John Katsilometes

[The Kats Report]

The medley musical ‘Baz’ returns to the Strip—and hopes to stay there

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Nick Petris, center, of Baz performs during a rehearsal at Palazzo Theatre.
Paul Citone, Kabik Photo Group

The subtitle is Star-Crossed Love, a name befitting this star-crossed production. We speak of the musical Baz, a stage adaptation of the more inspired works of the director and writer Baz Luhrmann.

Linked in a single storyline of love that ends tragically are numbers from such Luhrmann titles as Romeo + Juliet, The Great Gatsby, Moulin Rouge! and Strictly Ballroom. Like the couples at the center of those tales, Baz and Las Vegas have shared a mercurial path. We’ve seen them struggle, split and—finally and joyously—reunite.

There’s a sense of déjà vu in revisiting this show. Baz celebrates its second Las Vegas premiere in 13 months, opening in a fancifully renovated Palazzo Theater on July 9. As was cemented during the first go-round of Baz at the nightclub Light at Mandalay Bay, the show’s LA-based production company, For the Record, has established a reputation for invention and initiative.

“What we are doing is going to the core of these couples, with everything intertwined to balance the storytelling as much as possible,” For the Record founder and executive producer Shane Scheel says. “At the core are these couples, throughout history, who are falling in love and experiencing tragedies.”

Performed in a lengthy medley, stitched with ample spoken dialogue from the films, are such songs as “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got),” “Lady Marmalade,” “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “Your Song,” “Love Is the Drug,” “Like a Virgin,” “Roxanne” and “The Show Must Go On.” The live band, crucial to the power of the production, is led by former Clay Aiken music director Jesse Vargas. The lineup is filled with Vegas players like music director Chris Lash on keyboards, Jake Langley (Ronnie Foster Trio) on guitar, Abo Gumroyan (Clint Holmes) on bass, Robbie Wingfield (Empire Records) on synth and woodwinds and Pepe Jimenez (Santa Fe & The Fat City Horns) on drums. The violinist, Samantha Ciarlo, is also a holdover from the original Baz and even more immersed in the cast as she moves freely around the room in her green fairy costume.

The new version of Baz is set up as a kind of date-night production, with the theater that was the original home of Jersey Boys reconfigured with a lineup of couches in the middle of the room. Round tables are set on either side of a new catwalk that leads through the middle of the audience and creates a figure-eight design. The performers dance, strut and scramble across that mid-theater stage and can be seen and appreciated in a way not made possible by the design of Light. The sound, too, is notably improved.

“This is the first time we have been able to really realize our dream of seeing the show imagined in an immersive way that is part nightclub, part cabaret, designed out of a traditional theater,” Scheel says.

The experience inside the venue is crucial to the artistic viability of Baz, which is dependent upon performances that are both up-close and distantly impressive. The principal cast members are all new to Vegas, save Briana Cuoco, an alum of The Voice who was part of the ensemble in the first version of the show. Those who follow Las Vegas entertainment might also recognize Lisa Marie Smith of Pin Up at the Stratosphere in the new ensemble.

For the Record has become a well-regarded artistic company during its short history. Since forming in 2010, it has mixed and mashed the works of such directors as Quentin Tarantino, John Hughes and Martin Scorsese. From a modest start at a 60-seat LA venue, FTR soon moved to the DBA nightclub in West Hollywood in March 2014, where Baz fell in line with a rotation of Tarantino and Dear John Hughes. Cirque du Soleil officials caught the show at the Montreal Jazz Festival that year, and made the deal with Mandalay Bay to bring the show to Light, which at the time was operated by Cirque in a partnership with Hakkasan Group.

There, the show was rolling along to strong reviews and audience response—though the ticket sales were not yet turning a profit—when Cirque (and its financial partner, the Yucaipa Companies) pulled out of the nightclub business. That left Baz without a home, and the show closed on August 30 after a seven-week run. Scheel was thus led on a tour of Vegas venues, visiting Palazzo Theater just as the show was winding down.

The most pronounced challenge for Baz remains luring ticket-buyers and hoping buzz builds for long-term profits. It is the new Vegas formula. “Finding an audience. That is No. 1,” Scheel says. “We’re really committed to being in Vegas.”

There’s certainly love in the room; whether it’s everlasting is left to the fickle fate, and the undying charm, of Baz.

Baz: Star Crossed Love Begins July 9; Tuesday-Sunday, 7:30 p.m., $77-$137. Palazzo Theatre, 702-414-9000.

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