Columnist Joe Delaney: Do the math — Broadway-style offerings are profitable

Joe Delaney

Thursday, March 18, 1999 | 11:16 a.m.

If the show is good enough and the showroom is new enough and large enough (1,500-1,700 seats), the showroom can be a profit center. ... "Chicago" at Mandalay Bay is the full production with a star-studded cast led by Chita Rivera, Ben Vereen, Ute Lemper and Marcia Lewis. ... It is off to a great start, deservedly so.

With a state-of-the-art, 1,700-seat theater and an average ticket price of $60 (a low figure), the per-performance gross potential is in excess of $100,000. ... With eight performances a week, the weekly potential is $800,000-plus. ... Somewhere short of that is a break-even point.

Steve Wynn saw this early. ... Siegfried & Roy at the Mirage are in a 1,500- seat theater doing 10 shows weekly for a 15,000-seat sales potential at approximately $80 per seat after giveaways, for a potential weekly gross of $1.2 million for 40 weeks or so a year.

Continuing on

Check the numbers for "O" at the Bellagio and Treasure Island's "Mystere." ... The point here is that all four of the above productions are profit center possibilities, with any casino action as a plus factor. ... It has become fashionable for some writers to denigrate the 90-minute versions of Broadway shows that were successful for more than a decade at the Union Plaza, and three years at the Sahara and Hacienda.

Each of those showrooms had an attendance potential of 600 or less. ... Prices were low. ... The Union Plaza prices were less than $12 for dinner shows and less than $8 for two drinks at midnight. ... Broadway shows are controlled by Equity, mandating eight performances weekly. ... "Chicago" (Mandalay Bay) has eight performances weekly.

Equity allowed the Union Plaza, Sahara and Hacienda to do 12 90-minute shows, six nights, two a night, for a gross potential well under $100,000. ... All three showrooms operated at break-even or better.

And furthermore

Cutting the shows to 90 minutes was done with great care. ... "Chicago" was one of the shows produced at the Union Plaza, along with other top musicals and comedy dramas. ... All cuts had to be approved by the authors and composers and, with older properties, by relatives and attorneys for the estate. ... Meredith Willson told us on our TV show (in the early '70s) that the Union Plaza cuts actually improved his staged version of "The Music Man."

We're rooting for "Chicago" to be a long-run success and for Wynn and others to join in making LV a major center for legitimate theater. ... Meanwhile, there is also room for 90-minute versions of Broadway shows in showrooms seating less than 1,000 people.

A very blue Monday

Monday, a week ago, started off badly with news of the deaths of baseball great Joe DiMaggio and film giant Stanley Kubrick. ... DiMaggio, at 84, was seven years my senior. ... We were both Joe Ds; he was the role model for my short-lived baseball career. ... Joe also played golf in several of our early local Variety Club golf tournaments when they were four-day, star-studded events at the LV Country Club.

Our personal sense of loss was compounded with news of the passing of dancer Jack Ackerman, featured for years with Paul Anka; plus producer, choreographer, dancer and entrepreneur Hal Belfer and the effervescent comedy actress Deeda Hyams-Neeland, all long-time Las Vegans.

Monday's sad news was the loss of Buddy Trenier, the oldest living brother of the Treniers group, after a long illness. ... We're grateful to each one for the privilege of knowing them.

Star-policy rundown

It's Chicago, the band, Friday through Sunday, this weekend and next (Caesars); Susan Anton, back as special guest star in "The Great Radio City Spectacular" (Flamingo Hilton); plus the "Patsy Cline Tribute" (Gold Coast); Bill Acosta (Luxor); Carrot Top, plus Tommy Tune starring in "EFX" (MGM Grand); Siegfried & Roy (Mirage); Lance Burton (Monte Carlo); Ray Charles (Orleans); and Danny Gans (Rio).

Enrique Iglesias, son of Caesars Palace star Julio Iglesias, will perform at the Hard Rock hotel at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. ... The House of Blues has the Young Dubliners at 8 p.m. on Friday and Dr. John and The Radiators at 9 p.m. on Saturday.

The National Kidney Foundation of Nevada's Spring Swing Dinner Dance is at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Flamingo Hilton. ... The Sin City Daddies will perform. ... See you Friday.