‘Party’ down at Rio’s updated show

Joe Delaney

Friday, July 31, 1998 | 10:33 a.m.

The new Village Street Party at the Rio Suites Hotel is colorful, noisy, great fun, free, and worth standing anywhere you can for. It takes place in the Rio's Masquerade Village at 10 p.m., Thursday through Sunday, with a special 4 p.m. performance on Saturday. This is the fourth in the Masquerade Show in the Sky series, joining the "South of the Border Carnivale," "Venice Masquerade" and "New Orleans Mardi Gras."

Regular show times are every other hour, starting at 2 p.m. to midnight, no shows on Wednesdays. The action takes place on the main stage and on a series of manned colorful floats that ride on a 950-foot overhead track 13 feet above the audience. Guests can don colorful costumes and participate by purchasing a ticket for $9.95, 45 minutes before each performance. The preferred view point is on the balcony facing the main stage area. Get there early.

Thursday at 10 p.m., the slots were active and the area was absolutely jammed. The super-active cast of 35 includes a live six-man band, male and female lead singers, male and female dancers in colorful costumes in non-stop, high-energy, unlimited decibel sound, combining rhythm & blues, rock 'n' roll, contemporary Latin, plus plenty of get-down funk. It is best if you just relax, absorb and participate.

Masquerade Village is a unique concept; another good reason for the Rio's continuing successful growth. Blair Farrington Productions has the creative credit and Harris Productions the staging credit. Lights and sound are outstanding, ultra high-tech and geared to the younger set, although the audience makeup Thursday ranged from infants to oldsters in walkers and wheelchairs.

Edwin Piekny's costume design as executed by Imagination Costumes Inc. of Las Vegas deserves special mention. High marks all around and even higher sound marks if the sound was just a bit lower.

JOE DELANEY is a Sun entertainment critic.