John Katsilometes

[The Kats Report]

Mark Shunock’s Mondays Dark to relocate and more from the VegasVille scene

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Mark Shunock at Mondays Dark.
Denise Truscello

We haven’t given the scene a thorough canvassing in a while in the Weekly version of The Kats Report. Let’s fill that void now.

Look for a significant announcement from Mark Shunock on June 20 about the future of the monthly charity show Mondays Dark. The show has been held at Vinyl at the Hard Rock Hotel on the third Monday of every month for most of its two-year run. But Shunock has plans to uproot and relocate to a 9,000-square-foot facility off the Strip as a permanent performing venue for Mondays Dark and also for Vegas entertainers who want to showcase their side projects.

Shunock charges $20 a ticket and presents a silent auction at each of these events; the venue makes money by keeping the bar tab. At a free-standing venue, that booze profit goes back to the production. Shunock plans to reveal the specific location, and an investment program for those interested in buying seats in the new venue, during the next Mondays Dark performance. The theme that night is classic rock, which could be the theme of everything.

A very chic hang is developing in a most unlikely locale, Grandview Lounge at South Point. The newly renovated, 200-seat lounge was unveiled June 10 with Chris Phillips (commonly known as Zowie Bowie) and his Vegas … Straight Up show-band production. This was a slick, fun and (in Phillips’ case) appreciably addled performance in which the frontman dusted off such classics as “I’m Getting Married in the Morning,” “It Had Better be Tonight, and “For Once in My Life.”

Flanked by his 10-piece band and the sinewy vocalist Nieve Malandra, Phillips was joined by guests Travis Cloer—himself headlining the room with his With a Twist production (with keyboardist and arranger Chris Lash) on July 25—Shunock and longtime Vegas vocalist and radio-show host Dennis Bono. Swankiness permeated that lounge, and the night finished with a party led by Phillips in his Zowie Bowie dance-party persona.

An $80,000 investment in that room is allowing for some robust programing from hotel entertainment director Michael Libonati. Aside from Cloer, who is terrific in his solo shows away from Jersey Boys at Paris Las Vegas (closing September 18, it has been announced), the lineup at Grandview is filling out with the throwback rock ’n’ roll act the Bronx Wanderers on June 26, 27 and July 31; comic Drew Lynch (runner up from last season’s America’s Got Talent) on August 7, singing impressionist Tony Pace on August 14, AGT champ and Vegas fave Michael Grimm on August 25 and magician Seth Grabel on August 28. Tickets are in the $15-$25 range.

The mezzanine level at Planet Hollywood has undergone some renovations, with Sin City Comedy club moving across the hall from Sin City Theatre to the new Cabaret, which seats about 100 patrons and will also feature the weekly open-mic night “Tease From the Strip,” held Tuesdays at 10 p.m.

Back at the Sin City Theatre, the magician Xavier Mortimer—late of Michael Jackson One at Mandalay Bay and the first Cirque artist to leave the company for his own show—premiered his new show June 5. He’s adopted the title “Magical Dream,” and is parlaying his success in his home country of France into a Vegas headlining gig. If this sounds a little like the path followed by one Alex Goude, it should. Goude, who made a valiant effort at Westgate with his Twisted Vegas parody production, is Mortimer’s director. That show in Sin City Theatre is the rare venue with two magicians—Murray Sawchuck hosts his afternoon show daily at 4 p.m., and even the Crazy Girls production invokes magic in the form of Tony “Bag of Donuts” Douglas.

Lastly, let’s hear it for Everybody, the soon-to-arrive show by Chicago’s Boy Band Review, opening June 24 at Sin City Theatre. This crew performs 5:30 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays, and is a roll-out of such indefatigable boy bands as ‘NSYNC, Backstreet Boys and New Kids on the Block. The earlier start time effectively jams these guys between the two magic shows—and the idea is that fans who are at the hotel to see Britney or J-Lo could catch these guys first, grab a bite and hit Axis theater. Or, just hang tight and wait for Mr. Mortimer. He can skip rope in thin air, for real (wink).

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