Columnist Joe Delaney: High prices may have led to show’s demise

Joe Delaney

Thursday, Aug. 2, 2001 | 8:25 a.m.

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

Show prices are determined by show-goers ... Show prices are made higher than necessary when hotels abdicate their responsibility to middlemen, require rental fees and resort to four-wall and two-wall deals ... Show-goers can close shows that are priced too high for the value by not attending, as was the case with Robert Goulet, who closed at Venetian last week.

If enough Las Vegans and visitors are willing to pay $99 and $121 to see "O" and fill the 1,790-seat Bellagio showroom twice a night, five days a week -- and they obviously are -- then the show is priced correctly ... The same can be said for Siegfried & Roy ($100.50) and Danny Gans ($70, plus tax) in their respective 1,503- and 1,285-seat showrooms at the Mirage, as well as "Mystere" ($88 and 1,615 seats) at Treasure Island.

Blue Man Group is proof that the right show in the right showroom (Luxor) can do 14 shows a week, two a night, and average just under 90-percent capacity at $78.95 in a 1,250-seat venue ... "Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance" (New York-New York) is at the 84-percent mark in a 990-seat room at prices of $59 and $68 for nine performances over a six-day week.

The six shows listed above are obviously not paying rent, nor are they dependent on the ticket brokers for survival ... Shows that average 50 percent of capacity or better, especially such well-established perennials as the production shows at Bally's, Excalibur, MGM Grand, Riviera and Tropicana, are doing their job for the present.

"Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus" (Flamingo Las Vegas) departs this weekend and "De la Guarda's" demise is imminent at the Rio ... Bill Acosta, also at Flamingo Las Vegas, is making a valiant effort to stay afloat ... Steve Wyrick is a long way from amortizing his backer's investment and the Sahara an even longer distance from recouping the reported $24 million spent to create the hangar-like showroom for Wyrick.

Siegfried & Roy are stars in a production show ... Lance Burton (Monte Carlo) is a star in a production show ... Gans in his theater at the Mirage is a star-policy attraction ... Wayne Newton, a Las Vegas institution at the Stardust, is a consistent 70 percent or better in the 950-seat Wayne Newton Theater, not a four-wall situation.

Four-wall or a full-lease situation obviously works in the MGM Grand Hollywood Theatre with its 650 seats with a lineup that includes Paul Anka, George Carlin, Carrot Top, Rodney Dangerfield and Tom Jones ... Hotels have been known to make concessions, such as advertising and certain costs, which is known as a two-wall or modified lease.

It is clear that those hotels that still operate their own showrooms are the most successful while those that abdicate responsibility through four-wall or two-wall leases are successful only when they can make deals with stars willing to work for their gross receipts less expenses.

Rental charges are a newer evil with the New Frontier and Venetian as chief offenders ... Venetian is the worst of the two with its third-party lease holder who sublets to the performer ... Melinda, First Lady of Magic makes far less than she should for herself at Venetian after the rental, extra fees to show bookers and a heavier-than-usual advertising budget.

Venetian management is not giving the room away, the hotel is the landlord-lessor ... The middlemen, really lessees, must pay an agreed fee to the hotel for the exclusive rights to the Venetian showroom ... That doubles the burden on the artist and/or the artist's backers even before they deal with ticket brokers, place their advertising or pay the cast or technical crew.

Ticket prices at New Frontier and Venetian, certain four-wall deals elsewhere and extra fees for ticket brokers are the reason many shows have to price themselves out of the market and into early oblivion.

The recent shows at Venetian by Goulet, a top-quality performer, failed because of Venetian's situation -- an exorbitant rental, resulting in admission prices that were much too high, more than double the ticket price when he recently played the Orleans.

Behinds on chairs, every possible showroom seat occupied, hotels operating their own showrooms, reasonable prices minus noncontributing middlemen, that's what made Las Vegas successful and attractive to corporate investment in the past and could make us the entertainment capitol once again ... Prognosis in the current corporate mind-set: not so good.

An appreciation

Don Jaye was a big, outspoken, hearty soul who unselfishly dedicated the last two decades of his life to the Catholic church, his beloved Notre Dame University, the Knights of Columbus and the Sons and Daughters of Erin ... His heart was bigger than he was ... He shall be greatly missed.