Red Carpet Report: Cirque stars on ‘DWTS,’ Route 91 Harvest, Andre’s, Gordon Ramsay, Casino Entertainment Awards
Acrobats, aerialists, dancers and fire-stick performers from six of our Cirque du Soleil shows will be part of one of the biggest episodes ever of ABC’s DANCING WITH THE STARS. It will unfold on the ballroom floor Monday as the 11 remaining couples perform big-spectacle dances for a Cirque theme night.
Each couple will perform a dance inspired by a Cirque show while the amazing Cirque stars perform alongside them. Three other Cirque shows outside Las Vegas — KURIOS, LA NOUBA and PARAMOUR — will join our artists.
Here’s the rundown as of today: Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds and Allison Holker, THE BEATLES LOVE at The Mirage; Marilu Henner and Derek Hough, KA at MGM Grand; Laurie Hernandez and Val Chmerkovskiy, MICHAEL JACKSON ONE at Mandalay Bay; Terra Jole and Sasha Farber, O at The Bellagio; and Jana Kramer and Gleb Savchenko, LOVE.
Also, Ryan Lochte and Cheryl Burke, O; Maureen McCormick and Artem Chigvintsev, MYSTERE at T.I.; Amber Rose and Maks Chmerkovskiy, ZUMANITY at New York-New York; James Hinchcliffe and Sharna Burgess, PARAMOUR; Calvin Johnson Jr. and Lindsay Arnold, KURIOS; and Vanilla Ice and Witney Carson, LA NOUBA.
No couples will be eliminated Monday, but judges, minus Len Goodman for a few weeks playing head judge of the British DWTS, will sharpen scoring Tuesday for the third elimination. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and actor Jake T. Austin have been cut in Season 23.
ROUTE 91 HARVEST FESTIVAL
Stages are up and lights ready to be turned on. We’re hours away from the Route 91 Harvest Country Music Festival at Las Vegas Village across from The Luxor. It’s a country hoedown on the heels of last weekend’s iHeartRadio Music Festival and Life Is Beautiful Music and Art Festival. We’ll have a preview in Friday’s Celebrities in L.V.
Country superstars will be all over the Strip this weekend. Headliners include Toby Keith, Brad Paisley, Luke Bryan, Martina McBride, Little Big Town, Chris Young and Dustin Lynch, plus up-and-comers. Dustin chatted with esteemed Editor Don Chareunsy for our interview in Sunday Life of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
My favorite is rowdy, free-wheeling Toby, and I’m going to have drinks in a Red Solo Cup with him Friday when he celebrates the 10th anniversary of his Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill at Harrah’s. He’ll be serving an Anniversary Burger made with Po’ Boy surf and turf and talking renovations. Thompson Square entertains, and our chat with Toby runs next week.
END OF AN ERA
For more than 35 years, Las Vegas chef Andre Rochat has won praise for being a light in our culinary industry. Now sadly his restaurant Andre’s at Monte Carlo prepares to close Wednesday as crews prepare to build Mario Batali’s Eataly as part of the hotel’s change to MGM Park Hotel.
Thankfully, Andre promises a new venture along with his executive chef Christopher Bulen. Andre, who opened Andre’s in a Downtown house in 1980 for French fine dining, said he’ll pursue a lead as a consultant to ensure that his legacy continues.
No changes are planned at sister restaurant Alize atop The Palms, where chef Mark Purdy and pastry chef Tammy Alana create amazing nightly menus paying homage to Andre and his new plans for our dining scene.
CASINO ENTERTAINMENT AWARDS
Legendary singer Brenda Lee is a pint-sized powerhouse. When she was presented with her Casino Entertainment Awards Legend Award on Wednesday night at Vinyl in The Hard Rock Hotel, she told me, “I still go out on the road touring, just not as much as I did before.” Brenda, 71, has been singing for her supper since 1955 and remembers her first casino appearance here when she was smuggled via the kitchen, too young to walk through a casino to the showroom.
“Wayne Newton and I were the only kids on Las Vegas stages back then,” she told me. “Today, I see kids in strollers on the casino floor and wonder whatever happened to those olden day rules!” Clint Holmes, Kelly Clinton Holmes, Marty Allen, The Ink Spots and Tony Orlando were among the celebrities at the awards, where Tony was named Entertainer of the Year and former Luxor President Felix Rappaport’s Foxwoods Resort Casino’s theater was voted showroom of the year.
It was exciting and nail-biting to see FANTASY at The Luxor dancer Dar Brzezinski on roller skates for the first time doing showgirl high-kicks. “I prayed that I wouldn’t fall. I’ve never done this before. I didn’t want to injure myself because I’m just two weeks away from getting married, and I’m not walking down the aisle in a cast!” she told me.
GORDON’S FISH AND CHIPS
Chef Gordon Ramsay is one week away from opening his Gordon Ramsay’s Fish and Chips at The Linq Promenade, fulfilling a dream he had a decade ago to bring England’s messy cheap eats to America. I talked with Gordon about his grab-and-go restaurant, and you’ll find the proper way to eat this British grub in Friday Neon of the RJ.
Gordon said that he remembers fish and chips as the first family dish he ate with Mom and Dad as a kid. He describes the new restaurant at The Linq as “cool Britannia nostalgia.”
