Downtown Las Vegas art house set for ‘22 opening

The $30 million art house in downtown Las Vegas envisioned by Beverly Rogers has a name.

Appropriately, it is The Beverly Theater.

The name and financial commitment was made official this week. The Rogers Foundation, created by Beverly and her late husband, Las Vegas media magnate Jim Rogers, will break ground on the project this fall. The independent film and performance theater is scheduled to debut in 2022.

The project sits just next to the literary complex The Lucy and The Writers Block, near the corner of Sixth Street and Bonneville Avenue.

“My affinity for books and film is no secret but being a faithful supporter of the arts means making sure the community has what it needs to flourish, and that’s the true motivation for this venue,” Rogers, who chairs The Rogers Foundation, said in a statement. “Developing a permanent home for independent film and artistic expression fills a void in Southern Nevada, and we are thrilled to add yet another creative vessel to our humble little corner on 6th in downtown Las Vegas.”

As its news release states, The Beverly will host independent film, live music, arts performances, literary experiences and educational programming every day of the week. A nonprofit venue, The Beverly is an ideal neighbor of The Writer’s Block.

The two-story, 14,306 square-foot building will feature three separate venues: The main theater, terrace and courtyard, all uniquely designed for the content they bring to the stage. The Beverly will also incorporate an on-site box office, retail and concession space, a kitchen and educational work spaces. The green room is called The Teddy, which, similar to The Lucy, is named after Rogers’ dogs.

The main theater will feature raked seating of about 150 seats on a retractable platform that can allow for expanded standing-room capacity, and convert the venue into a multipurpose black box theater by pressing a button. Multiple lighting plots will allow the theater to be used in a variety of different ways, and can be staged in multiple directions. For film-watching, the 360 square-foot screen is coupled with a motorized cinema masking system and has been designed to maximize viewing angles from every seat.

The terrace is also wired for audio and sound, designed for intimate performances, secondary cinema screening, and social events. The courtyard provides a more intimate space for book clubs, educational gatherings, reading, working and coffee consumption.

Last month, The Rogers Foundation announced veteran Las Vegas entertainment exec Kip Kelly as its founding creative director. Kelly helped persuade Rogers to allow her name to be the venue’s formal title.

“Uncommon, that’s the type of content we’re working hard to curate,” Kelly said in a statement. “Our goal is to create a flurry of hand-crafted activity that attracts fans, elevates independent voices, and provides a safe creative space for cinema and the arts. Bringing a new theater to Las Vegas is an important responsibility and our program will be for the people. We have to get it right.”

‘Absinthe’ grows to 16

From downtown to an art house of a different color, we report “Absinthe” has initiated its 16-show-per-week schedule at its Spiegeltent at Caesars Palace. This is two shows per night over seven nights, with a third show on Fridays and Saturdays. Show producer Ross Mollison says of the expanded schedule, “It’s a vote of confidence in the Las Vegas market, and in the return of the convention business.”

Brown not out

Among the on-air talent let go by the station in March, Jerry Brown has returned to KSNV Channel 3 at least for this month. Brown reports that he was summoned Friday. Brown is stepping to fill the void left by the vacationing Kevin Janison, and also for Chloe Koast, who has been on hiatus tending to her health.

As the meteorologist posted last week, “Stress really does a number on your body — it took me to the point of not being able to feel the left side of my face a couple weeks ago to realize I was pushing myself too hard.”

Efforts to reach Koast on Monday were unsuccessful.

Brown has signed at least through July. He returned Saturday, with no mention of him coming back after being let go. Brown is on air throughout the afternoon and evenings on Channel 3 (no mornings), and also at 10 p.m. on The CW.

“They have asked anchors not to say, ‘Welcome back,’ which could be a distraction,” Brown said Monday. “I’m fine with it. I just want to talk about the weather. I would like more rain, though.”

Mohr comedy

Jay Mohr joins Darrell Hammond as co-headliner at the next “One Night Only — Comedy Greats” show at Notoriety on July 30. Our favorite Donald Trump tribute artist, John Di Domenico; Kris Shaw; Eugena Kuzmina; and host Chrisine Peak are all back from the show’s June lineup, headlined by Jeremy Piven. So this show is the sequel to the original “One Night Only” show, and Di Domenico has a great joke about sequels. We’ll let him tell it.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.