Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

A ‘Vegas Nocturne’ movie? Yes — but not for you

Rose. Rabbit. Lie.

Vegas Nocturne” at Rose. Rabbit. Lie. at the Cosmopolitan.

Updated Saturday, April 16, 2016 | 10:47 a.m.

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A promotional poster of the documentary “Vegas Nocturne: The Movie,” screened Tuesday, April 12, 2016, in downtown Las Vegas.

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Lisa Marie Smith is a little smudged up but none worse for the wear after a messy “reverse motorboat” incident during her “Pin Up” show at the Stratosphere.

The Kats Report Bureau at this writing is the Bourbon Room at the Venetian, and isn’t it funny how we discover some of these cool hangs just a little too late. I’ve been in here twice in the past couple of weeks after visiting it once before — one night after “Rock of Ages” a couple of years ago.

The 1980s-themed club is closing, as hotel officials confirmed four months ago. It’s just ebbing away, with the space to undergo a major renovation and new concept reportedly being developed.

Meantime, we’ll hang and watch these great ’80s videos. In the words of The Police, “Do do do do, da da da da,” and pass the seltzer.

More from VegasVille:

• Members of the cast of “Absinthe” turned heads on Fremont East on Tuesday night as they filed into Inspire Theater at Fremont Street and Las Vegas Boulevard. They were not there to perform but to spectate, as Spiegelworld founder Ross Mollison cued up the documentary: “Vegas Nocturne: The Movie.”

Seen it yet? You won’t. Not unless you were in that theater.

Mollison ordered the filming of the backstage activity of “Vegas Nocturne” as it was being developed in the weeks before its New Year’s Eve 2014 opening at Rose. Rabbit. Lie at the Cosmopolitan.

The resulting documentary is for the Spiegelworld family’s reminiscence and also to show to potential partners if and when the show returns to full fruition.

As we were sad to learn, “V.N.” didn’t make it past its first summer, closing July 12, 2014, and leaking money despite such splashy production numbers as David O’Mer’s aerial bathtub act, the twin tapping sensations Sean & John and the comedy-magic stylings of Piff the Magic Dragon. The show was uber-inventive and loaded with talent, and Mollison is not giving up on the production.

Since “Vegas Nocturne” ceased, Mollison has staged pieces of the production in New York and Los Angeles. The next installment of the Vegas Nocturne Revival Plan is to deliver a cast of 10 to 15 members to another pared-down variation of the show at the “Sleep No More” theater at McKittrick Theater in New York in July.

That’s two years after the show closed, but Mollison remains convinced that in the right partnership, the show will become a long-term hit.

The other Spiegelworld production to play Las Vegas, “Never Sleep Alone,” is headed for a fall tour of Australia after it finishes its August residency at Joe’s Pub at Public Theater, also in New York. As is the pattern with Spiegelworld, before any show is performed for a paying audience in Las Vegas, it debuts in New York. So far, one has worked as a true hit resident show, and we know which one that is.

• We can, with confidence, report that the run for “Hamilton” at the Smith Center’s Reynolds Hall will be four weeks.

The musical was announced for the 2017-’18 season, or nearly two years from now. The early notification was to fend off inquiries from Smith Center regulars who were antsy to know if the hottest ticket on Broadway was, indeed, going to appear in Las Vegas. Yes. The dates are not yet announced, but count on a run of about a month here.

At Cabaret Jazz, upcoming shows are arriving at a quick clip, with the highly regarded vocalist Julie Budd at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights; trumpet great Arturo Sandoval at 7 p.m. April 22 and 6 and 9 p.m. April 23; and a reunion with our ex-“Jersey Boys” cohort Erich Bergen at 7 p.m. April 29 and 3 and 7 p.m. April 30.

• More from “The Little Room” at the Smith Center. We were reminded on Wednesday night during Composers Showcase of Las Vegas that “Million Dollar Quartet” cast member Martin Kaye has a series of shows set for May and June at Art Square Theater in the Arts District (1025 S. First St. is the physical, and also metaphysical, address).

The affable, piano-noodling Kaye has developed “Bright Side: A New Musical” with his writing partners Jolanna Sampson and Ernie Curcio. Will Adamson, ever the busy one, directs. The show opens May 19 (having been pushed back a week from this original post) and runs at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through June 5. Tickets are $16 and $20 and available by clicking through the Cockroach Theatre website CockroachTheatre.com.

The plot of Kaye’s show, as formally described: “A father finds hidden strength as he fights to keep his family together through illness and his wife’s deployment.” But it could very well read: “Martin Kaye is singing and playing piano, so see this show.”

• On the topic of singers on Las Vegas stages, Lisa Marie Smith performed a “reverse motorboat” on a male audience member a few weeks ago during “Pin Up” at the Stratosphere.

Hilarity ensued.

Smith pulled the man’s head into her chest, which happens during every show (but never to me), gave the guy the furious motorboat treatment and pulled back to find her cleavage had been darkly stained.

Turns out this guy had used a product akin to Ronco’s GLH bald-spot spray paint, which Smith wound up wearing for the rest of the show.

I hear the product, unlike Smith herself, is still on the market (#sheckykats). And that one is for Paul Johnson, Esq.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow Kats on Instagram at Instagram.com/JohnnyKats1.

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