How far is 25 feet, really? If you’ve been watching the short video series charting the comeback of Absinthe at Caesars Palace, you know that an Orca whale is around 25 feet long. It’s also the length of five Dolly Partons lying end-to-end.
It’s no surprise that the mischievous Absinthe crew is having as much fun as possible while navigating the safety protocols governing the return of shows like theirs to the Las Vegas Strip. But there’s one rule that did surprise many producers and performers when the state rolled out its updated coronavirus regulations on September 29: a mandated 25-foot distance between the stage and the audience.
No matter the size of the venue, the majority of Strip shows are advertised and executed as intimate engagements, all about getting the people in the audience as close as possible to the performers, physically and emotionally. The 25-foot rule is quite an obstacle, and it’s preventing some shows and rooms from reopening at all.
David Saxe, owner and operator of the Saxe Theater and V Theater at the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood and producer of long-running shows like Vegas! The Show and Zombie Burlesque, continues to work to find a way to reopen. The required stage distance seems to be a knockout punch.
“Even if we can open up and all the [protocols] are met with no code violations, the distancing measures will [bring down] capacities,” Saxe says. “I’ve got this whole model built on how to populate the rooms based on averages of seating stats and size of parties, and I keep trying to do it over and over. I can’t get it over 15%.”
Spiegelworld head Ross Mollison, producer of Absinthe, said earlier this month that his company’s other Vegas offerings—Atomic Saloon Show at Venetian and Opium at Cosmopolitan—are unlikely to resume performances because of the distancing rule. Yet several producers and industry figures have pointed out that “ambient” live entertainment permitted in restaurants, bars and lounges does not require additional distancing between performers and guests. (At press time, Gov. Steve Sisolak’s office had not responded to a request for further elaboration on the 25-foot restriction.)
“We all read the same thing initially and didn’t know if it applied to smaller, intimate showrooms, because it wouldn’t make sense for places like comedy clubs, where 25 feet would hit the back wall,” says Adam Steck, whose SPI Entertainment shows Thunder From Down Under and The Australian Bee Gees Show are scheduled to reopen at Excalibur on November 6. “We thought it might be a mistake, only for outdoor venues or larger rooms, but the Gaming Control Board was very clear, so we’re doing it. It’s not ideal, but we’re fortunate to have enough room in our showroom to make it work.”
Caesars Entertainment President of Entertainment Jason Gastwirth, who has supervised the first casino shows to come back—first X Country at Harrah’s and then Piff the Magic Dragon at Flamingo and Absinthe—says there has been an ongoing dialogue and collaboration between safety officials, casino venues and entertainment producers to clarify guidelines. He says he’s hoping the 25-foot rule will be among the next restrictions lifted.
“It’s our hope that in starting these shows up, they will be successful and there will be a relaxing of other restrictions over time, when appropriate. This is certainly one element in particular we hope can be relaxed,” Gastwirth says.
Over at MGM Grand, the Jabbawockeez show should have all the space it needs and then some when it returns on November 6. It’ll move from its 350-seater to the cavernous-by-comparison Grand Garden Arena and play to a max audience of 250. Similarly, Luxor shows Fantasy and the comedy of Carrot Top will relocate from the Atrium Showroom to the vacant 1,500 Luxor Theater downstairs, the former home of Cirque du Soleil’s short-lived R.U.N.
Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club is a venue, not a show, but it’ll be moving out of its custom-built space—currently used in conjunction with Top Rank Boxing events—in MGM Grand’s Underground promenade and taking over two ballrooms near the Grand Garden Arena for five stand-up comedy shows Friday through Sunday, also starting November 6.
How will a stand-up comic fare telling jokes into a 25-foot void? Joaquin Trujillo, producer of the L.A. Comedy Club at the Strat, says his comedians have been learning fast and making it work since reopening on October 9.
“Some guys do a lot of crowd work, and for them, it’s been one of the biggest challenges,” he says. “The adjustment most comedians make is waiting for the laughter to come back. But our guests are more enthused about watching live entertainment than anything I’ve experienced in 20 years of doing shows. They are ready to enjoy themselves, ready for their comics. So sometimes you have a bit of an echo waiting to feed off the audience before you continue, but once they figure out that cadence, the shows are great.”
