This may come as a surprise. "Legends in Concert" is the third longest-running show in Las Vegas. The Imperial Palace revue that opened in May 1983 trails only the two classic showgirl revues, "Folies Bergere" (1959) and "Jubilee!" (1981).

I started thinking about why. Here's a decent answer. Real Elton John this weekend at Caesars Palace: $115-$280. Elton impersonator Stephen Sorrentino, starting Monday in "Legends": $49.95-$59.95. And they throw in Elvis, too.

Sorrentino actually plans to spend more of the show as himself, serving as the first host to provide live transitions from one tribute act to another. It's the first significant rethinking of the "Legends" format in years. Celebrity impersonators proved more durable than almost anyone could have imagined, but new ideas surely can't hurt a show that has slipped off the radar screen at the Imperial Palace, a tired casino most people figure will be torn down soon.

"I don't think anyone smells any dynamite. I think what we're smelling is kind of fun and newness," says Sorrentino, who returns to the show after 10 years away.

"Legends" was quite the novelty in its early days, and a comedian did open the show for the first six years. Dave Swan, best known these days as King Arthur in "Tournament of Kings," remembers when original producer John Stuart opened with a four-week guarantee and a four-week option.

The show took off where a more generic revue, "Bravo Vegas," failed to take hold. People were "mesmerized" by the impersonators, Swan recalls.

Stuart "started adding more people and my time got less and less," Swan says. "Pretty soon it was, 'Good evening ladies and gentleman' and 'Goodnight.' "

"Legends" outlasted Stuart, who was bought out of the producing company in 2003, as well as its first Elvis impersonator. Dana MacKay was shot dead at home in a 1993 murder still listed as unsolved.

The second, more successful Elvis, only died onstage -- professional suicide. One night Jonathan Von Brana ran out of scarves, so a fan asked for the towel he used to dry his face. No can do, he explained, because the towels were hotel property and "the owner is a cheap son of a bitch."

"He was gone the next day," Swan recalls with a laugh.

Sorrentino admits the bigger appeal of coming back is to further the non-Elton side of his career. But he maintains that impersonators are still relevant if they live up to the standards of past "Legends" stars who put the show on the map. "There are, in our industry -- I'm not saying 'Legends' itself -- the people who say, 'I do Ricky Martin, Lou Rawls and Tina Turner.' You can't," he says with a laugh. "It doesn't work."

When he suits up in the Elton glasses and wig, "I'm going to look at it as if I'm in 'Death of a Salesman.' "

Mike Weatherford's entertainment column appears Thursdays and Sundays. Contact him at 383-0288 or e-mail him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com.