We went to Extravaganza at Bally’s on Monday, 1/11/2021, and it was to say a ‘unique’ experience, but a good one.
We arrived a the theater about 30 minutes before the show started, mainly to prevent us from gambling any further as we weren’t winning. They checked our temperature and we waited for the doors to open. A group of 3 ladies got in line with us, and that’s all we saw for a while.
When we entered, I found out from the usher that only 32 tickets had been sold out of max of 50 allowed by the state. The theater holds over 1000 people. We were escorted to our seats one group at a time. When we were seated, the usher placed a card in the drink holders of the 2 seats on either side of us stating this seat was to be kept empty due to social distancing guidelines. There was only one usher seating people and another scanning tickets. We were able to get drinks before the show from the one bartender.
I did feel bad for the usher when one couple insisted on being moved down front to the empty table seats in the very front. You could tell she had a seating chart that was already worked out to ensure the rules were followed. She eventually did seat them on the end, but I thought it was a little presumptuous of the couple since they probably didn’t pay for those seats. Personally – I hate those seats as you’re at an angle and looking up at the stage whereas we were in the 3rd row and eye level with the stage. Perfect seats in my opinion.
At 6:30, I counted 17 people in the audience. We waited about 10 more minutes and saw another couple be seated, so 19 total, and the show started. I don’t know if anyone came in after the show started, but we were a small crowd.
There were two pre-show announcements, one reminding us to keep our masks on, then a more typical pre-show announcement reminding people to silence their phones and not take video. They did say pictures were OK “as long you don’t use your flash and post them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.” I thought that was a nice touch.
The show started, and lo and behold, all the performers had masks! A few with speaking roles had face shields. A few actors had ‘clear’ face masks that looked like plastic so you can see their expressions. I can honestly say the show girls rocked the sequin masks. Someone put some effort to making the masks blend in. There were a few acts that were heavily physical where they did take their masks off, but it was only when one or two people were on stage.
The performers were all amazing! Having done musical theater before, both professionally and community theater, the show felt like a dress rehearsal with an overly excited invited audience. We did our best to whoop and holler as loud as possible so the performers could hear us.
The show itself is really a variety show with some acts I’ve seen on America’s Got Talent and other similar shows. A couple acts are Vegas regulars and some people from Jubilee. The plot is a very ‘loose’ attempt to go from one act to the other. It could best be described as a dance and stunt show with some comedy thrown in.
Overall, we really enjoyed the show. I spoke with the usher a bit and said everyone was just happy to be working and gave Caesar’s credit for letting them continue the show. MGM pretty much shut down all their shows.
Jeff
