A&E

Vegas entertainment venues work to turn the lights back on

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Cirque du Soleil’s
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After five weeks of total shutdown, the Las Vegas Strip remains the epicenter of uncertainty. The only thing that seems clear as casino resort officials make plans to slowly and carefully reopen the Entertainment Capital of the World is that the entertainment component will likely be the last piece added to the new Vegas puzzle.

The venues that make Las Vegas one of the most dynamic destinations on the planet require big crowds, and bringing those back doesn’t appear to be in the cards here or anywhere else anytime soon. Concerts, production shows, nightclubs and other live entertainment events will present some of the most complicated challenges as the Strip finds a way forward through the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I believe the biggest obstacle everyone will face in live entertainment, sports, etc., is [ensuring] that guests feel and are safe,” says Lou D’Angeli, Vice President of Marketing and PR for Cirque du Soleil. “Collectively, the live events industry needs to be clear about the precautions we are taking to [ensure] safety for our fans, artists, athletes, everyone. It’s truly a collective effort to bring everyone back in the best possible conditions.”

The question on the public’s mind is when will Vegas resume being Vegas, but producers, promoters, performers and venue operators have been focusing on the question of how, ever since they were forced to cease entertainment operations in mid-March.

At press time, Cirque du Soleil’s seven Strip shows were selling tickets for performances in early June, with one exception: Mystére, held at Treasure Island, is the only Cirque production not situated at an MGM Resorts property, and tickets remained available for May 11 shows as of April 22. It’s unlikely those will take place.

“There are planning meetings happening, but there is no playbook for this,” D’Angeli says. “Of course, we want to flip a switch and have Vegas back. [But] that will take some time, and we need to operate with safety first. We have discussions daily with our partners at MGM Resorts and Treasure Island. I’m very confident … that plan … will be top-notch, safe and with a customer-first mentality.”

Music festivals appear to be among the toughest pieces of the re-emergence puzzle. On April 21, Life Is Beautiful—originally scheduled for September on the streets of Downtown Las Vegas—canceled its 2020 edition. Likewise, Punk Rock Bowling scrapped its 2020 fest, previously planned for Downtown in May. Meanwhile, Electric Daisy Carnival has postponed its annual Las Vegas Motor Speedway gathering from May until October, hopeful it can find answers to the many health and logistical unknowns—from bringing artists and attendees in from around the globe to keeping them safe once they’re here—over the next five months.

Still, an April 13 Consequence of Sound article quoted Pennsylvania-based medical expert Zeke Emanuel suggesting large-scale gatherings like festivals might not be able to resume until “fall 2021 at the earliest,” while an April 15 piece in London’s Guardian cited a poll in which fewer than 50% of concert regulars said they’d feel comfortable attending shows once restrictions were lifted.

The next event on the calendar at T-Mobile Arena, the largest live entertainment venue on the Strip, is a Bon Jovi concert on June 20, for which tickets were still on sale as of April 20. That event is produced by Live Nation, arguably the biggest concert promoter in Las Vegas with residency shows by Lady Gaga, Aerosmith, Gwen Stefani, Keith Urban and Shania Twain at Park MGM, Caesars Palace and Planet Hollywood, plus concert tours stopping at many other local venues.

Live Nation President Joe Berchtold told CNBC last week the company is planning to go the next handful of months without any concert productions in the 40 countries in which it operates, saying, “We’ve got a long way to go” before social distancing and other adjusted behaviors get to a point where large gatherings can resume.

“How we develop testing and what we get in place for treatment, all of that will determine when we will be able to have concerts again,” Berchtold said. “We’re highly confident that concerts in 2021 and 2022 will be bigger than ever. I think for the vast majority of people, once they have the certainty of the vaccine and the comfort that they know they have something which is going to keep them from getting ill, I do think there is a fundamental human need to gather and that people will get together … [and] go to bars, go to concerts. What we’ve seen in past experiences is that people will return.”

Las Vegas officials also maintain confidence that visitors from all over will want to come back to see shows and have fun on the Strip, and that confidence is bolstered by the adjustments Vegas venues and workers are making to new rules and different methods of operation.

Adam Steck, whose SPI Entertainment produces five shows at three different Strip resorts, said Vegas has bounced back quickly during other economically challenging eras, because visitors crave entertainment when times are tough. The coronavirus crisis is different, but Las Vegas will similarly find a way to respond, he said.

“We have the most innovative and diverse entertainment and the most creative minds onstage and behind the scenes anywhere on the planet,” Steck said. “We’re going to persevere and we’re going to come back and crush it when this thing is over. People will really want to let their hair down and party and have a good time. It’s just a matter of when and how it’s going to unwind.

“Maybe casinos will be more value-driven to attract customers. Maybe they will revert back to cheaper rooms and free drinks and [free] parking—all the things that made Vegas special before and really boosted that drive business.”

There’s little doubt resorts will change practices to draw business back to the Strip when the time comes, but there’s a lot left to define in regards to what the live entertainment experience might look like when it’s available again.

Three of Steck’s shows are presented at the Excalibur’s Thunder Land Showroom, a 425-seat space. It will likely be easier to relaunch live productions in a room that size than at nearby Mandalay Bay’s 2,500-seat House of Blues or the 12,000-seat Events Center.

“We just have to be prepared,” Steck said. “We have five shows, and each one of them [will be] ready to launch in any kind of scenario, whether it’s customers wearing masks, everybody wearing masks, staggered seating, cutting capacity in half. … Whatever it takes, we’re ready to do it, because people are thirsty for entertainment and entertainers are thirsty to get onstage.”

Wynn Las Vegas contains two of the busiest showrooms on the Strip—Encore Theater and Le Réve Theater—and two of the biggest and most popular clubs, XS Nightclub and Encore Beach Club. Information from a health and sanitation program guidelines statement issued by Wynn Resorts CEO Matt Maddox on April 19 indicated the Strip could slowly begin to reopen with extensive safety measures in place in mid to late May.

Those measures include physical distancing across all property venues, including the casino floor, restaurants, bars and pools. Entertainment venues are understandably the smallest part of this initial Wynn plan. The only info on nightclubs is that their operation is “pending guidance from local authorities and medical experts,” and extensive guidelines for the production show Le Réve include physical distancing protocols regarding theater seating and capacity and backstage performer behavior. Among the examples: “Performers and divers in close contact with each other to sanitize themselves by fully submersing in the chlorinated theater water;” and “Costume dressing and quick-change protocols are staggered and supervised by wardrobe attendants.”

The many moving parts that make Las Vegas live entertainment so memorable and worthy also present new and unique challenges as the Strip plans for its new normal.

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Brock Radke

Brock Radke is an award-winning writer and columnist who currently occupies the role of editor-at-large at Las Vegas Weekly magazine. ...

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