Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Even before a single performance, ‘Vegas! The Show’ makes a name for itself

Tony Orlando @Las Vegas Rocks Cafe

Jackie Brett

Tony Orlando goes over the Las Vegas history-themed menu at the Las Vegas Rocks Cafe with found Tony Sacca and his partner chef Josette LeBlond.

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Old Vegas is HAPPENING: Tony Sacca, with Frank Sinatra's longtime music director, Vincent Falcone.

There's a classic scene in "This is Spinal Tap" where David St. Hubbins (Michael McKeon) and Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) are attempting to explain to documentarian Marty DiBirgi (Rob Reiner) the history of Spinal Tap's name.

The conversation:

DAVID: "... we became The Originals."

NIGEL: "Right."

DAVID: "And we had to change our name actually..."

NIGEL: "Well there was, there was another group in the East End called The Originals and we had to rename ourselves."

DAVID: "The New Originals."

NIGEL: "The New Originals and then, uh, they became ... "

DAVID: "The Regulars, they changed their name back to The Regulars and we thought well, we could go back to The Originals but what's the point?"

Exactly. What's the point? There is none, unless The Originals might be upset with The New Originals, or vice versa, for possibly committing trademark infringement.

I thought of this exchange just today, during a phone conversation with Tony Sacca. I believe, at this moment, he would be the one-man embodiment of St. Hubbins-Tufnel. At issue is not the name "The Originals," but "Vegas! The Show," the production conceived by David Saxe at the his newly named Saxe Theater at Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood (exhale). That show is scheduled to open June 1, and Saxe has been jamming to get the cast filled, the show written and the theater in proper working order (seems that some of the staging effects and mechanisms disappeared about when former lease-holder Steve Wyrick vanished).

Sacca, a Vegas showman for nearly 30 years and host of the syndicated "Entertainment Las Vegas Style" TV interview show, has taken issue with the title of Saxe's show and simply wants him to ditch the title. The reason: Sacca has, at various points over the past five years, produced a show with a similar title, "Vegas, the Show."

A bit different punctuation, yes, but it's all the same to Sacca, who claims Saxe is infringing on his trademark in using "Vegas! The Show." Sacca makes this claim even though he has used the title (or a version of it) exactly twice in the past three years.

"My problem is not with what is put onstage, but the name," Sacca said during our phone conversation today. "I've owned this title for five years. I want this to be the resident show at Las Vegas Rocks Café, too."

Sacca and Chef Josette LeBlond operate that space at Neonopolis, providing, at the very least, lighting on those walking past the star-struck entertainment complex. But Sacca's contention that he wants to use "Vegas, the Show" as a resident production at Las Vegas Rocks struck Saxe as a bit strange, timing-wise.

"Oh, he wants to use it now," Saxe today said in a phone conversation, which transpired an hour or so after I spoke with Sacca and about 30 minutes after Sacca himself — not a Sacca impersonator — met with Saxe in Saxe's office. "But he's got no 'mark, he's got what amounts to a one-sheet he's filed with the Secretary of State for an application for a trademark, a document dated April 21, that he showed me. Maybe, someday, he'll land this idea that he's got, but we're moving forward."

(This might be an apt moment to note that Sacca and Saxe are friends, so this is akin to a squabble among buddies and it is really unlikely to land in court, but wow, wouldn't that be fun to watch.)

Sacca's show has been similar in Saxe's concept in that it incorporates the historic arc in Vegas entertainment, beginning in 1930 and drawing from showgirl productions, Elvis and the Rat Pack (Sacca goes a step further and ends his production in the year 2050, when of course we'll still see some version of "Legends in Concert" onstage). Sacca's show dates to 2005 and was most recently staged at the Plaza in June 2008. Before that one-out performance, Sacca & Co. headlined at Summerlin Library's Starbright Theatre in May 2007.

Even though a producer of Saxe's measure might not even know where Starbright Theatre is, in fact, located, there is a history (at least, as Sacca claims) with that particular show title over the past few years. He has actually used a couple of titles, at least as reported by then-Las Vegas Sun entertainment writer Jerry Fink. One was "Vegas, the Show." The other was, ""Vegas the Show: History With Humor ... A Story in Song."

The real problem for Sacca is that he doesn't actually hold a trademark for the title "Vegas! The Show" and would seem to have no avenue to gain such. Saxe's law firm conducted a what Saxe says was "a multifaceted search for trademarks — you name it, we looked for it." The team found no match for Saxe's title, from Sacca or anyone else.

As far as intellectual infringement of the show's concept, Saxe just laughs.

"Everyone has had the same name and show idea in this town for years," he said. "The thing with Tony was, I'd never heard of his show until he started talking about it. He says, 'Dave, but I had this idea, I used the name,' but using it three years ago, or two years ago, at Starbright Theatre for a showcase performance doesn't mean you own it. I mean, I know my way around trademark law, and so does my law firm."

That might be Saxe's ultimate trump card. He is represented by the Las Vegas office of Greenberg Traurig. The firm's managing shareholder is Mark Tratos, who knows a lot about trademark infringement as one of the leading experts in the country on intellectual property issues.

Tratos is particularly familiar with Nevada's "right of publicity" statue that protects tribute shows throughout the state. Tratos should be familiar with that statute. He wrote it, helping cut the path for such Las Vegas producers as David Saxe and, ironically enough Tony Sacca.

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Wayne and Kathleen Newton at Karl Rove's Courage and Consequence: My Life As a Conservative in the Fight book signing at Barnes & Noble at Maryland and Flaming on April 9, 2010.

Careening to the weekend

Quick shots:

• The short-term plans for Tiffany Theatre are now murky. Wayne Newton's final scheduled show for "Once Before I Go" is Saturday night, but there is still an ember hearing talk that he'll be back in some reduced capacity when the theater is completed, or even in the lag time between his closing and when the theater itself closes. It was initially supposed to shut down in May, but with Paul Rodriguez on the books (at least tentatively) throughout May, it's anyone's guess when the theater will be remodeled. However, the new marquee is up and once all those lights are working in the sign, it'll be a vast improvement.

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Ginger Bruner plays tuba for the local Celtic rock group Killian's Angels.

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Marie Osmond surprises Bette Midler onstage during the final performance of Bette's The Showgirl Must Go On in The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on Jan. 31, 2010.

• Changes on the entertainment lineup at The Orleans are not limited to Killian's Angels leaving Brendan's Irish Pub. The hotel's piano bar will go dark for renovation during the summer. Brendan's will feature entertainment each night of the week to coincide with its new happy hour (before, live music was limited to weekend nights, hosted primarily by the Angels), and of particular interest is The Beatles tribute band The Fab on May 7-8. This weekend, at Orleans Showroom, it's vocalist Perry Danos, who is attempting to find a niche in Vegas (aren't we all, really). Danos is a veteran of commercial jingles (Coke, Southwest Airlines and Coors among them), and knows enough about Las Vegas celebrity status to invite Holly Madison to his show Saturday night.

• After taking a total of 37 days off, Marie Osmond returned to updating her Twitter page this week. "Twitter Tots," is how she refers to her 23,500 followers. On her page, she wished a happy birthday to her oldest son, Steven, on Wednesday. He's 27, and she joked, "It's getting harder to convince my little kids that Mommy is in her 30's ;-)"

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.

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