Musicians’ union feud could be most productive as reality TV
Union musicians will be losing 30 jobs on the Strip when a Frank Sinatra tribute closes a month sooner than they expected. The best way to make up the revenue might be to send a film crew over to Rancho Drive and film a reality show at the union hall.
“It’s gone from the strange to the ridiculous,” one member (who wants to remain anonymous because of business dealings with the union) says of the leadership fight at the Las Vegas Musicians Union, Local 369, which recently culminated in a shouting match between longtime president Frank Leone and one of the members.
“Frank doesn’t like people who don’t share his opinions, especially when he’s picking and choosing what only supports his case,” said the member whose confrontation led to the shouting beyond the doors of the union hall. “I just wasn’t buying it and it just escalated from there.”
“These people all need anger management classes,” another member said.
The always-contentious union’s latest soap opera was triggered by a decision from the parent union, the American Federation of Musicians, that Leone violated bylaws and did not fairly represent longtime Circus-Circus musician Bill Callanan in contract negotiations with MGM Resorts. The July decision was upheld in appeal.
Leone resigned, but the controversy now centers on whether he is eligible to run for another two-year term as president when members vote Nov. 21, depending on interpretation — and a possible change — of the parent union’s bylaws. Keith Nelson has moved up from secretary-treasurer to serve as interim president of the players union.
Members are circulating an “Editorial” by one “Linda Smith” — a pseudonym and absolutely not the president of Opportunity Village — which describes an Oct. 3 meeting as “the most appalling, dysfunctional, and messy congregation at Local 369 headquarters I have ever seen.”
In the midst of it all, players for “Frank — The Man, The Music” were surprised to learn the tribute fronted by Bob Anderson would close Nov. 28, a month shy of its advertised run through the end of the year.
Anderson has said for months that he wasn’t aiming for permanency on the Strip, but using the Las Vegas run to establish the show’s legitimacy and gather momentum for tour bookings or even a shot at Broadway or the West End.
Anderson told his Facebook followers the decision to leave was his, but also that the hotel needs “to do some work on the room” for the next show.
That means the show will close before a chance to do anything special with Frank Sinatra’s 100th birthday Dec. 12. Oh well, maybe The Venetian would rather throw a country-themed party for its VIP players, since that’s the last night of the National Finals Rodeo. …
You had to be there. But if you weren’t, the fifth NF Hope benefit promises an encore of “our five favorite moments” on Oct. 18 at the Venetian Showroom.
Five years is a milestone number for local entertainer Jeff Leibow, who started it to call attention to his daughter Emma’s neurofibromatosis, a rare genetic disorder that causes skin tumors.
The annual concert grew from raising $6,500 the first year to more than $80,000. Leibow left his longtime role of Nick Massey in “Jersey Boys” to produce fundraisers for the Neurofibromatosis Network.
But if you miss him, a reunion with his former castmates will be one of the benefit’s “Top Five.”
Another will revisit the time two years ago when Clint Holmes was singing “This Nearly Was Mine” and Emma, then 4, “decided it was her number and she got up onstage and started dancing,” her dad recalls.
“It was one of those magical moments that as a producer I wish could make happen at my command, but it isn’t,” Leibow adds. The moment is captured on YouTube, though.
Anderson, Frankie Moreno, Pia Zadora and Human Nature also are part of the 1 p.m. fundraiser in the Showroom at The Venetian. Tickets start at $45, and the companion auction is already accessible online at www.nfhopeconcert15.auction-bid.org.
Leibow says next year will bring a second benefit in Los Angeles. “The goal was to raise awareness on a bigger scale. In order to do that, we really have to expand.” …
When’s the last time you went to a show at Binion’s downtown? It’s been 11 years since comedian Vinnie Favorito worked there, and if there’s been another show since, it didn’t stick around long enough to remember.
But last week, hypnotist Kevin Lepine unveiled a remodeled former bingo hall that will seat about 150 people for his “Hypnosis Unleased,” which closed last summer at Hooter’s Hotel after three years there.
“It’s classic Vegas. In fact, you don’t get much more classic Vegas than Binion’s,” Lepine says of the room, which he renovated with help from the hotel. …
Comedy promoter Joe Sanfelippo says this weekend ends a four-month run of comedy inside the Sayers Club inside the SLS. The stand-up shows had the bragging rights of being the first traditional entertainment inside the former Sahara, which reopened with three clubs but no traditional show venue.
(Discussion topic: Was that one of the big mistakes for the struggling property? Or does not having a show failure leave a little less egg on the hotel’s face? Please turn in a two-paragraph essay by Tuesday.)
Sayers proved “a nice room for comedy,” Sanfelippo says. But it was tough to draw hotel-room customers when the SLS was usually below occupancy. Last week’s news that Sam Nazarian’s SBE Entertainment will be selling the company’s remaining 10 percent stake in the resort hastened the comedy venture’s demise.
You can still find comedy up and down the Strip, and now in the ‘burbs. Red Rock Resort had such a strong response to booking Rita Rudner onSaturday in the Rocks Lounge that it added a second show Friday.
More comedy is coming to Red Rock with Orny Adams on Nov. 21, Hal Sparks on Jan. 23 and Justin Willman on Feb. 20.
— Read more from Mike Weatherford at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com. Follow him @Mikeweatherford.
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