MIKE WEATHERFORD:
'Shag With a Twist' to add its campy touch to Krave
The midnight movie crowd gets a midnight show on the Strip when "Shag With a Twist" attempts to draw clubgoers to a ticketed show.
The campy revue, which begins previews July 7 at Krave nightclub, is based on the retro-hip art of Shag, aka Josh Agle, whose work is everywhere from Disneyland to table felts at the Hard Rock Hotel. The show choreographed by Cynthia Bradley first played at the Los Angeles Theatre Center last year.
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Michael Coldwell, former public relations director for Caesars Palace, helped producer John Good and his Jetsetter Productions secure a Las Vegas location for the show.
They found the 250-seat Krave to be a perfect physical setting, and weren't put off by the fact that "The Fashionistas" and "The Soprano's Last Supper" push any availability to the midnight hour. The show targets "people who know the party in Vegas really only starts at midnight anyway," Coldwell says. "It's not a sit-on-your-hands show."
"Shag" uses original music to tell the story of "a Tupperware party gone awry," with costumes and wigs molded in the style of Shag artwork.
"It has the potential to grow into a retro, midnight-loungey 'Rocky Horror' experience," Coldwell says. "It will appeal to an audience looking for something different than corporate theater." ...
As things stand now, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme will be the last headline act to perform at the Stardust, Oct. 26-28.
If this sounds familiar, it's because the Las Vegas-based couple also brought down the final curtain on the Circus Maximus showroom at Caesars Palace in 2000. However, the Stardust still might choose to book a specific farewell event after Steve & Eydie, the last star act that was confirmed before the Stardust announced it would quit taking reservations past Nov. 1.
The final performer to walk on the stage of the showroom -- which opened with the "Lido de Paris" on July 2, 1958 -- will probably be afternoon magician Rick Thomas, who would run the clock out to whatever closing day is chosen.
Don't hold your breath for any of the Stardust's biggest headliners to cross over to The Orleans, a corporate sister property. Steve & Eydie, as well as the comedy team of Tim Conway and Harvey Korman, have previously been deemed too expensive for the locals-heavy Orleans, and management doesn't consider Don Rickles to be a good fit.
The Orleans and Suncoast do have some new blood on the schedule in coming months, including "Saturday Night Live" veteran Jon Lovitz, Craig Ferguson, En Vogue and two Hollywood offspring. Jazzman Kyle Eastwood, son of Clint, plays the Suncoast Aug. 4-6, while Christopher Goulet is billed with his mother, Carol Lawrence, in her Suncoast shows July 7-9. His father is Las Vegan Robert Goulet. ...
"Forever Plaid" wants to harmonize for the armed forces, offering a two-for-one discount to active or retired military personnel Tuesday through July 9 at the Gold Coast. ...
The Rio is testing a few acts as an afternoon replacement for departed ventriloquist Ronn Lucas. Today is the second day to catch Tony & Lloyd (Tony Arias and Lloyd Ziel), campy comic throwbacks to the old-Vegas lounge days.
A $20 ticket buys the 3 p.m. show, followed by a meet-and-greet that will last, according to a publicity release, "as long as the fried foods and gravy hold out."
