Singer Mitzi Gaynor returning to Las Vegas after long absence

Mitzi Gaynor made history in Las Vegas, and she may be making it again.

The 80-year-old singer and dancer perfected a show format that carries on with the likes of Cher. But while contemporaries such as Don Rickles never quit working Las Vegas (he's due back in November), Gaynor may set a record for a return after the longest absence.

Gaynor's weekend shows at The Orleans are her first in town, by her reckoning, since 1978, when she gave up casino work to tour theaters. "I think it was the eight shows a week instead of the 14. I really don't know, it just happened," she says.

For most of the 1970s, Gaynor and Jack Bean, her late husband and manager, perfected a system in which the "South Pacific" star's annual TV specials created both demand and new content for her Las Vegas show. "One hand washes the other," she notes.

She says her Flamingo debut in 1961 was the first to combine a singing headliner -- who previously tended to plant themselves in front of a band -- with chorus boys and costumed, choreographed production numbers.

"When I came onstage the audience kind of went, 'Wow,' because they didn't know I could walk and talk and sing and dance all at the same time, which hadn't been done before."

The format was widely copied, by the likes of Ann-Margret to Raquel Welch. Costume designer Bob Mackie became the go-to guy for diva showcases, all the way to Cher's recent Caesars Palace opus.

Gaynor temporarily retired after Bean's death in 2006. "My husband died and I didn't want to be Mitzi Gaynor anymore. He created me. ... I just caved in and said, 'I can't, I can't.' "

But she was gradually coaxed back into a current showcase that combines singing with verbal recollections of her career (knee surgery has minimized her dancing). "All of a sudden I started to think, 'Hey, Jack would like this very much.' My career was our life. I just stopped it, and he would not have been happy with that."

Gaynor should have no shortage of stories to tell, based on a chat that needed little more than a "Hello" to get her rolling. Check out the Vegas Voice blog on the Review-Journal's website for more Mitzi. ...

Daniel Tosh joins The Mirage comedy rotation with multiple dates next year, starting Feb. 3. This is quite a "get" if the "Tosh.O" star hasn't cooled off since Memorial Day weekend, when he filled Mandalay Bay's arena with little more than social media to promote the show. Tickets go on sale Friday for the first dates. ...

Rumors got a bit ahead of the timetable for Brad Garrett closing his comedy club at the Tropicana. The comedian clarifies that he is building out a new club space at the MGM Grand, to open at the end of March. But he will keep the Tropicana room open through January.

Tom McCartney, who brought Garrett to the Trop, resigned as the hotel's president earlier this week. Now the hotel will be looking to book both its main showroom and the club. ...

If this was costing you sleep, rest assured that Holly Madison won't leave "Peepshow" before the end of 2012, thanks to what is touted as a "multimillion dollar" contract extension.

Seems like money well spent. "Peepshow" owes any momentum it has to the reality show "Holly's World."

Meanwhile, over at The Venetian, word is spreading that September of 2012 will wrap "Phantom -- the Las Vegas Spectacular," with which "Peepshow" shares a producer in Base Entertainment. No word on a replacement yet. But if your Spidey sense is tingling, it sounds like a certain superhero is at least being considered. ...

You need more than one excuse to stay home this weekend when two benefits are crying out to entertain you.

First, Louie Anderson celebrates the first anniversary of his Palace Station residency on Friday by donating all proceeds to Three Square Food Bank.

"Nobody has any idea how many people are not eating three meals a day here," he says.

The comedian has long aligned himself to hunger projects, and anyone familiar with his life as told in stand-up knows it reflects upon his own childhood.

"We were poor. ... Organizations that I'm sure were rooted in the same place as Three Square would stop by and randomly drop off baskets of stuff we would normally not have," he remembers. "I always thought: 'Isn't that nice somebody thought of us. Who are these people?' They didn't have a face."

On Sunday, fellow entertainers gather to help Michaelina Bellamy, a veteran singer on the Strip for years who has been battling leukemia. Bellamy's career dates back to "Les Folies Bergere" in the 1980s, but she made news headlines in 2007 after she was assaulted by a priest.

Bellamy was quick to lend her talents to a benefit, and fellow performers reciprocate in a 2 p.m. Sunday show at the South Point. Vince Falcone leads a big band, with guests including Dean Martin's daughter Deana Martin, Gordie Brown, Santa Fe & The Fat City Horns, Dennis Bono and Lorraine Hunt-Bono. Tickets are $25. ...

Finally, I'm not sure if "turnabout is fair play" describes it, but Liza Minnelli served up an ironic twist last weekend.

Minnelli's weekend sets at the Las Vegas Hilton were hypnotic and proved, like Sinatra in his later years, that sheer magnetism can compensate for battered vocal skills. The set included Charles Aznavour's cross-dressing anthem "What Makes a Man," which would be utterly obscure here were it not performed every night for decades in "La Cage" and now "Divas Las Vegas."

Since those drag shows almost always include an impression of You Know Who as well, it seems a fair give and take.

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