ENTERTAINMENT: Brown heading back to Nugget

  Impressionist Gordie Brown returns to the Golden Nugget next February, launching a two-year residency in the same downtown showroom (only with different ownership) that he headlined in 2004 and 2005.
  Brown will open at the Nugget on Feb. 3, mere days after wrapping his current gig as the opening act for Celine Dion’s U.S. arena tour, which ends in Florida on Jan. 30. Nugget officials said that after today’s announcement — which Brown did not attend because of the tour — he will be able to plug his new home at the Nugget to the sports arena audiences.
  The Nugget opted not to renew its contract for the one-man comic play “Defending the Caveman.” Producer John Bentham says he has been shopping the play on the Strip, which accounts for about half the current ticket sales. Bentham says “Caveman” will chalk up about 750 performances over a 20-month run at the Nugget if it remains through January.
  Brown’s name will go on the 600-seat theater, and there are no plans at this point to book a roommate production. It also didn’t sound as though management planned to be overly aggressive about booking headliners when the impressionist isn’t performing his 44 weeks per year.
  Not having to share a stage might be a bit of relief to the Canadian entertainer. The Venetian quietly stripped Brown’s name from the Venetian theater he opened in April 2006 once he began sharing it with Wayne Brady, who eventually became the room’s sole attraction. Brown was performing at the V Theater in the Miracle Mile Shops next to Planet Hollywood when the Dion offer came  in.