Goodbye chandelier, hello sweet yesteryear

Never saw this one coming: a for-profit production, in a casino showroom, offering an 1894, barbershop quartet arrangement of “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree.”

Watch out Cirque du Soleil, right?

Jonathan Gorst met some of the same skepticism last summer. The new show he and spouse Marisa helm at the Plaza, “Grand Ole Vegas Revue,” evolved from their “Old West Musical Revue” last summer at Bonnie Springs Ranch.

“I think people expected a pretty low value in the show,” Gorst says of the effort derived from vaudeville and turn-of-the-century American theater.

A lot of us graybeards remember this era fueling the nostalgia celebrated in ’60s church and school productions, even the banjo guys at Shakey’s Pizza. An era now less fascinating than, say, the ’80s to most people but Gorst.

“It really was the beginning of my theatrical career,” he says of the job he landed at age 16, playing piano for a theater group in Cripple Creek, Colo., a town known for preserving vintage melodrama.

But it’s the Gorsts’ more recent credits that help explain why a lot of people seem to enjoy their new show and its arcane premise.

Jonathan was assistant conductor and rehearsal pianist for “Phantom – The Las Vegas Spectacular” at The Venetian, and Marisa was in the show as a dancer.

The Gorsts were among the many Broadway-level performers who had to decide whether to stay or go after “Phantom” closed. “We had a long (closing) notice so we saved up,” he says. (I’m still glad to hear they are not betting the whole farm on this 5 p.m. Plaza production. He is also conducting at UNLV and the Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer.)

In Las Vegas, it’s more common to see proven commercial material done by amateurs than to see this reversal, pro talents backing an iffy premise.

These folks are used to seeing things done right. The nine-person troupe sings and plays all the music live. And if you’re as skeptical of creaky old jokes and song-and-dance routines as I was, here’s one little detail that changed my mind: Gorst needed his footlights to look like those from the 1800s. So he made eight of them – by hand.

“Marisa will not let me get away with underdoing anything,” he says of his wife, the daughter of a Broadway production manager.

Gorst’s commitment to his idea is contagious.

“I think what I have in this cast is a group of people who believe in the content of the show. They believe in the value of the performance,” he says. “They just want to see it succeed. There’s nothing I have asked them that I have ever been denied.”

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.