Awards taking time off for face-lift

Perhaps it’s because so many special events now visit the Strip that the Billboards seem to have disappeared without notice.

Or perhaps it speaks to the fact that "last year was kind of an abysmal mess. The show had no theme, no core and it really didn’t do great in the ratings."

This review comes from an important TV critic: Randy Phillips, president of AEG Live, the awards show’s new owner.

AEG, the Los Angeles-based company that operates the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, announced a deal last May to create events branded with publications owned by Nielsen Business Media, including Billboard magazine.

Rather than jumping in midstream, AEG decided to "take the year off so we didn’t have to rush to put a show on the air," Phillips says. "We’re revamping the whole format."

Phillips says the plan is to keep the awards in Las Vegas, which gives it a distinctive flavor and helps it stand out from the Grammy Awards or American Music Awards.

All other aspects will be overhauled to make Billboard "a more compelling piece of entertainment," Phillips notes. Suspense was never the strong suit for awards based on chart positions and sales. "That show needed a major overhaul. It was like a poor version of the AMAs, which was like a poorer version of the Grammys."

The Billboards were staged in California and New York before coming to the Aladdin’s 7,000-seat theater in 1996. The event moved to the MGM Grand Garden the next year, where it has been ever since.

The revamped awards would be an obvious fit for the arena AEG plans to build with Harrah’s Entertainment on the east side of Bally’s. AEG also plans to have a Las Vegas component with the entertainment news show it’s developing around the Hollywood Reporter name.

And Phillips says his company also wants to make the final night of the annual ShoWest convention of movie theater exhibitors into "another version of the Golden Globes."

"The studios are very supportive of that idea because it’s close to the summer and the big summer releases," he adds. …

Since it’s not often I speak with Phillips, I had to ask about Cher and whether she’s still on as Bette Midler’s roommate at the Colosseum next year.

Phillips made it sound like reports of the Cher deal going by the wayside were unfounded. "Timing on these things is everything," he says of an announcement. The smart money is on a Cher news conference soon after Midler opens in February, to minimize any thunder-stealing from Midler. …

The closing of "The Producers" at Paris Las Vegas has long seemed not an "if" but a "when." If your betting colleagues set the over-under line at one year, the announced Feb. 8 closing — one day short of its formal opening night (after previews) — might end up as a push.

The show constantly was plagued by talk of low attendance, and the gimmicky stunt casting of David Hasselhoff for the first three months failed to generate the right (i.e., nonsloppy hamburger-snarfing) kind of publicity that put bodies in seats.

The content also suffered more from a trim to 90 minutes than other Broadway-to-Vegas titles. In the big picture, the whole enterprise simply seemed to be too little too late; six years after the original Broadway smash and well after touring productions had criss-crossed the country. The Vegas edition actually lingered on past the Broadway original’s closing in April.

The good news is that Harrah’s Entertainment seems to have impressed creator Mel Brooks and the musical’s New York producer, Richard Frankel, with its commitment. Even Hasselhoff talked of the Los Angeles area ad campaign being so intensive that a billboard showed up near his daughters’ school.

So what next? Harrah’s folks say not to expect an announcement about a replacement in the near future. I’ve long maintained Paris should have been looking ahead to "Young Frankenstein" instead of backward to "The Producers."

Sure, theater operators around the country would scream about Brooks’ new Broadway cash cow being diverted to the Strip. But money talks and, moreover, Brooks and company should feel guilty for selling the casino shopworn goods the first time. …

It doesn’t pay to watch for snow in Las Vegas, but you know Christmas is just around the corner when Tony Sacca hosts his "Merry Christmas Las Vegas" special. This year’s announced guests include Fred Travalena, Clint Holmes and Pete Barbutti. The live show is at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Stratosphere showroom. Several local TV airings begin Dec. 22 on KTUD-TV, Channel 25 (Cox Cable 14).

A $30 general admission ticket goes to the Youth Foundation for the Performing Parts, which is trying to raise $20,000 to send 16 members of Helen Joy’s Young Entertainers to a Dec. 8 performance at the White House.

Mike Weatherford’s entertainment column appears Thursdays and Sundays. Contact him at 383-0288 or e-mail him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com.