Spiegelworld's The Hook Part 2
Yesterday, we offered producer Ross Mollison’s take on why The Hook is getting the hook from Caesars Entertainment. Today, we offer a few thoughts on what might have gone better for Spiegelworld in Atlantic City.
Without being privy to the details of Spiegelworld’s arrangement with Caesars, we can only speculate at why Caesars turfed Mollison out. If there was profit participation (for a show whose profits were apparently elusive) or some other form of revenue sharing, Caesars might have been reasonable to conclude it wasn’t getting enough bucks for its bang. If Caesars wants to put the showroom to other uses, we’ll find out soon enough.
Either way, Caesars appears to be cutting its losses, The affiliated Superfrico restaurant, of which Caesars took charge in mid-2025, will also be going dark.
For Spiegelworld, The Hook is either a glass half-full or half-empty. It lasted for over 1,000 thousand performances as of June, a more-than-respectable track record. Acts in Atlantic City tend not to have that kind of staying power.
So The Hook was either a qualified success, a failed experiment, a succès d'estime, or a success that ran out of steam, if you’ll pardon the rhyming pun. We offer a few theories as to its demise.
For one, Caesars Atlantic City is the number-five (sometimes number-six) casino in Atlantic City. By being yoked to Caesars Entertainment, Spiegelworld was doomed to play in a second-tier venue. The vast majority of dollars in Atlantic City (and it’s not even close) go to rival casinos Borgata (MGM), Hard Rock, and Ocean (Illitch Gaming). All three would have been more propitious venues for The Hook.
Also, Spiegelworld approached the bargain-centric Boardwalk with a pricey Vegas mentality. Tickets for The Hook started at $110. That’s a Las Vegas Strip price for a no-star show in a challenged market and customers probably balked at paying it. (Box office figures were part of what Spiegelworld didn’t release. Mollison said they were “OK.”)
Atlantic City is also a notorious day-tripper market. Hotel rooms there average 69% occupancy, with a summertime high of 84%. The Hook was an evening show (two nightly). How many day trippers would stick around for a variety act that started at 9 p.m.?
Finally, the exigencies of keeping a company and support staff on salary may have worked against Spiegelworld. It took the stage for multiple shows a week, Tuesday through Sunday, in a town geared to weekend business. Again, there's probably not enough demand in Atlantic City to justify a nightly show of that nature.
The Hook’s emcee put his finger on it when he told audiences that not only was The Hook the best variety show in Atlantic City, it was the only one. The absence of competition is, perhaps, evidence of a certain lack of demand.
Mollison and his troupe are to be congratulated for mounting a show in the wake of COVID and for making it last longer than anyone might have predicted; 1,000-plus performances ain't too shabby. But we're not betting on any imitators moving in to fill the modest void left by The Hook.
