The Rio Hotel & Casino has been undergoing important changes since pandemic-era caller ownership took over, and the latest update is adding other magnitude to 1 of the astir divers amusement lineups astatine immoderate Las Vegas resort. It already boasted Penn & Teller, The Empire Strips Back, WOW – The Vegas Spectacular and the Comedy Cellar earlier Ivory Star Productions brought immoderate boutique shows to the off-Strip spot, and present a venue refresh has acceptable the signifier for adjacent much fun.
John Bentham, laminitis and producer, launched Ivory Star much than 2 decades back, bringing a originative array of shows to aggregate casinos. At the Rio, Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding and Faaabulous! The Ultimate Drag Brunch Show person been satisfying audiences for months, but renovations astatine The Venue person created 2 abstracted showrooms susceptible of further immersive amusement experiences. This month, Ivory Star is introducing Punk Rock Brunch and Haunted Brunch, offering much bang for your brunch subordinate and unrecorded signifier experiences you won’t find elsewhere.
Bentham took a interruption to speech with the Weekly astir the worth of these kinds of shows and the wide amusement landscape.
What is it astir the Rio and this revamped venue determination that marque the abstraction a large acceptable for your shows?
They person a imaginativeness for the spot and privation to bring backmost immoderate of the unthinkable things the Rio ever was about. There’s not a batch of spaces wherever you tin bash boutique shows successful casinos, particularly with a nutrient component. That benignant of hearkens backmost to a time successful Vegas that utilized to beryllium each astir combining nutrient and shows and entertainment, and conscionable having fun. We saw these spaces and envisioned however it could beryllium a full batch more.
You founded the institution successful 2003. How has the amusement scenery successful Las Vegas changed, particularly with this size of show, successful the 20-plus years since then?
It’s changed respective times since I moved present successful 1999. Entertainers were inactive getting guarantees from casinos then, but that was starting to dice down, and it was starting to alteration into four-walls and two-walls and each those variations (where a shaper rents the venue for the show). We’ve seen it spell from amusement being the lifeblood of a casino to conscionable 1 of a twelve amenities casinos have. I deliberation there’s inactive tremendous worth successful casinos having entertainment—it helps thrust postulation and keeps radical connected their property, but determination are truthful galore much choices now.
Some high-profile accumulation shows person closed recently. Does that bespeak a bigger displacement to different forms of entertainment, oregon is this each portion of a emblematic cycle?
I anticipation it’s portion of a rhythm wherever we perpetually reinvent ourselves. You’re seeing it connected Broadway, too, wherever shows travel and spell and nary 1 makes wealth due to the fact that they’re truthful costly to make and sustain. It’s decidedly a hard clip for amusement successful Vegas with a batch of contention and radical conscionable holding onto their dollars more, coming to municipality and being much frugal due to the fact that of the economical times. But erstwhile large shows close, it takes large dreams to regenerate them. Sometimes that’s however unthinkable dreams travel to fruition.
Do these challenging economical times make an accidental for much affordable amusement similar your shows?
When radical travel to town, there’s 24 hours successful the time and they privation to maximize their time. Brunch shows and things to bash during the time that are entertaining bring a large value, and each our shows are going to beryllium value-based. There’s a truly bully brunch that’s curated for the show, specialty menus and drinks that acceptable the taxable and don’t interruption the budget. At Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding, it’s a four-course Italian feast, homemade focaccia and crockery and a pasta course, caller vegetables and a macromolecule people and wedding barroom for dessert. With the amusement it’s a two-hour experience, each that for $70 to $80.
You besides nutrient Glittering Lights astatine Las Vegas Motor Speedway, 1 of the Valley’s large vacation traditions. That seems similar a full-time occupation by itself.
Glittering Lights is specified a devotion of emotion from our squad to the city. It takes truthful overmuch clip and we ne'er halt creating and reasoning astir Glittering Lights, year-round. And it’s travel to mean truthful overmuch to truthful many, truthful we instrumentality it precise seriously. But moreover it has go a existent root of backing for Speedway Children’s Charities and the benefits of that enactment interaction truthful galore people.
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