Caesars Entertainment and Spiegelworld today announced a monumental next step in the two companies’ successful Las Vegas entertainment partnership, which began with the opening of Absinthe at Caesars Palace more than 10 years ago. A collaborative expansion will aim to create three new production shows in the coming years at the Linq Hotel in Las Vegas in 2022, Caesars Atlantic City in 2023 and Caesars New Orleans in 2024.
“We’ve had an unbelievable relationship for over a decade here at Caesars Palace, and Spiegelworld’s hit show Absinthe has played to over 2.5 million fans, sellout after sellout, night after night, which is such a special feat,” said Anthony Carano, president and chief operating officer at Caesars Entertainment. “That’s why today we’re very excited to announce this brand-new partnership building three brand-new productions across the country.”
The announcement was held fittingly at Beijing Noodle No. 9, the Chinese restaurant at Caesars Palace in which Carano met with Spiegelworld impresario Ross Mollison during the gaming executive’s first week on the job. Carano is the grandson of Don Carano, founder of Eldorado Resorts, which completed its acquisition and merger of Caesars Entertainment last summer.
“I was sitting at home in Brooklyn with three closed shows in Vegas when [Caesars Palace President] Gary Selesner called me up and said, ‘Hey, I want you to come and have lunch with the guys that just bought Caesars Entertainment.’ It was not a call I was expecting,” Mollison said. “But we sat in the corner at this table, and Anthony outlined his dream of expanding our great relationship to New Orleans and Atlantic City.”
The project represents an investment of nearly $75 million by Caesars to add the new Spiegelworld entertainment, food and beverage experiences to the three resorts. Caesars Atlantic City originally opened in 1979, and the company’s $170 million renovation of the property was unveiled this summer. Spiegelworld plans to resurrect the historic Warner Theatre there to create a new theater space for an original production. In New Orleans, the Harrah’s casino resort is being rebranded as Caesars New Orleans as part of a $325 million project to be completed in 2024.
“New Orleans is such a great place for Spiegelworld for a permanent show, and we’re going to be building a brand-new theater where we can integrate food and beverage in a way we’re doing more and more in Vegas right now,” Mollison said, referring to the recent reopening of his Opium show at the Cosmopolitan and its new adjoining restaurant Superfrico. “It’s important also to say we want to go to the city and actually create something new for New Orleans, using the same approach we used in Vegas to create something super excited for the local market, something the people there will want to take their friends and family when they come to visit.”
The shows in those cities will be new concepts that have yet been in development. The new Las Vegas show at the Linq, just across Las Vegas Boulevard from Absinthe’s tent in front of Caesars Palace, will be DiscoShow, the long-gestating music-based Spiegelworld show formerly known as We Are Here. Disco icon Nile Rodgers was part of the musical creative team for DiscoShow, which showcased in New York City before the pandemic.
“I knew this show could be a hit when Gary [Selesner] was there [at the showcase] and he said, ‘I’m not dancing,’ but by the end of the show, he was dancing,” Mollison said.
In addition to Absinthe and Opium in Las Vegas, Spiegelworld also presents Atomic Saloon Show at the Grand Canal Shoppes at Venetian, which opened in 2019 and took over a long-dormant, hidden-away venue on the Strip. Mollison and his crew will do that again with DiscoShow, which will operate in the Linq space that once housed the storied Imperial Palace sportsbook.
“We are going to build a theater unlike anyone has seen before—five walls of LED [screens] including the entire floor—and it’s going to be the most extraordinary experience,” Mollison said. “It’s going to be accessible from the Strip and from the Linq hotel, and we’re going to re-create that space for a whole new entertainment destination.”
DiscoShow should be open in Las Vegas in time for New Year’s Eve moving from 2022 to 2023.
