Magician Curtis Adams' new show "Adrenaline -- Magic That Rocks" leads off the entertainment options at the Plaza. Photo by John Gurzinski.

The quiet rollout of five new same-day, half-price ticket outlets has the potential to reshape the way show tickets are sold on the Strip.

Showtickets.com -- formerly Allstate Ticketing -- is trying the "if you can't beat 'em ... " approach after losing same-day sales to half-price outlets.

"It has been very difficult to sell a day-of, full-priced ticket for the producers who sell the two-for-ones," says Ben Jones, director of operations. "We sat back for a long time, but now we're trying to recapture some of the same-day sales that we lost."

Showtickets.com was bought by Travelocity a year ago. With 21 outlets, it has the largest presence of any ticket vendor in the resort corridor. Most of its tickets are sold by agents who receive commissions from show producers. The commissions can range from $3 to $30 or more per ticket.

The five outlets now selling half-priced tickets along with full-priced services: Boardwalk casino, the CVS Pharmacy near the Monte Carlo (3758 Las Vegas Blvd. South), Desert Passage mall at the Aladdin, the Forum Shops at Caesars and the Plaza hotel downtown.

The new service has been low-profile for the past month while the company built its show inventory to about 15 titles, Jones says. But the service soon will be better-advertised and one of the booths will be heavily promoted as a half-priced outlet.

Half-priced ticketing came to the Strip in 2002 with the Coca-Cola Tickets 2Nite outlet in the Showcase mall. The original partners split, and in 2004 Mitch Francis launched the rival Tix4tonight, which now has three outlets.

Francis has maintained that half-price outlets should be treated as a last-minute way to fill seats, not a primary box office; that the deliberate inconvenience of no advance, phone or Internet sales preserves the window for full-priced sales.

But Jones says his agents can't sell the shows that routinely release tickets to the half-priced outlets. Instead, he has seen "increased sales for the 'A' shows, such as 'Le Reve' and 'Mamma Mia!' ''

Already there are signs of an emerging war among the three companies to strike exclusive deals with show producers. Victoria Ribeiro, director of marketing for "The Fashionistas," fired off a letter to one of the vendors asking the company to state in writing that it canceled a contract "which clearly states that we are free to enter into any agreement with other discount brokers ... because we made 'a deal with the devil' (by signing up with Showtickets.com)."

The ticket vendors "work for us. It's our prerogative," Ribeiro says. Still, she wonders if Las Vegas is headed toward the day when "the only way to sell a ticket is through half-price booths," causing prices to be "artificially jacked up."

Jones say producers should have asked themselves if it was better to pay a $10 commission to make $40 on a $50 ticket, or to push their ticket prices to $80 to make the same $40. But now it's too late, he says, "If this is the way the town wants to go, this is the way we're going." ...

"Avenue Q" is changing its day off and adding a Sunday matinee in the process. Instead of two nightly shows Tuesdays through Saturdays, the musical will have one evening show on Mondays and Tuesdays, two on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Sundays will offer a 4 p.m. matinee as well as an 8 p.m. show.

Sorry bargain-hunters, but an $88 ticket got dropped in the process. All seats are now $99, tax included. ...

It looks like the Plaza, which went more than a year without any show, soon will have two. "Ovation" producer John Stuart says he plans to reopen Nov. 4, moving over from the nearby Lady Luck, which is taking out its tentlike entertainment venue.

Stuart says the variety show will run at 9 p.m. most days, following the just-opened "Curtis Adams: Adrenaline -- Magic That Rocks" at 7 p.m.

Stuart says he plans to co-market both shows with Adams. His First Choice Ticketing enterprise now has three outlets on Fremont Street and four more in the works for the Strip. ...

In a review of "Midnight Fantasy" last year, I said comedian Carole Montgomery's suburban bedroom humor is like seeing the better-known Robert Schimmel's act from a different angle. But now that Montgomery is relieved of duties in the renamed "Fantasy," she has a head start on a long-form type of show Schimmel also is considering.

Montgomery's "Confessions of a PT&A Mom" is "really a theater piece," she says, based on how "a feminist New York Jewish woman ended up working in topless shows." She performed it at the Boston Comedy Festival and the New York City Underground Comedy Festival, and now stages it at the Community College of Southern Nevada on Sunday and Nov. 13 and 20.

"It was time to stretch my muscles," Montgomery says of the hourlong show directed by Sue Lawless.

In the meantime, Sean Cooper currently holds down the variety-act position in "Fantasy" after Montgomery's replacement, Sal Salansang, cracked a rib offstage. Cooper performed in the old "Midnight Fantasy" with his physical impressions of James Brown, Tina Turner and Michael Jackson.

Producer Anita Mann is still tweaking the show and says there may be room for both men or for other new acts in "Fantasy." She says both ticket sales and audience reaction have improved since the summer relaunch.

Mike Weatherford's entertainment column appears on Thursdays and Sundays.