The agile, oversexed lunatics who brought us Absinthe and Opium will soon try their hand at another kind of Vegas entertainment: the old-timey saloon show. This September, Atomic Saloon Show—no relation to Downtown's Atomic Liquors—will move into the Kraken Music Hall at the Venetian’s Grand Canal Shoppes (which, I’m guessing, will look suspiciously like the cavernous space once occupied by the Act nightclub). The show is described in press materials as “Blazing Saddles meets America’s Got Talent meets Westworld.” If that doesn’t freeze all your motor functions, who knows what will.
Produced by Spiegelworld in collaboration with British comedy director Cal McCrystal—he of James Corden’s One Man, Two Guvnors and The Mighty Boosh stage show—Atomic Saloon is hosted by one Boozy Skunkton, whose “first [Vegas] hotel was acquired by the government as an atomic bomb test site.” She now returns to Vegas with an “abnormally sexy but sensationally amoral” company of entertainers (presumably the same caliber of acrobats, clowns, contortionists, dancers and beatboxers Spiegelworld has assembled for past productions) for “the greatest saloon show the world has ever known.”
“When Boozy Skunkton first set eyes on the long-abandoned saloon, she knew it had the potential to become the most loved intimate venue in Vegas for drinking, dancing, dining and dueling,” Spiegelworld’s Ross Mollison said in an email statement. “We are delighted that she has asked Spiegelworld to help bring her vision to life.” (Conversely, we’ll be delighted to meet Madam Skunkton; the last time Spiegelworld brought someone like this home to dinner, we got Gazillionaire’d.)
Atomic Saloon Show will premiere at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe this August, and begins regular Vegas performances September 6, with a tentative performance schedule of 8 p.m. Monday-Tuesday; 7 and 9 p.m. Thursday-Sunday; Wednesdays are dark. Tickets range from $68 to $138 and are available now at spiegelworld.com/atomic-saloon-show.
