Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Curtain Up: Lady Gaga, Late Night Magic, the Bronx Wanderers and more Vegas showbiz news

The Inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

AP

Lady Gaga sings the U.S. National Anthem at the beginning of the swearing in ceremony for the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol for President-elect Joe Biden in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. (Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP)

Las Vegas-based producer Seth Yudof had the tweet of the week as far as this column is concerned. Along with a collage of images featuring Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez and Garth Brooks during their ceremonial performances on Wednesday, Yudof posted: “If there is one thing we should all take away from today, it’s that a Vegas residency is the gateway to performing at the Presidential Inauguration.” You can’t argue with that logic. Gaga’s “Enigma” and “Jazz & Piano” residency shows at Park Theater were interrupted and postponed due to the pandemic shutdown last year. Lopez performed her own stellar residency show “All I Have” at what is now Zappos Theater from 2016 to 2018, and Brooks famously played a series of lucrative concerts at Wynn over the course of five years ending in 2014. The country superstar’s rescheduled tour stop at Allegiant Stadium is still on the calendar for February 27, although it’s expected to be cancelled or postponed considering the current COVID restrictions on live entertainment events.

Late Night Magic,” the after-hours magic show for adults created by Michael Mayfield and Douglas “Lefty” Leferovich that had hopped a few venues in the months preceding the pandemic, is primed for a comeback at the Alexis Park Resort on January 30. The show will continue to feature a rotating cast of magicians with acts created for mature audiences only and is scheduled to hit the stage at the Athena Showroom at 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights.

Click to enlarge photo

Vinny Adinolfi III, aka Vin A, of the Bronx Wanderers.

The Bronx Wanderers, or at least two of them, were performing regularly every Friday at the outdoor Carnaval Court bar at Harrah’s until a couple weeks ago, when business levels dipped below a logical point. The band would normally be headlining in Harrah’s Showroom with its high-energy musical tribute, but the forced downtime hasn’t stopped the band from unleashing new tunes. The Wanderers released a new album, “Home Alone,” on iTunes on December 22, another tight collection of classic covers including the Beach Boys’ “Don’t Worry Baby,” Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” Neil Sedaka’s “Breaking Up is Hard To Do” and a catchy medley of theme songs from the James Bond films. The album was already in progress when quarantine mode set in and the group ended up recording their own parts from their own homes.

Singer, pianist, guitarist and producer Vinny “Vin A” Adinolfi also just released his own single and music video for original upbeat track “Wishing Well,” featuring some familiar faces (and bodies) dancing in the video. “We got together in the summertime and put this video together in one day with some of the dancers from ‘X Country’ and ‘Aussie Heat,’ and it just ended up that both of those shows are among the few that are still running right now,” he says. “But the video did well on Facebook and the sales were pretty good, so now I’m about to work on the next one. It never stops.” He’s also getting set to release the “Vindemic” solo album he started working on during the entertainment shutdown, featuring covers and original music.

Along with those two shows — “X Country” at Harrah’s and “Aussie Heat” at Mosaic on the Strip — and the continuing Caesars Entertainment productions of Tape Face at Harrah’s, “X Burlesque” at Flamingo and “Extravaganza” at Bally’s, the weekend lineup includes “MJ Live” at the STRAT, “Thunder From Down Under” at Excalibur and “Murray the Magician” at the Tropicana.

Elsewhere this weekend, singer and pianist Jamie Hosmer hits the stage at the Vegas Room for dinner shows Friday and Saturday before Skye Dee Miles takes over for Sunday brunch, and David Perrico’s Pop Strings Orchestra plays tonight at the Space, as discussed in my Sun on the Strip podcast this week. And after the weekend, Piff the Magic Dragon returns from a quick break, resuming shows at the Flamingo Showroom on Monday and performing nightly except Tuesdays.