In the past five years, ventriloquist Ronn Lucas carved a niche as an afternoon attraction that's family-friendly but adult-oriented enough for a casino show. Photo by Ralph Fountain. Martin Nievera was a pop star in the Philippines and is now challenging himself to start over on a quest to become a Las Vegas headliner. Photo by Craig L. Moran.

No one has been waiting for Steve Wyrick's theater to open more than Ronn Lucas or Martin Nievera.

After months of delays, both entertainers are finally in business in Wyrick's new theater at the Desert Passage mall.

Lucas built his ventriloquist act into an afternoon show that lasted nearly five years at the Rio before closing in June. Back then, he figured he'd be working the new room by Labor Day. But to hear him tell it, the new theater was worth the wait.

"I couldn't be happier," he says of the 500-seat venue. After doing his first week of shows on the new stage, "I feel like I've found a home. The audience is directly in front of me. I can see them, they can see me (without camera close-ups). I can do a lot more asides and nuance."

Nievera is still hoping to make a home on the Strip. The Filipino pop star has twice played the Golden Nugget, with limited runs in 2003 and 2004 attempting to establish him as a Las Vegas headliner.

"I think I can grow old with my music and with the people who listen to it a lot better here in Vegas than in the Philippines," Nievera explains. "A singer's job is always trying to reinvent himself, and I don't do enough of that in my comfort zone back in the Philippines."

The schizophrenia of his challenge was evident in 2003. At the Nugget, Nievera struggled to attract traditional showgoers to a 400-seat room. But in between his two stints downtown, he played the Orleans Arena in a tour more directly marketed to Filipinos. The reunion tour with his ex-wife, Pops Fernandez, commanded a top ticket of $100 from fans who had followed the celebrity couple as closely as Britney and K-Fed were monitored stateside.

Nievera bought a house in the Anthem community two months ago, only a month after he had a son with his girlfriend of 11 years.

"It's time to put my money where my mouth is," he says of the move and the new venture. "I'm always wearing my dreams on my sleeve," telling every interviewer that he wants to be a Las Vegas headliner.

The singer once known as "The Concert King" recognizes that in the pop-focused Philippines, "50 percent of the fans stay with you, grow old with you, and learn with you. And the other 50 percent are looking for the new guy."

The balladeer is advertising his new shows with the slogan "From Broadway to Buble," and he doesn't need a release from Michael Buble. The two have been friends since Paul Anka, Buble's executive producer, told the singer to catch Nievera during a tour of the Philippines.

Lucas is more established in Las Vegas and was better able to withstand the long wait for the theater. But he, too, is reinventing himself with plans to use the theater's video wall and expansive staging.

"For the sake of economy, I've been doing a show that's very similar to the one I travel with. Now that I have a set stage, I can branch out with bigger and better props," the ventriloquist explains. The longtime dream to make his dragon sidekick, Scorch, take flight "just wasn't practical" at the Rio.

Lucas currently is doing a soft opening with the old show while working up to the bigger stuff. "You're looking at the only ventriloquist who actually landed a Small Business Association loan," he says of the self-produced venture. (Nievera isn't strictly a tenant. His co-producer, Gene Gamalinda, also is a partner and investor in the theater.)

Lucas struck up a cost-effective, win-win relationship with students at the International Academy of Design and Technology in Henderson. They're helping with everything from ads to costuming, and immediately came up with ideas to address a problem Lucas always ran into in marketing his show: "How do you say that it's an adult show that's kid safe?" he asks of an act that "has kid appeal, but some of the humor is of an adult approach without using any strong language."

Alas, it's too late to use that "Avenue Q" parody ad he thought of when the Broadway musical was in town. "I wanted to say, 'Avenue Q: A great puppet show, but they move their lips.' ''