Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

The Act space looks like ‘Dead’ zone; Priscilla Presley recalls discarded items that helped inspire Graceland

Penn and Teller Times Square

John Katsilometes

A Mazda commercial starring Penn & Teller runs on an endless loop on a giant Sony LED screen in Times Square in New York. The two Las Vegas headliners open their first Broadway run in 30 years on July 7 at Marquis Theatre.

The Kats Report Bureau at this writing is the Dream Midtown hotel in Manhattan. It’s a dank day here, threatening to rain with the wind kicking up just enough to make it feel as if it is freezing. Skaters are circling the rink at Rockefeller Center at the moment as spring is still being held in check.

Tonight awaits a great experience, as a Las Vegas entertainer performs in a sold-out show at Carnegie Hall. The performer is Frankie Moreno, the show is “Let’s Be Frank,” and the lineup of singers joining Moreno is Ryan Silverman, Tony DeSare and Storm Large.

The New York Pops orchestra is the backing musical ensemble, with 80 pieces of proficiency on parade. The Pops shows rarely sell out the main Isaac Stern Auditorium, but the power of the Sinatra legacy — the show is to celebrate his 100th birthday, which is in December — and the unique lineup of stars brought the show to capacity Thursday afternoon.

The final, full rehearsal is later today. We’ll check back.

Until then, notes from elsewhere:

• During a walk through Times Square, we took notice of a Mazda commercial starring Penn & Teller running on an endless loop on a giant Sony LED screen. P&T are definitely international stars, recognizable to anyone traipsing through Times Square, and they open their first Broadway run in 30 years on July 7 at Marquis Theater.

Meantime, drawing back to a note from earlier this week, I am confidently hearing that the show moving into the venue formerly home to The Act at the Shoppes at Palazzo is a revived version of Teller’s own “Play Dead.” Nothing firm has been announced about the show’s return to Las Vegas, but multiple sources say it is heading to Palazzo.

The old-fashioned “spook” show is filled with macabre illusions and acts and hearkens to similar dark productions from the 1930s and ’40s. The show opened in September 2010 at the Rio and played in October and November of that year off-Broadway at the Players Theater in Greenwich Village.

• Teaser to an interview with Priscilla Presley as she preps for the grand opening of the Graceland exhibit at Westgate Las Vegas, which is April 23. She said the idea of putting Elvis’ personal items on public display was forced, in part, by a souvenir shop that opened across from the original Graceland in Memphis just a month after Presley’s death in August 1977. Priscilla found that the proprietors had rooted through hers and Elvis’ trash and put discarded items on sale.

“I saw my own fake eyelashes that I’d thrown out being sold at this place,” Presley said. “These were the really long eyelashes from the ’70s, and I knew they were mine. When I saw that happening, I thought we’d better do something to get control of the situation.”

• An idea being tossed around is for David Perrico’s Pop Strings show to expand on its dates at Rocks Lounge at Red Rock Resort and move to regular performances on Fremont Street. This is preliminary, with Perrico kicking the tires about such a booking. Zowie Bowie has drawn several hundred fans to the free shows at Third Street Stage abutting The D Las Vegas. Perrico’s own Pop Evolution show band played that stage to celebrate the opening of The D a few years ago.

• Wednesday is hammered with a busy and diverse set of performances; “Duck Commander Musical” opens that night at the Rio, and Composers Showcase of Las Vegas also is set for 10:30 p.m. at Cabaret Jazz (Clint Holmes returns to perform an original number that night). And the act that always brings the party, Zowie Bowie, is back with its Bad Kid’s Club performance of 1980s hit and deep cuts at 11 p.m. at T Spot in Tuscany Suites.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.

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