Musical chairs over, act gets own venue

Make room for the white masks and dancing feet!

Really? They will? Just like that?

You'd think it's the free-spending 2000s all over again, as Luxor builds a new theater rather than have the Jabbawockeez leave the MGM Resorts corporate family.

Of course, it is valuable real estate sitting empty on Luxor's attractions level, ever since the "In Search of the Obelisk" ride disappeared sometime after 2007. The ride will be remodeled into an 850-seat theater by next year.

A game of musical chairs first found the Jabbawockeez taking over the Lance Burton Theatre at Monte Carlo in October 2010. But only four months later, the troupe faced an uncertain future when it was announced that the Blue Man Group would flee The Venetian.

Blue Man completes the move in October, but it's no longer an "us or them" situation. Jabbawockeez will move to the Monte Carlo's parking lot to spend the summer in a temporary show structure (it sounds a lot like the "Absinthe" venue), while construction begins at Luxor.

And that, of course, is the casino where the Blue Men started out when they first came to town. As we said, musical chairs.

Jabbawockeez are worth the effort, says Renee West, Luxor's president and chief operating officer. "They've been such great partners for our company. ... I think they've been good for the city. I'm really excited we're going to keep them in the family."

Jabbawockeez pulled in a younger demographic that usually veers to the nightclubs. But does their trendiness make them a risky long-term play?

"I don't think high energy goes out of style," West says. "They're constantly evolving. They intend to stick around for a long time. I know they're going to stay out in front on this. That's just what we expect from them and what they've been delivering."

In an email from a casino in Australia where the show has an interim engagement, Jabbawockeez President Fred Nguyen says having to leave Las Vegas was never a real threat. "Let's just say there were a lot of 'viable' conversations within Las Vegas, but our loyalty have always been with the MGM family," he writes.

From the earliest days, MGM "understood what our brand had to offer for entertainment. Although nothing in showbiz is a 'done deal,' they made sure we weren't going anywhere anytime soon."

The tent production will be essentially the same as the Monte Carlo show, but Nguyen promises "a new experience to die for" at Luxor.

The new theater is still in the design phase but "a fair amount of demolition" to remove the reinforcements for the motion simulators begins May 17, West says. "We want to get this show open as fast as possible. We're kind of double-tracking on this." ...

You still won't hear me say the words "Gossy Room" out loud in reference to Cleopatra's Barge at Caesars Palace hosting Matt Goss on weekends. But The Indigo is a pretty cool name that only drops "Lounge" from the title.

The Bally's lounge in question is getting a physical retrofit to host ticketed acts, starting with Taylor Hicks, the fifth season winner of "American Idol," on June 26.

A retractable soundproofing curtain, new lights and a stage extension will create "a first-class little showroom" in time for Hicks' eight-week run, says Carlos Reynoso, who oversees entertainment for Caesars Entertainment.

The room will seat between 175 and 246 people, depending on whether cocktail tables are in use, and the curtain preserves the traditional use of open-lounge bands playing out to the casino floor.

While I'm always amazed at how many shows Caesars Entertainment Corp. can pack into its properties, Bally's could use some new interest, having become a bit of a dormitory for sexier neighboring casinos.

And the company will be down one title when O'Sheas closes Monday; magician Dirk Arthur does his last show Saturday in the 99-seat showroom no one will really miss, assuming you can hear him above the revelry of a "Drink Us Dry" promotion downstairs. ...

Along these room-conversion lines, Cynthia Kiser Murphey, president of New York-New York, adds some details about the bygone Rok club becoming another ticketed show space, the Broadway Theater.

"This is just an opportunity to have a small theater in a New York-themed hotel, that perfectly aligns with our brand and what our customer desires are," Kiser Murphy says.

At 219 seats, I guess it would be nitpicking to suggest it be called "The Off-Broadway Theater." Or to ask why it invokes "Broadway" at all for an Irish dance show and ABBA tribute.

But anyway, the venue provides "another entertainment option for our repeat guests," Kiser Murphy says. Though owned by different companies, Bally's and New York-New York have a similar issue: "Zumanity" and "Jubilee!" have tied up the main showrooms for more than a few years.

"We weren't out searching to close the club," she says of the hotel-operated Rok. "It was more of an opportunity that came our way" via show producer David King.

King will program and operate the room with what Kiser Murphy calls his "tremendous library" of touring titles when it opens Tuesday. The hotel will staff the bar inside as well as the box office.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at
mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.