Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Piano Guys provoke with ‘Fight Song’ at Trump gala
A capitol, final Kats! transmission from the nation’s where Saturday’s Women’s March tied up traffic and delivered a counter-punch to the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump the previous day. Reflecting on my assignment here, I realized the most lasting memory was the walk out of the Liberty Ball inaugural celebration Friday night.
The streets were lined with uniformed Secret Service and Metropolitan Police — about 28,000 lawenforcement officers from across the country worked the inauguration events. The city felt unsettled, and residents I spoke with during the week said they’d not seen such a contentious inauguration in recent memory.
That divide surfaced even inside the Liberty Gala, during The Piano Guys’ performance. In what could be interpreted as a sly form of protest or neatly placed satire, the group performed “Fight Song,” an anthem during Hillary Clinton’s campaign events.
Not many in the room realized the relevance of the song — and I hadn’t until picking up a Twitter post by Rachel Platten, who wrote and recorded the song.
In two consecutive posts Friday night, Platten sounded her objections: “While I respect the peaceful transition of power, I want to make clear that at no point did The Piano Guys ask for my permission, nor did I or anyone on my team know of, or approve or endorse their decision to play Fight Song (Friday night).”
If the idea for The Piano Guys, originally a YouTube sensation, was to gain publicity from the performance, nice work.
INAUGURAL EVE WALK-AROUND
Terrific Las Vegas photographer Denise Truscello of WireImage was on a freelance assignment this weekend in D.C. and we connected Thursday night for a pedestrian tour of the nation’s capitol. While protests were underway near the National Press Building, the surrounding areas were oddly quiet, even unsettling. A cabbie who had worked in Washington for decades told us that in 2009 the city was so jammed with visitors that he could not drive around the city.
“It’s different now,” he said, and dropped us off near the Washington Monument, glowing regally on the final night of Barack Obama’s presidency and looking like a beacon offering hope for our future.
OSCAR WINNER IN THE POOL?
“Le Reve” at Wynn Las Vegas is forever evolving, and has advanced impressively since its bumpy launch in 2005. What is now Steve Wynn’s lone production at the hotel has enlisted eight-time Academy Award winner Alan Menken to review and upgrade the show’s soundscape. The Royal Philharmonic and London Voices recorded a section of the new material, which has yet to be used.
This project was reportedly mounted more than a year ago, though no decision has been made on how (or, if) Menken’s work will be implemented. Menken’s eight Oscars were won with Disney Studios, gaining two apiece for the scores for “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin,” and “Pocahontas.”
FAUX TRUMP PROSPERS
Column favorite John Di Domenico, one of the foremost Trump impressionists in the country, spent Friday night with Trump’s suit-maker.
This was at an unofficial, private event in Boca Raton, Fla., hosted by Alvin and Emmelle Segal, owners of Peerless Clothing, the company that produces Trump’s men’s clothing line. Di Domenico and his Melania Trump counterpart, Mira Tzur, performed a 20-minute stand-up routine for Trump supporters.
LEGENDS RELAUNCH On the topic of tributes … In the first week of February, one-time “Dancing With the Stars” pro Lacey Schwimmer heads up the rehearsals for a new opening number in “Legends in Concert” at Flamingo Las Vegas. The show returns to the Donny & Marie Showroom and is embarking on its 34th year on the Strip, buoyed by the new full-cast opening, a first for the production.
Also new to the show, or at least returning after a lengthy hiatus, is a tribute to Janis Joplin. Playing the role is Michelle Rohl, long a favorite vocalist on the local scene. Rohl recently joined the Lon Bronson All-Star Band as a guest singer, and her history in the city reaches back to the mid-1980s with “Playboy’s Girls of Rock ‘n’ Roll.”