Caesars Entertainment Las Vegas Strip showrooms, which have been dark since March due to the Covid-19 pandemic, are set to bring live entertainment back to the Strip starting this week.
The X Country adult revue will return to the Harrah’s Cabaret at Harrah’s Las Vegas this Thursday, October 22, making it the first show to reopen at a Caesars Entertainment property in Las Vegas since March. The show will be performed three nights a week, at 10 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with plans to expand the schedule to five nights a week starting November 4. Audiences will be capped at 80 people at Harrah’s Cabaret, one of three performance spaces at Harrah’s Las Vegas, with a normal capacity of 340.
The five-year-old country music-themed revue is produced by Matt and Angela Stabile, the husband-and-wife team behind X Burlesque and X Rocks, as well as Piff the Magic Dragon’s show at Flamingo.
Absinthe, the show in a tent at Caesars Palace by Las Vegas producer Spiegelworld, will return to its center-Strip performances on October 28.
“The object is to get back and stay back, be positive and test negative,” producer Ross Mollison said.
If approved, performances will be at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays at the Spiegeltent in Roman Plaza.
“This is the start of a very important process. It’s incumbent upon us to do a great job, so we can see the return of our colleagues’ shows as well as our own shows,” Mollison said.
Government officials are reviewing everything from the NFL stadium to churches to tiny showcase venues.
“I’m sure, down the line, we’ll work out where the various regulations need to be adjusted,” Mollison said.
A new air-purification system has been installed inside the tent and seating reconfigured so that instead of 660 seats in rows of folding chairs, the Spiegeltent will accommodate 153 spectators in groups of two to five at cabaret tables set at least 6 feet apart.
Mollison is tasked with figuring out which acts will be stage-ready and which will meet reopening safety directives, including audience participation portions. The venue will be cleaned and sanitized prior to and after each show. Standard protocols include temperature screening of each attendee and masks are mandatory.
The production will comply with the 25-foot separation between stage and audience, a requirement that has kept other shows in the Speigelworld shows from opening.
“But we are absolutely grateful to be opening one show,” Mollison said.
Absinthe was the first show Speigelworld opened in Las Vegas in April 2011, to great acclaim by critics and at the box office.
The pandemic resulted in $25 million from lost ticket revenue during the eight month closing. Will they continue to lose money under the restrictions?
Absinthe may be first with live entertainers, but Wynn Resorts was the first to return flashy entertainment to the Strip. To simplify social distancing and avoid the problems associated with live performers, the show, Lake of Dreams, will take place outdoors and feature $14 million worth of huge animatronics characters.
Much of the design work took place remotely to reduce the risk of the coronavirus pandemic. The stars of the show, “The Lady Birds,” weigh 8.5-tons, rise 28 feet and resemble toucans and peahens with multicolored feathers. They dance, they sing. So does the “Singing Frog,” who dons a huge fedora and carries a cigarette in his hand.
It’s an immersive theatrical journey that unfolds over 12 high-tech artistically diverse new acts that combine magic, lights, film, music, sculpture, and puppetry.
“I am proud that Wynn Las Vegas is the first casino resort to bring back the kind of big, bold entertainment experience The Strip has been waiting for,” said Matt Maddox, CEO of Wynn Resorts.
