It's too early to say what will happen to three shows at the Sahara after last week's announcement of the hotel's sale. But the Amazing Johnathan, the casino's biggest draw, says he will leave at the end of the year regardless.

The comedian recently was diagnosed with a heart condition and wants to give up the rigors of a six-day workweek to focus more on TV production.

Johnathan moved his twisted sendup of a magic show to Las Vegas in 2001, and performed at the Golden Nugget, Riviera and Flamingo before opening at the Sahara in May 2005. A recent Comedy Central special helped revitalize his profile outside Las Vegas.

An oldies show packaging spinoffs of the Platters, Drifters and Coasters has been at the Sahara since 2003. Trent Carlini's Elvis tribute opened in January. Carlini's producer, Joey Battig, says the Sahara's new owner, the SBE Entertainment Group headed by 31-year-old Sam Nazarian, probably won't take possession for eight or nine months. ...

I often complain about Las Vegas getting productions such as "The Producers" so late in their creative life. Now, Las Vegans can be in the first U.S. audience for a most unlikely work: "Jerry Springer: The Opera" at the MGM Grand on March 17 and 18.

Michael Brennan, music director of "Mamma Mia!" and Suzanne Childers, an independent producer/choreographer, approached one of the show's writers, winning permission to stage a concert version -- minimal staging, actors holding sheet music -- as a benefit for the Golden Rainbow organization that helps people with AIDS.

If the opera turns out to be too outrageous for Las Vegas, good luck seeing it anywhere else. Industry professionals are supposed to be in the audience, in part to see what they are in for if they stage the profane and controversial work on Broadway or regional cities such as Chicago.

"It's pretty offensive," Childers says of the work that satirizes Springer's trash-TV show in the first act, then takes the talk show host straight to hell. The actors who first appear as Springer guests turn up as Jesus, Mary, God and the Devil. "We're bracing ourselves for some people to walk out."

Childers says the late announcement of the production was not to minimize controversy -- the show was picketed by Christian groups in London -- but caused by red tape in a three-way contract between the MGM, Golden Rainbow and the British media company that owns the title.

Because of the delays, Childers and Brennan had to abandon plans for the Springer character to be played by either Lewis Black or Jerry Springer himself, who volunteered his services. Plans to use Black got as far as doing the 1 p.m. matinees in the same Hollywood Theatre where the comedian will do his stand-up act at night.

The Springer part is the only nonsinging role in an otherwise difficult opera. However, the actor still would have to read music or rehearse extensively to get the timing down, Childers says.

Artie Anderson of "Jubilee!" will play Springer, and Marcus Weiss of the Blue Man Group will play his bouncer sidekick Steve.

Other roles are filled by performers in resident Las Vegas shows, including Dan O'Brien of "Folies Bergere," Rebecca Spencer and Ted Keegan of "Phantom -- The Las Vegas Spectacular," and Tina Walsh, who opened "Mamma Mia!" in the lead role of Donna. ...

Don't sell the octogenarians short. Las Vegas is skewing younger and younger these days, but that isn't stopping Don Rickles, 80, from moving on to the Golden Nugget after outlasting the Stardust. He does his first shows in the hotel's renovated theater March 22-24.

Even more remarkable is Marty Allen, who turns 85 on March 23 and just signed a deal with the Gold Coast. Casino executives there had sounded skeptical about booking another open-ended attraction there once "Forever Plaid" wraps on April 1.

But "Hello Dere" with Allen and his wife, Karon Kate Blackwell, is booked for a minimum of eight weeks starting April 14, and they could stay all summer if business is good. ...

Finally, an extra worth waiting for. Local bon vivant Monti Rock III recently sat for an interview at Hooters Hotel to be used in some fashion as a DVD extra for the "Saturday Night Fever" 30th anniversary disc. Rock played the nightclub DJ in the 1977 movie. Presumably, the DVD would be out before the end of the year, before the "anniversary" hook expires.

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