Columnist Joe Delaney: Brokers are driving up show ticket prices

Joe Delaney

Thursday, April 5, 2001 | 8:08 a.m.

Joe Delaney's column appears on Thursdays and Fridays. Reach him at 259-4066 or joe@lasvegassun.com.

Las Vegas, which had the correct formula in the first place with entertainment seven days a week, twice a night, plus extended lounge action, sent some of our best creative people to help develop Atlantic City in our image. What they learned was that the South Jersey seashore resort town was a very different proposition, a weekend area except for the summer months.

Look at Las Vegas today -- basically a weekend town when it comes to star-policy attractions, leaving wonderful, state-of-the-art theaters vacant four and five days a week. Most production shows are now on a four- or five-day-a-week basis. Some are dark on Fridays, another bad habit imported from Atlantic City.

From Broadway's legitimate theater district, Las Vegas learned to lease or four-wall its showrooms, a first step toward abdicating responsibility for a showroom ... Some stars held out for two-wall arrangements, where the hotel would share part of the engagement expenses. ... Basically, it still means the show or star performer has to succeed or fail by the gross ticket sales.

This begat an evil that continues to grow like a cancer, kicking showroom prices up to levels that are double what the show or performer would normally have to charge the public: the ticket broker.

A case in point: "Crazy Girls" at the Riviera costs $39.95 plus tax with VIP seating for $10 extra, an increase bought about so it could continue to compete with "Skintight" (Harrah's), "Midnight Fantasy"(Luxor) and, coming shortly, the original "Crazy Horse" from Paris (MGM Grand Cabaret Theatre) ... "Crazy Girls" tickets were $19.95 late last year.

Three guesses as to where the additional $20 will be going ... One guess should suffice ... Unfortunately, there is nothing that is illegal, nothing that can be done to eliminate this practice that is giving ticket brokers large sums for contributing nothing more than writing the tickets, amounts equal to or more than is going to the show itself.

Two more ways hotels are abandoning responsibility for showroom operations: One, reportedly true at the Aladdin, where its new showroom was left as a shell with the requirement that an entrepreneur would have to contribute the cost of completing the showroom in addition to the costs of pre-production before actually opening the show ... It is still a shell.

The other, at the Venetian, where the nightclub/showroom was leased to a third party, who then sublet to Melinda, the First Lady of Magic, and impressionist Andre-Philippe Gagnon, inserting a middle man who collects rent while the acts are also paying large fees to ticket brokers.

Kenny Kerr and the other tenants of the New Frontier showroom are also reportedly paying rentals plus ticket broker's fees, and you, the public, are paying double or more what many shows could cost minus these extra expenses.

Yes, there are successful major shows that are either not paying ticket broker's fees or very modest ones because the ticket broker does list all the shows ... Only those competitive shows that are not bonafide hits are paying sums as high as $20 per ticket to brokers ... A sad situation, all because too many hotels think it is better to have outside interests control its showrooms.

Don't they realize that extra $20 or more is going to others, not to the hotel as it could if they once again reclaimed their showrooms?

Star-policy rundown

It's Flora Purim, through Sunday (Blue Note Las Vegas); Osmond Brothers, Friday and Saturday (Boulder Station); Hiroshima, Friday only (Fiesta); Bill Acosta (Flamingo Las Vegas); David Brenner (Golden Nugget); Clint Holmes, evenings, Mac King, afternoons (Harrah's); Sinbad, showroom, plus Bob Anderson, Nightclub (LV Hilton); and "Blue Man Group" (Luxor).

There's more: David Copperfield, plus Rick Springfield in "EFX Alive" (MGM Grand); Siegfried & Roy and Danny Gans in separate theaters (Mirage); Lance Burton (Monte Carlo); "The New Kenny Kerr Show" (New Frontier); Pat Benatar (Orleans); Moody Blues (Paris Las Vegas); Pete Barbutti (Plaza); Smokey Robinson and Tom Dreesen (Rio); and Bill Engvall (Sam's Town).

And even more: Wayne Newton, stronger than ever (Stardust); the Lettermen (Suncoast); and Melinda, plus Gagnon, at different times (Venetian).

Recommended: Saloon singer Sonny King and Blackie Hunt plus special guests, 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturdays nights at the Bootlegger restaurant ... Please support the summer Sun Camp Fund ... See you Friday.