‘Absinthe’ producer: ‘We’re not out of the woods yet’ in COVID recovery

Note: This is the third in a three-part series of “Kats!” columns centering on the April 1 10th anniversary of “Absinthe” at Caesars Palace. This post is a Q&A with show producer and Spiegelworld founder Ross Mollison, who during the Zoom interview was quarantined in Sydney, Australia, while on business and visiting family.

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Johnny Kats: Your show beat the odds just to be onstage for its 10th anniversary through the COVID shutdown. What was the biggest challenge in trying to keep your company organized during the pandemic?

Ross Mollison: The lack of a company (laughs). It was the speed of decision making, dealing with a crisis that unfolded far more rapidly than I anticipated, and I felt like I was well ahead of the curve on it. “It” being that my panic started in February last year, but then, you know, in one month I was going, “We’re going to do everything we can to survive this and to stay open and keep performing this safely.”

Kats: We’re talking just before the shutdown? Were you in contact with Gov. Steve Sisolak during that period?

Mollison: This was like the 11th, 12th, 13th of March, I think. In fact, I lobbied the casinos and the governor and said, “You’ve got to shut us down. We cannot perform.” At that point, the governor wasn’t prepared to shut us down. That’s when it starts to get murky as to what happened. It was such a high-stress environment, so the panic was to shut it down to protect everyone from getting sick.

Kats: Did you ever have a conversation with the governor, from that moment through today?

Mollison: Never have. Never spoken to him.

Kats: What would you say to him if you had him right now, if you had his ear?

Mollison: We got through it. We got through it, and thanks for your leadership. Thanks for your service. The guy went to work probably every day for the last four to eight months. He worked. He got COVID. He’s no spring chicken, you know. I mean, he didn’t have the option to lock himself in his home and just wait it out.

Kats: Would you say that the absence of live entertainment in Las Vegas has made our elected officials appreciate the importance of live entertainment more today, than they did before the shutdown?

Mollison: I can’t honestly say that’s true. … I do not feel that there was necessarily a deep understanding of the contribution for the live entertainment industry during this. You know, I don’t want to write the obituary on the pandemic just yet.

Kats: We’re not out of it, that’s for sure.

Mollison: We’re not out of the woods yet. I’ve got 160 people in a venue that holds 700, and you know, this is not a business model that is sustainable, so we need to segue out of this as quickly as we can based on science, based on data.

Kats: “Absinthe” is such a juggernaut and has set such a high standard for your company. Is it difficult to return to that level of success with subsequent titles?

Mollison: I think you iterate. I think that constant iteration at “Absinthe” and our other shows is in the DNA of our company so that we’re constantly going to shows and looking to make whatever improvements that we see are possible. I look at the beverage program we launched at the Atomic Saloon, which leads into the audience experience as well, which means we come back around and we enhance the beverage experience at Absinthe, which makes that better again. We integrate new artists. The sway-pole act in “Absinthe” is a really, really exciting thing to do as opposed to “Absinthe” being a variety show, which it actually was when it launched.

Kats: We have a new resort coming in this summer, and Resorts World Las Vegas is looking for entertainment across the board right now. Do you have any thoughts about opening a title there, and have you talked to them about that?

Mollison: I met with the (Genting Group) chairman (Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay). What I love about the chairman of Resorts World is he really understands entertainment. Obviously the guy’s made a lot of money, his family has made a lot of money across many, many industries … But, it’s still a small family business, you know.

Kats: They love magic.

Mollison: In fact, if you go to the Magic Castle in Los Angeles you’ll see posters which actually mention his company from some of the really old magicians from back 30, 40 years ago. So, yeah, I think they’re wanting to lean into entertainment. When they’re ready to talk to us, I’d love to talk to them. Their CEO, Scott Sibella, I know pretty well.

Kats: In your opinion, should Resorts World have some sort of resident production show?

Mollison: I hope they put a show in it. I think they should, whether it’s from me or Cirque or whomever it’s from. I believe that the people who go there are going to want entertainment seven days a week. There are great opportunities now because, I can already see the thousands of people walking across the bridge (to Resorts World) from the Venetian North, I call it, the Wynn, because they’re not bringing back “Le Reve.” … But I just think that all resorts need great entertainment.

Kats: The next Spiegelworld announcement is the “Opium” reopening, now with a restaurant concept, at the Cosmopolitan. What are we going to see out of that concept, and when is it going to happen?

Mollison: Excellent question (laughs). We’re working really, really hard on this. You can imagine how motivated we are to do a great job of this. We put everything we had into that project with “Vegas Nocturne” in 2013, and it was a really ambitious project. … We want to take what we learned from that and create something that’s really fun. We’ve got to get it right, that’s the main thing.

Kats: You have “The Disco Show” in development, and I’m seeing that conceivably you could have shows at a few other places, including downtown, that we’ve talked about before. What your strategy for the volume of content you want to bring to Las Vegas?

Mollison: I mean, God bless you for suggesting we have a strategy (laughs). You’re talking to a circus producer. We don’t have a strategy. We’re just trying to survive from one day to the next.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.