Plaza to entertain guests with minigolf, theater
Dueling pianos? Miniature golf a few feet away from slot machines? Existential Samuel Beckett? The Plaza has you covered. But it will probably be next year before its vintage showroom reopens.
“We have to complete the puzzle for the (showroom)” said Steve Rosen, chief marketing officer. “We’re going to probably wait until after the new year to put everything together” with a plan for three shows — an afternoon, early evening and edgier late-evening title — to share the room.
“If we’re going to do it, we want to do it right,” Rosen added of the 600-seat showroom, which has been spruced up more recently than the rest of the Plaza and needs only technical upgrades.
For now, hypnotist Anthony Cools is behind the Swingers Club, with both dueling pianos and nine holes of minigolf behind retractable glass walls on the casino floor.
Upstairs, a former comedy club will be home to the Insurgo Theater Movement, a local repertory company previewing “Waiting for Godot” today and Saturday (with a formal opening night Thursday).
“Anthony’s project was very interesting to us. Besides being creative and a little unique,” the Swingers Club will “cater to a lot of different groups at different times of the day,” Rosen said.
Insurgo offers another “opportunity to offer something diverse (in) a room that was not being utilized.”
Rosen and Cools have long ties, having first worked together at the Grand Casino Gulfport in Mississippi before Cools settled in Las Vegas in 2003. Rosen also was instrumental in signing Cools to his current venue at Paris Las Vegas.
Cools has since produced other Las Vegas titles, such as “Freaks” and “Ooh La La.” The Swingers Club created the assumption that the hypnotist will take over the showroom, much as previous producer Dick Feeney did with “The Rat Pack is Back” for three years (paying the stage crew, while the hotel supplied service staff).
“He’s a really talented, unique and great promoter,” Rosen said of Cools. “We are talking to him about some late-night concepts and some other things.”
However, “we’re not going to just give (the showroom) to someone and rent it out. It’s our room.”
Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.
