VEGAS SHOWS REOPEN
Here’s what will be different for audiences and performers
In the weeks after coronavirus protocols closed the Spiegelworld show “Absinthe” at Caesars Palace, Hamish McCann found himself getting creative in the backyard of his Las Vegas home to find a way to stay fit.
Uneasy about potential exposure to coronavirus at the gym, he used wooden curtain rods with cinder blocks to make weights. The 45-year-old static pole acrobat invented workouts using the edge of his pool to keep his body and mind in performance-ready shape, hoping he’d return to work in weeks.
Instead, a year later — which included a stint when the show returned only to be shut down again when further capacity restrictions made the production unsustainable — McCann finally returned to the stage on March 17.
“The thing I love about being a performer is it’s like I found a loophole in life,” McCann told The Arizona Republic. “It’s almost like a glitch in the matrix where I get paid to do something that I absolutely love doing.”
With the latest updates to Nevada’s distancing requirements for performers and capacity allowances for theaters that took effect March 15, “Absinthe” and other shows are reopening with new coronavirus safety protocols just as Las Vegas sees an increase of tourists longing for an escape.
Derek Stevens owns the downtown Las Vegas hotels Golden Gate, The D and Circa, a dazzling new property boasting Stadium Swim, a cluster of six rooftop pools staggered in height to offer unobstructed views of a 40-foot-tall high-definition video screen.
March Madness drew the anticipated crowds, but Stevens noticed more visitors to his properties long before that weekend tipped off.
“We’ve certainly seen an uptick in visitation that really, really started taking place in January,” Stevens said. “Every week since then it’s really kind of gone up from there. I would say we’re getting pretty close to pre-pandemic levels on weekends.”
Traffic has trended upward at McCarran International Airport as well.
When things bottomed out in April 2020, McCarran welcomed just 152,716 passengers.
In February 2021, the most recent figures available, the number of passen
gers reached 1.6 million — a 7% increase over January but far from the recordbreaking 3.8 million who came through in February 2020 just before the pandemic hit.
March 2021 numbers won’t be available until late April, but Joe Rajchel, the spokesperson for McCarran Airport, said it feels busier than it had been in previous months.
“I’ve been down in baggage claim and the terminals. It’s busy,” Rajchel said. “We’re definitely seeing an uptick in travel,”
Rajchel said the airport has reopened some concessions that had been closed due to the drop-off in traffic. Other concessions that had been operating on limited schedules have expanded their hours. Airlines have extended their curbside check-in hours.
“We’re optimistic as more special events and live events return, we’re going to see that travel trend continue,” he said.
Las Vegas shows are reopening slowly
Some live events — smaller-scale ones — are returning thanks to a revision in Nevada’s COVID-19 performance restrictions. The latest regulations allow live performances to operate at 50% capacity or 250 people, whichever is less, and rescinded the “moat” requirement that required 25 feet of space between the audience and performers.
The road to reopening has not been easy. A lot of work has gone into making sure shows are safe for performers and the audience.
“Absinthe” is performing to 150 people in a venue that normally holds nearly 660.
Ross Mollison, the Spiegelworld theater company founder, said audience members are seated at cabaret tables spaced 6 feet apart. Ionization air purification has been installed in the ventilation system to fight viruses in the air while creating more airflow.
They started using new clear helmets that serve as masks but allow the performers’ faces to be seen.
During the brief reopening stint last fall, “Absinthe” performers received COVID-19 tests twice a week. There were 11 cases over the 12 weeks the show was open. Mollison said all were contact traced to exposure from family members, not from other cast members.
“Then, if there was a case of positive, everybody was in a pod. And that pod would have to isolate for a quarantine, so that was incredibly difficult,” Mollison said.
This time, he said, is different. Many performers have been vaccinated and he believes the protocols are working.
“We’ve continued to test now and the difference is, we’re getting zero positives,” he said.
‘Magic Mike Live’ is selling tickets again
In perhaps the biggest sign of recovery, “Magic Mike Live,” a male revue and bachelorette party staple, has started selling tickets for August.
“I think at this point everybody is striving and working to make sure that the shows come back and are as successful as they were before they closed,” Vincent Marini, executive producer of “Magic Mike Live,” said.
The show closed at the Hard Rock just as COVID-19 hit in preparation for its move to a new, custom-built theater at the Sahara. But the pandemic stalled the move and put the show on hiatus longer than anticipated.
Marini said the pandemic affected numerous aspects of reopening the production, ranging from adapting to the COVID-19 requirements to importing theater decor from overseas to interacting safely with staff, work crews and city employees to get the project done.
Now, the theater is nearing completion and rehearsals are set to start in May.
“I feel like we really have sort of turned that corner but, in some ways, like this is the most challenging part because we just want to get it open. You know? We just want to do it. And we’re so close,” Marini said.
Cast members who have been sidelined for months are eager to get back to performing.
“Being in a live show with an audience, feeding off the energy. It’s one of the reasons why I do what I do, is to make people happy,” said David Terry, who performs in “Magic Mike.”
“It’s been the thing I think all artists and performers have been craving.”
The new normal of Las Vegas shows
Despite the hurdles the pandemic has created, people are buying tickets to the newly reopened shows. In the past, patrons might have been able to walk up and buy a ticket on the day of the show. Now, thanks to limited capacity, it’s more likely they’ll sell out in advance.
It’s a hopeful sign for an industry that has weathered a lot in the past year.
Even with far fewer people in the audience, when the curtain rose on the first return performance of “Absinthe,” McCann said the energy in the room was different than anything he’d experienced in his career touring cities around the world.
“This sense of excitement,” he said. “I think they’re excited that they got a ticket, excited just to be, like, in Vegas doing something fun and seeing a show and kind of like feeling like life is going back to normal.”