Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Curtain Up: Faaabulous, All Motown, Pop Strings Orchestra and more Vegas showbiz news

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Christopher Kenney as Edie in “Zumanity” at New York-New York on December 17, 2008.

Latin music megastar Maluma is the latest artist to announce a huge Vegas comeback concert, scheduling a show at the recently renamed Michelob Ultra Arena at Mandalay Bay for September 4. It’s part of his Papi Juancho 2021 World Tour, which kicks off two days earlier in Sacramento and runs through October, and tickets for the Vegas stop are on sale today at axs.com.

Faaabulous! The Show,” the all-live singing drag extravaganza created by Christopher Kenney (Edie from “Zumanity”) and Jamie Morris (“Puppetry of the Penis”) and originally launched in June of 2019, is back onstage. Notoriety Live at downtown’s Neonopolis has slotted the show at 8 p.m. Friday nights and it’s a significant partnership for the production and the venue. Kenney and Morris put the show on the backburner last summer when COVID shut down live entertainment while developing and touring “The Drive-In Drag Show” as an outdoor option. With state restrictions loosening up and Notoriety building on its calendar, the time was right to find a new home for “Faaabulous,” a 75-minute show starring five drag performers and plenty of music and laughs. Add this to the recently opened, ongoing “Apéro Show” at Town Square’s Baobab Stage and the spirit of the shuttered “Zumanity” seems alive and well. Tickets are $40 and can be purchased at notorietylive.com.

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The Duchesses of Motown are coming to the Athena Showroom at Alexis Park Resort.

If you’ve been reading Las Vegas Weekly, you know that Alexis Park Resort on Harmon Avenue has become a hotbed of Vegas-style entertainment in recent months. The diverse lineup of shows produced by Admit VIP Entertainment is making a significant change on March 5 when the all-female cast of “All Motown” takes over for “Motown Extreme.” Tonja Jones and the Duchesses of Motown, an act that has been performing on the Strip for years in similar productions like “Forever Doowop” and “Timeless,” will be returning to its roots and celebrating musical legends like Martha and the Vandellas, Mary Wells, Gladys Knight, the Supremes and more in this new 75-minute show. It will be performed at 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday in the Athena Showroom at Alexis Park and more info and tickets can be found at ticketkite.com. Meanwhile, “Motown Extreme” has taken up at the aforementioned Notoriety venue, now playing at 6 p.m. Thursday through Sunday.

Looking for laughs this weekend? Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club at MGM Grand has veteran standup Kathleen Dunbar Friday through Sunday; the Laugh Factory at Tropicana features Rob Little and Brandon Vestal Friday through Sunday; Edwin San Juan takes over the 8 p.m. spot at the Strat’s L.A. Comedy Club Friday through Sunday before Jay Reid hits the stage on Monday; and Don Barnhart, Shawn Fitzsimmons and Guy Fessenden keep it coming all weekend long at the Delirious Comedy Club at Downtown Grand.

It’s a big weekend at the Space as David Perrico’s Pop Strings Orchestra returns to the off-Strip stage tonight at 6 p.m. with a concert celebrating Black History Month. Then the venue teams with the Las Vegas Jam Band Society to present Grateful Dead tribute act Catfish John on Saturday at 6 p.m.

No word yet on when “Vegas! The Show” might return to the Saxe Theater at Planet Hollywood but this weekend brings a series of shows from the Doo Wop Kings, a quartet of singers (Michael Washington, Bryin Woods, Josh Smith and David Villella) who perform together in that Strip institution. The group will be bringing the harmony at the Vegas Room for dinner shows at 6:30 p.m. tonight and Saturday, with Nieve Malandra taking over Sunday brunch duties at 1 p.m.

Rounding out the fun in the next few days is the one and only Frankie Scinta performing “The Showman” at the Italian American Club at 8 p.m. tonight. Next week at that venue, acclaimed Elvis tribute artist Justin Shandor touches down on March 5, and you better act now if you want to see him because that show will sell out.