Vegas lounges show how live entertainment can return

Saturday night seemed almost pre-pandemic in VegasVille, save for the face cover and the now-intuitive sense of keeping personal distance. The experience was the latest lesson in physical spacing and what is being accepted as safe reopening protocols in our city.

We started with dinner at Piero’s Italian restaurant, where across the room Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis hung with restaurant owner Freddie Glusman and his son, Evan Glusman.

Piero’s has just reopened after going dark for about seven months. The place didn’t offer even takeout or delivery since shutting down in March. As Evan said Saturday, he’s initiated a full restart, almost akin to opening a new restaurant. Piero’s Pia’s Place shows on Fridays and Saturdays, starring Pia Zadora and Sonny Charles, haven’t returned to the restaurant’s bar.

That cabaret-fashioned presentation is too tight a fit for live entertainment at the moment. But otherwise, Piero’s held its pre-COVID-19 atmosphere, even with its masked gathering.

Next was a drop-in to Le Cabaret Bar at Paris Las Vegas, which presents live entertainment on Saturdays. This night, it was the duo Angelina Alexon and Marcel East. Alexon sings in something like 30 languages and 18 octaves (checking my facts on this), and East sings and dazzles on the keyboard behind recorded tracks.

In short, they are an ideal Vegas lounge act, tailoring the tunes to the audience at hand.

I first sat at the bar, where I won $400 while sipping a FizzyWater (true), then moved to a table near the stage. I’d estimate I was at least 6 feet away from the performers, a distance Gov. Steve Sisolak himself endorses, masked unless sipping the beverage.

Those around me behaved similarly, until Alexon dove into a Latin set that sent a ripple across the room. I think the term is “En fuego.”

It was the rare instance where the lounge performers actually instructed the crowd to settle down and be seated. They succeeded, but some free advice to lounge operators in Vegas: Find a top-notch singer who can sing Latin numbers. If that room were not under safety restrictions, it would have been Fiesta Latina.

The scene is similar at such hotel-casino venues at Indigo at Bally’s and Napoleon’s at Le Boulevard between Paris and Bally’s, to use a couple of Caesars Entertainment examples. You are led to a seat. You might be given a menu for food items required to purchase so you can be in the room (there was no such menu Saturday at Le Cabaret). You are reminded to mask up, keep your distance, and no grooving. OK, all good.

And, though I have not visited this haunt during pandemic reopening, the Barbershop at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas is another prominent, live music venue on the Strip that has been allowed to reopen under these same COVID-19 protocols.

The list extends, of course, to Strip restaurants Mayfair Supper Club at Bellagio and Rose. Rabbit. Lie at The Cosmopolitan, which are performing “ambient” live entertainment as part of their dinner formats. These venues have been operating since June with live performances, singing, dancing and (at Rose. Rabbit. Lie) beat-boxing and aerial numbers.

Call it “ambient” if you like, but these are shows. In a twist of Vegas irony, a singer at either of these supper clubs can perform a rendition of “Danke Schoen” on the Strip. But Mr. Las Vegas himself, Wayne Newton, is not allowed to sing it in his own show at Caesars.

What I haven’t experienced anywhere in my travels to venues providing live entertainment, on and off the Strip, was a 25-foot distance between myself and the performers. The latest reopening initiative from the governor calls for that distance for gatherings up to 250 people.

I don’t understand the scientific rationale of a 25-foot space for a ticketed show when 6 feet is allowed in these lounges and supper clubs. But it needs to be resolved. I know that resort officials, producers and venue operators are poring over the document to figure out if the state’s intent is to actually push a crowd back 25 feet in a live entertainment performance while permitting much closer seating for no-cover entertainment.

One argument I have heard is the 25-foot rule essentially doesn’t apply if the cast onstage is included in the venue’s 250-seat capacity. If there are, say, five people onstage, the total room capacity moves to 245, and that number would allow 6 feet of distance between the crowd and the stage. But the state Gaming Control Board, which would authorize the return of ticketed shows to hotel-casinos, still needs to weigh in on the updated seating restrictions.

Elsewhere, accepted behavior in Vegas hotels seems to defy science. These are venues, at least in the lounges, where eating, drinking and smoking are allowed by visitors seated 6 feet from performers. Why? I’ll leave it to the doctors to explain. But I have yet to see the scientific argument for how smoking in a public gathering place, such as a casino lounge, helps reduce the chance of COVID-19 infection.

But I can say I feel safer wearing a mask wherever I go in Las Vegas. Masking up should be a default “must” if the city wants to reopen live entertainment effectively.

So, more unsolicited advice: Lose the 25-foot distance provision and use the distancing directives already applied in lounges, bars and restaurants. Redouble the mask enforcement and socially distant seating in lounges and supper clubs. Grow that concept to include ticketed entertainment. Track the results. Be safe. Be smart. This is possible. It just requires communication, innovation and a lot of footwork.

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.