With a shot of ‘Absinthe,’ Caesars Palace goes with a throwback

By John Katsilometes

Thursday, March 17, 2011 | 3:30 p.m.

This really sounds like a spin through Cirque du Soleil, with a shot of absinthe.

Or, a retelling of “Alice in Wonderland,” with a shot of absinthe.

Or, another visit to “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” with a shot of absinthe.

Probably, you get the point.

Set to debut Monday in the Roman Plaza facing the Strip at the front of Caesars Palace is the adult tent fair “Absinthe.” This is a partnership between BASE Entertainment and Spiegelworld. BASE produces some of the city’s top productions, including “Phantom -- The Las Vegas Spectacular” at Venetian, “Jersey Boys” at Palazzo and “Peepshow” at Planet Hollywood. Spiegelworld has staged “Absinthe” in New York, Miami Beach and Los Angeles, to a giddy and intoxicated response, and plans to make the show in Las Vegas its crown jewel.

Next week, the show will perform at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Sunday and 9:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday. Beginning March 28, the show will perform Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. and Wednesday and Sunday at 7:30 p.m., dark Mondays. The show is scheduled to be at Caesars at least through Sept. 18. Also, keep in mind that the schedule changes without notice, because, hey, it’s a carnival. (Go to the Caesars Palace Web site for information.)

What will we see, for $69 a ticket (absent taxes and fees)?

As Spiegelworld producer Ross Mollison, the company’s “impresario,” explains, “The production 'Absinthe' is a hallucination. You enter the Salon Marlene Spiegeltent, which is like stepping aboard a 100-year-old carousel, and journeying back to the Moulin Rouge in 1909, where you meet The Green Fairy, The Gazillionaire and their dysfunctional group of friends and artists.”

Sounds like a few bachelor parties I attended in the old days, but still …

Spiegelworld has built its tent fortress next to Serendipity 3, and that is the stage for “Absinthe.” The audience of 600 is led through a pacing tour that features a speakeasy, a beer garden offering such drinking games as Flip Stein and Champagne Pong (upscale beer pong is the thought here). As the sky darkens, the audience is led to the centerpiece Spiegeltent, a space adorned with mirrors, stained glass and velvet. It is in this theater-in-the-round that the spirited acts are paraded to the stage.

The first and obvious feeling in researching this show is that it is one of those “on acid” performances. As in, “It’s Cirque on acid.” It does have certain Cirque-styled elements (Gazillionaire seems like a figure who got lost on his way to “Mystere”), but as Mollison says, "Absinthe” is far more inspired than to be viewed as a mere knock-off of another production show.

“I wouldn’t describe it as (a Cirque-style show),” he says during a recent phone interview. “People who love Cirque will love this. It’s a far smaller venue, it’s very much the round, and you will be close to the elements of the artists who perform there.”

BASE co-CEO Scott Zeiger, on the same conference call, says that claiming “Absinthe” would be going after Cirque’s audience “is sort of like saying ‘Phantom’ is going after the ‘Jersey Boys’ audience. It’s cabaret theater. The people onstage have similar talent, but it’s presented in a different manner. People who like ‘Jersey Boys’ can also go to ‘Lion King’ and ‘Phantom,’ and it all qualifies as musical theater.”

As for the scope of the show in the main Spiegelworld tent, Zeiger notes, “We’re in an intimate theater, where the stages is 9 feet across. Our entire theater is smaller than the hydraulic lifts in ‘Ka.’ ” The tent is a genuine relic, dating to the early 20th century. These types of venues are built without nails and originally designed as mobile dance halls, and it is believed fewer than 20 of these pavilions still exist anywhere in the world.

Their mobility allows for inventive positioning. The New York show was staged at Pier 17 in downtown Manhattan, abutting the East River, where seagulls often swooped over those waiting entrance.

If nothing else, building tents that are not permanent theaters, and can be installed and disassembled fairly routinely, is cost-efficient. The BASE/Spiegelworld investment in “Absinthe” is primarily in the art onstage, not the venue.

Mollison says he is always scouting talent to add to his quirky cast.

“I travel the world, going to circus festivals, cabaret performances in Germany, China and Russia,” he says. “I look at artists who can do what we’re looking for, acts that we’re excited about. … I have a love of street art that became ‘Stomp’ and Blue Man Group, because if you don’t get a standing ovation on the street, you don’t eat.”

All variety of circus circuitry is staged in “Absinthe.” Trapeze artists, a rubber-faced sword swallower known as Miss Behave (snort), striptease artists, cabaret singers, knife jugglers and soap bubble artists are among those trotted onstage at the whim of the emcee, The Gazillionaire. His associates are Penny, The Green Fairy, Max the Butler, The Weather Girl, Princess Fox-Anna and The Vestal Virgins (who join Matt Goss’s Dirty Virgins at Caesars, as the hotel has embraced a coincidental virginal theme).

You might have sorted out this important facet of the show: It’s not for the kids; you must be age 18 or older to attend. Alcohol is served (but not absinthe) at “Absinthe.” The tenor is adult, but not wholly topless. It’s naughty without being obscene, in the spirit of burlesque and vaudeville without coming across as antiquated.

That’s the advance word, at least.

“Every element of the show has ironic comedy and cabaret singing,” Zeiger says. “It has elements of vaudeville or burlesque, but it’s not creaky or dusty. We also put in a dash of Pure and Marquee. It’s environmental theater. It’s not slick choreography.”

Nope, it’s "Absinthe,” and if it lives up to its name, it will be staggeringly entertaining.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow Kats With the Dish at twitter.com/KatsWithTheDish.