Frank Marino’s ‘Divas Las Vegas’ takes on afternoon showtimes

By Brock Radke (contact)

Thursday, July 6, 2017 | 2 a.m.

Afternoons on the Las Vegas Strip are gonna get a little dirty.

Frank Marino has been headlining on the Strip since 1985, always in somewhat risqué productions running late into the night. That’s changing now as the superstar female impersonators of his Divas Las Vegas are introducing new showtimes at the Linq hotel and casino.

“I never wanted to do a happy hour show, but for 30 years people have been asking and I finally gave in,” says the iconic drag performer who first began impersonating Joan Rivers in Las Vegas at the Riviera in An Evening at La Cage. “People have asked all the time over the years for this, saying that the show was so late and they wish they could see it but they have to work in the morning. I didn’t want to have to work day and night, but doing shows seven days a week at 9:30 p.m. is a killer. So now I’m hoping we’ll get a whole new group of people that were never able to see the show before, maybe an all-new audience of locals.”

Starting on July 10, Divas will play at 8 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, and at 4 p.m. Fridays through Mondays at the Linq Theater (find ticket info here.

Now in its eighth year at the Linq (formerly known as Imperial Palace and then for a short time as the Quad), Divas already went through an aggressive revamp in the spring. “We overhauled the entire show and we’re doing it again to a certain extent with new production numbers for the new time slots,” Marino says. “We just added Adele, Barbra Streisand, Pat Benatar as a retro number, a new Madonna, a new Dolly Parton and a new opening.” Other rotating impersonated legends include Britney Spears, Liza Minnelli, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Patti LaBelle, Cher and Whitney Houston.

Divas is taking advantage of the new times with new promotions, including special drink packages and a weekend brunch option that wraps a meal at Harrah’s Flavors Buffet into the mix. For five dollars more, you can add unlimited Champagne to your show experience, which is pretty diva-licious.

“I am excited to not be competing with Celine and Blue Man and all the Cirque shows,” Marino says. “Hopefully I can make myself the king, or queen, of daytime shows.”