tiffany Baker.

Baker said Disney officials have told cast members they would be given first priority for auditions at Disney theme parks.

The 27-year-old dancer said she will keep working three other jobs while looking for yet another. She serves cocktails and dances at Coyote Ugly and teaches at a dance studio.

But otherwise, she said, the timing is awful. Other Vegas shows aren't hiring; entertainers in those shows are still under contract. And Vegas has fewer stage shows, anyway.

The next big production on the horizon is Cirque du Soleil's new show at the MGM, but Cirque hires few local dancers. "It kind of sucks. (Cirque) is coming in and taking over the town, but not gonna spread the wealth," Baker said.

Entertainers are worried about finances, especially a single mom who danced in the Siegfried & Roy show, and a married couple who danced in the show together, Baker said. On top of all that, she said, entertainers didn't get closure.

"A lot of people had been in Siegfried & Roy for over 13 years, so that was probably their last night on the stage. ... Which was out of everyone's control, but it's hard," Baker said. "Roy had his birthday party the night before. That was joyful. But he didn't know it was gonna be the last."

"Roy was in the best mood. He was just winking and smiling, and he was so happy," Baker said. "To witness what we saw, I wouldn't wish that on anyone. That was just horrible."

Renden said it's also hard to go from being an insider to "getting information from the news like everybody else. They are the world to us."

Review-Journal writer Doug Elfman contributed to this report.