Revue travels through ’60s rock
The road began at Woodstock for Bill DeLoach, who ended up touring with Frankie Valli and working for Danny Gans before opening his own show, “Echoes of the ’60s.”
The new V Theater tenant is a ’60s pop and rock revue with “a little bit of heart,” DeLoach says of his telling stories about his career between songs.
DeLoach backed Gans for his eight years at The Mirage. He brings two other members of the late impressionist’s band — guitarist Freddy Champoux and drummer Rapheal Erardy — into the new venture.
“After the sadness and heartbreak went away it was, ‘Uh-oh. Now what?’ ” DeLoach says of the band’s status after Gans died in May of last year.
Marilyn James and Ray Allaire are the featured singers in the revue, which opts for an ensemble approach over costumed impersonations. DeLoach charts a chronological path through the ’60s, though his own career started only after he hitchhiked to the Woodstock festival as an 18-year-old fresh from high school.
DeLoach credits producers Greg and Gracie Fulljames for helping the show make the leap from showcases in locals casinos. “The element I’ve been missing for years is someone to handle the business side of things,” he says. …
Halloween nears. I’m sensing — yes, I’m getting a very strong premonition here — that two mentalists will be coming to work in the tourist corridor.
Already booked at the Palms is a five-week run by Lior Suchard, who was picked “The Successor” to Uri Geller on an Israeli TV contest. He starts Oct. 23.
And The Amazing Kreskin is headed to the Riviera once the Riviera Comedy Club closes at the end of the month. …
Harrah’s Entertainment hasn’t taken a public side in the legal dispute between the Osmonds and Chip Lightman, the ousted producer of their Flamingo show. Lightman opened his latest production, “Dirk Arthur: Wild Magic,” last weekend in the 100-seat theater in the Harrahs-owned O’Sheas casino adjacent to the Flamingo.
Lightman says he can’t talk about his litigation with the Osmonds. But he does volunteer, “It would be nice to amicably settle and be done with it.”
To those of us not familiar with legal wrangling, it would seem “amicable” ended with the harshly worded lawsuit accusing Donny Osmond of being “devious” and “greedy.” …
The once-crowded Le Bistro venue at the Riviera continues to thin out with the departure of “Barbra and Frank — The Concert That Never Was.” The tribute by Sharon Owens and Sebastian Anzaldo opened in early 2005, when the enclosed lounge was as busy as a McCarran airport runway. The two have an Oct. 30 show at The Cannery, then head to London for a November run in the 275-seat New Players Theatre. …
Word was spread by the competition Wednesday that “Sandy Hackett’s Rat Pack Show” abruptly closed at the Sahara after a run of about 11 months. Hackett is in litigation with Dick Feeney, producer of the rival “The Rat Pack is Back,” and the two shows duplicated some content. …
No more teaser ads to heckle for the Las Vegas Hilton’s upcoming “Triumph.” A more conventional news release says the show will open Nov. 15 and spells out a concept that sounds like it could be different and fun.
The show featuring the magic duo LaRaf is now subtitled “It Runs on Steam,” a nod to the “steam punk” subgenre of science fiction. The release name-checks Jules Verne, H.G. Wells and inventor Nikola Tesla.
Tickets start at a modest $20 for afternoon performances and $30 for evening performances that will be scheduled around the Hilton’s concert headliners.
Las Vegas-based production designer Andy Walmsley — set designer for such high-profile TV shows as “American Idol” — says he was hired for “Triumph,” but withheld his designs when he wasn’t paid. “I am pretty confident the show that was described to me and that was reflected in the script — which would have been a multimillion-dollar show — will not be what we actually see onstage,” he says. …
Finally, pop producer David Foster returns for his second Las Vegas weekend with Friday’s “Hit Man” concert, which follows the annual Andre Agassi benefit concert.
Look for a full interview with Foster in Friday’s Neon, but here’s a stray thought. Each year I covered the Agassi event, I would be in the press room typing to make deadline for the next day’s paper, with one ear to a full video feed of the show.
The video looked like regular television, so I would often ask Foster why the benefit couldn’t be farmed out as a TV special to raise even more money for Agassi’s foundation. He always said the artists didn’t want the added pressure of a television performance with such limited rehearsal time.
After two years of doing his “Hit Man” show for PBS, Foster now says: “To my own words, it is a nightmare, the television aspect. The only difference is we’re not doing this for charity.”
But now, he acknowledges: “It does beg the question why couldn’t we do the Agassi one on TV. I sort of harpooned myself.”
Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.
