Rumor has it that The Rat Pack is Back is going to pull up stakes from the Union Plaza and take root at The Rio, where it will follow Larry Marshak‘s ersatz Platters/Coasters/Marvellettes revue in the Crown Theater. I’m not sure there’s a winner in this scenario. There’d be one less reason to stay at the Plaza when it reopens on Sept. 1, perhaps a few weeks sooner. But it doesn’t say much for Caesars Entertainment‘s budget or imagination that it’s reduced to taking castoff acts from the Sahara and from Tamares Group. Getting in bed with blaxsploiter Marshak is particularly reprehensible coming from an ostensibly socially responsible company.
There might be a winner … the Riviera. After the shabby treatment Sandy Hackett’s Rat Pack Show (the better tribute act of the two) got from Navegante Group at the Sahara, the Riv snapped it up, where it will continue to jibe with Barry Sternlicht‘s nostalgia-oriented repositioning of the property. Meanwhile, the $119 “All Stage Pass” at Caesars’ Strip properties has been augmented with Absinthe (which includes some uproarious parodying of Cirque du Soleil), Viper Vixens at the giant cuspidor called O’Shea’s and The Rio’s Crown Comedy Jam. Or you could take a pass on the Pass and put your money on Donny & Marie tickets, still my favorite show on the Strip. Marie looks like she’s had some work done (for Brigham Young‘s sake, why?) but is still muy caliente.
The real Bill Cosby makes a stopover at Treasure F. Island tonight. Perhaps Dr. Cosby could have a few, well-chosen words with Phil Ruffin about the latter’s bromance with Donald Trump and endorsement of Trump’s phony-baloney, race-baiting presidential “campaign.” Like Roger Ailes, I don’t think this bus-and-truck tour is headed for the White House either. My gut instinct is that Bristol Palin‘s mom is running for the highest office in the land: successor to Oprah. And why not? It’d be hella better than those screeching harpies on The View and The Talk. My eardrums!
