By MIKE WEATHERFORD LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
May 15, 2016 - 5:00 am
Say goodbye (for now) to The Improv, but say “Schlemiel! Schlimazel!” to Cindy Williams.
The long-tenured comedy club received its walking papers from Harrah’s Las Vegas and closes May 29. Management hasn’t announced any plans to replace it and sounds more inclined to let the two titles also sharing the showroom — “Menopause The Musical” and “X Country” — enjoy arguably better showtimes and a little more breathing room in terms of in-house signage. (Remember, Harrah’s also has another showroom with three more titles upstairs.)
“Menopause” is where Cindy Williams figures in. Producer Alan Glist says the actress best known for “Laverne and Shirley” will guest star for the months of July and August. She will join the four-person cast as a fifth, new character for portions of the show, as she did for a production in Florida.
The Improv anchored the second-floor showroom since 1995, when it moved over from the Riviera. It’s a comedy-club brand dating back to 1963 and synonymous with impresario Budd Friedman, now 83, who retained the rights to the Las Vegas branch even after 18 other Improv locations were franchised.
Last week, Friedman’s office confirmed it was Caesars Entertainment’s idea to close the Harrah’s club. But Friedman and his partner hope to move it elsewhere on the Strip and may have something to share by the end of the week.
A few years back, Friedman acknowledged the proliferation of comedy, from club formats to weekend concert headliners, had “cut into the business a bit.” Currently there are five other club formats alone, including the L.A. Comedy Club newly transplanted to the Stratosphere.
“X Comedy” mixes stand-up and variety comedy at the Flamingo, a Caesars Entertainment sister property, which raises the question of how much in-house competition there might have been for room guests and Total Rewards players club customers. Since Angela and Matt Stabile also produce “X Burlesque” and “X Country,” they may have been deemed more valuable to Caesars Entertainment than the Improv brand.
“Menopause” moved into the room early last year. Glist says the showtime will change from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. (with an extra at 4 p.m. Monday). “It gives us an extra hour of selling time, which is always good,” he says. The schedule will stick with eight weekly shows through the summer, possibly jumping to 10 in the fall.
“X Country” will move from 10:30 to 10 p.m. …
The layers of irony are hard to sort here, partly because the details of Prince’s death still were being sorted at this writing. But here goes:
The once-grand showroom at the Westgate Las Vegas was made famous by Elvis as a live performer. But it has fallen on such hard times, not even an attempt to rebrand it with Elvis — a tribute show and neighboring exhibit — could turn it around.
And now it appears Prince’s death, like Elvis Presley’s, had something to do with irresponsible prescription drug use. So what’s currently holding down the Elvis showroom?
You got it, a Prince tribute. Jason Tenner’s “Purple Reign” moved from the Westgate’s smaller cabaret into the big room after Prince’s death roughly coincided with the closing of “Twisted Vegas.”
It’s a short-term answer to the venue’s long-term problems: being distanced from the Strip’s pedestrian flow as more of the Westgate’s rooms go time-share, and seeing the concert headliners — which were always its most successful format — divvied up among multiple venues, from The Orleans to the new Foundry at SLS Las Vegas.
Beyond the content problems of “Twisted Vegas,” it also sounds like there was confusion over who was responsible for dealing with ticket vendors and other business issues stemming from the venue’s three levels of oversight: Hotel operator Paragon Gaming leases the theater to a production company, Red Mercury Entertainment, which in turn contracts with show producers. …
Irony week continues: The big, big splash made by the news that Channing Tatum will direct “Magic Mike Live” at the Hard Rock Hotel next March eclipsed last week’s opening of a smaller revue produced by the guy who introduced a young Tatum to the male-revue industry and inspired elements of the movie.
You can find YouTube clips of a young Tatum and London Steele onstage together in a Tampa, Florida, club in 2000. Last week, Steele opened “Men of Steele” at the freestanding Tommy Wind Theater. Steele’s show will have its work cut out for it when his former protege’s product arrives. …
When magician Wind called in to update us on his theater, he said his family-run operation is now the producer of insult-comic Vinnie Favorito, whose years of crowd-pleasing work on the Strip were tarnished by multiple claims of unpaid personal loans, which ultimately cost him his room at the Flamingo.
Wind says instead of the “door deal” in which the comedian is reimbursed for tickets sold, they pay him a flat fee and do the promotion and marketing. The theater is getting crowded with Wind’s magic at 6 p.m., “Evil Dead the Musical” at 7:30 p.m., “Men of Steele” at 9:30 p.m. and Favorito at 10:30 p.m.
Wind and Planet Hollywood magician Murray Sawchuck filmed segments for “Masters of Illusion,” the CW series that returns Friday.
