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“Spice Wannabe” debuts this week at the Thunderland Showroom.
Monday, June 26, 2023 | 2 a.m.
There are many reasons why the classic Vegas-style musical tribute production show continues to persevere through the decades and different eras of entertainment on the Strip. Perhaps the most obvious one is that you don’t have to stick to an Elvis impersonator; there are a multitude of superstars, also from different eras, deserving of this treatment, and plenty of beloved songs that should be celebrated.
The longest-running tribute show in the Strip’s history, “Legends in Concert,” has returned for a special engagement at the Orleans Showroom, featuring celebrity impersonators performing as Cher, Dolly Parton, Lady Gaga and Whitney Houston. That show runs through July 8, and that venue is also hosting tributes to Michael Jackson and U2 during the same time period.
But the newest addition to this genre opens on Saturday, July 1, at the Thunderland Showroom at Excalibur (a room that also contains the long-running Australian Bee Gees Show). Created and co-produced by singer, actor and dancer Casey McConachie, “Spice Wannabe” is a high-energy homage to the Spice Girls, the group that emerged in the mid-1990s from London and conquered the global music scene while becoming pop culture icons.
Tickets for the show’s four-week engagement start at $50 and are available at spicewannabe.com or excalibur.com. Locals with Nevada ID receive 50% off at the Excalibur box office. Co-produced by SPI Entertainment, “Spice Wannabe” runs Sunday through Thursday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 5 p.m.
The multigenerational popularity of the Spice Girls makes them a natural fit for such a show, but McConachie said she hadn’t seen anything like this outside of the U.K.
“I’m a ’90s kid and I was in middle school when they were most popular, and that was back before TikTok existed but we’d still be filming in our living rooms with a camcorder, trying to make our own music videos and trying to be them,” said the entertainer who actually first came to Vegas as a dancer in “Legends in Concert” and later performed in a Britney Spears tribute show. “Going back to that nostalgia and realizing it was 25 years ago, and remembering how each of the Spice Girls was a different character with their own style and personality, it was just a great fit.”
“Spice Wannabe” similarly features five performers singing and dancing live, including McConachie herself as Baby Spice. There’s also a troupe of male dancers, the Spice Boys, and a live band re-creating the Spice Girls’ biggest hits.
“When we’re in costume and on that stage, we stay representing the characters, speaking with the accents and holding each mannerism,” McConachie said. “We break the fourth wall and the audience gets involved, but we focus on the nostalgia and just the enjoyment of the music. We want to make you feel like you’re watching the Spice Girls, and the crowd delivers that back to us as if they are.”
She workshopped the show in Las Vegas and showcased it last year at the South Point, and it caught on fast booking tour dates across the country. To bring it to the Las Vegas Strip so early in its existence is a dream come true for McConachie, and the Excalibur venue is a great fit considering the potential girls’ night-out combo of “Spice Wannabe” and “Thunder From Down Under,” the theater’s central show.
“We’re just thankful to have this run at Excalibur. That alone is an opportunity I never could have imagined, but we’re going with the flow and seeing where the journey takes us,” she said. “We’d definitely love to stay in Vegas and make it a long-term thing, and keep touring the show to get it out to people who can’t come to Vegas.”
