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Hot Happenings
by Bobbie Katz
The Price Is Right TV show could have been called “The Price is Pandemonium”
when it made it’s first attempt to tape a show outside of its California
studio home. When Bob Barker and crew came to the Rio in Las Vegas to
tape the game show for one day only, more than 10,000 people showed up.
It was so chaotic that squabbles broke out, almost causing a riot. Things
were pretty tame by comparison when Regis came to the Rio last year to
film his show for a week, even though thousands of people stood in line
for
hours to be part of the studio audience. The word from The Price Is Right
is that they may never take the show on the road again
Going To The Chapel, One of the country’s favorite plays, which
started in New York City 15 years ago (and is still playing there) did
its first out-of-town company at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City and has
now arrived in Las Vegas.
Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding will be taking up long-term residence
at the Rio, with events centering around the Calypso Tent, which was the
huge tent that used to house the off-Broadway show, De la Guarda. Tony
n’ Tina’s Wedding, the granddaddy of interactive theater, gives
the audience the opportunity to attend an Italian-American wedding and
reception, eat dinner, drink, and dance to a live three-piece band, all
while mingling with Tony and Tina and their friends and family. Guests
actually become cast members in this fun romp through wedding-land.
A Knight To Remember
One of America’s favorite singers, Gladys Knight, has decided to
get off the road and stay at home in Las Vegas. She has inked a one-year
deal at the Flamingo Las Vegas, the first Las Vegas hotel she played with
the Pips back in 1968. To paraphrase one of her biggest hits, she feels
that it is the best thing that ever happened to her. “It’s a
dream come true,” Knight, who has been a Las Vegas resident for nearly
24 years, told me. “The benefits of this are twofold. First, it allows
me to be home and have a family life. Second, it allows me to get to people
who are extended family—I consider my fans extended family—by
being in one place.” Knight married William MacDowell, who is about
thirteen years her junior, last April 12. It is her fourth marriage. On,
February 8, a few days before opening at the Flamingo on February 12,
she was part of the Winter Olympics ceremonies in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Knight sang the opening ceremony song, which she wrote herself, heralding
the arrival of the Olympic torch at the Olympic stadium.
The Stars Keep On Shining
Even though she won’t be opening in the new production show at Caesars
Palace’s not-yet-completed 4,000-seat theater in Las Vegas until
2003, Celine Dion will be releasing a new CD in March. Tickets for the
show will go on advance sale in March as well, and she and her husband,
Rene Angelill, have reportedly bought a magnificent home at Lake Las Vegas.
Rick Springfield, who has surprised many and signed another year’s
contract with the MGM Grand’s spectacular production show EFX, is
also busy writing a new album. Springfield told me that one of the reasons
he enjoys being in one place is that it gives him a chance to do the one
thing he really wants to do: write music. Springfield’s wife and
two sons still live in L.A. so he travels back and forth every week on
his days off.
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