Franco Dragone’s new web series will benefit the Las Vegas entertainment community

An essential architect of Cirque du Soleil and Las Vegas entertainment, Franco Dragone created and directed “Mystére” at Treasure Island, “O” at Bellagio, Celine Dion’s original Caesars Palace residency show “A New Day” and “Le Reve” at Wynn Las Vegas. Now he’s created something new in order to raise funds to support the local entertainment community affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Las Vegas Creators United is a weekly web series set to debut on Friday, a sort of cross between “Inside the Actors’ Studio” and a TED talk featuring in-depth conversations between many of the renowned creatives who have contributed to the Las Vegas Strip entertainment landscape. The first show features Dragone and illusionist Criss Angel and can be seen at noon June 12 on Dragone’s YouTube channel.

“This guy is a visionary and we’re going to talk shop, get inside his brain and you can watch it all go down,” Angel says in a preview video, calling Dragone one of his biggest inspirations.

Upcoming episodes will feature choreographer and filmmaker Kenny Ortega and “Le Reve” casting director Louanne Madorma on June 19 and choreographer couple Napoleon and Tabitha D’umo, aka Nappytabs, on July 3.

The show will also drive donations to the Composers Showcase Entertainment Community Relief Fund, a Las Vegas-based 501c3 nonprofit organization affiliated with the Smith Center for the Performing Arts.

Keith Thompson, the composer and Broadway veteran who founded the Composers Showcase — which has been performed regularly at Myron’s Cabaret Jazz at the Smith Center since 2012 — said the relief fund, launched in April to assist local entertainment industry professionals who are out of work due to the pandemic, was an ideal fit for Dragone’s goals.

“Franco and his team were working on this idea and his main concern was the community here that has really been suffering, and he wanted to do something,” Thompson said. “He works with my friend Michael Brennan [musical director at “Le Reve”], who is actually the person who came with the idea for the Composers Showcase back in 2006. We started talking and the light bulbs went off.”

Thompson and his team have previously raised money and awareness of the relief fund through his original song “Needing Each Other” and its recording and music video featuring dozens of Las Vegas singers and musicians.

“These inspired conversations with many of the brilliant mastermind creators of our Las Vegas shows is a wonderful thing and I think it will be interesting to a lot of people all over the world,” Thompson said of the web series. “And he’s scheduled them for [Fridays] at noon because they want people in the U.K. and Australia and China to be able to watch this and have access to this piece of Las Vegas.”

Donations can be made at any time to the TCS Entertainment Community Relief Fund. For more information about Las Vegas Creators United, visit dragone.com.