For the 1st time in a long time: 3 Vegas shows in one night

After an eight-month halt in live entertainment on the Las Vegas Strip, Kyle Martin couldn’t resist one more pause while singing a Billy Joel classic,

“I’m in a … Las Vegas, state of mind,” Martin sang, in his best Joel interpretation. This is where a full house would shout back approval. As it was, about three dozen people inside Mosaic Theater on the Strip cheered the first baby steps of Vegas’ return to ticketed shows.

Martin’s “Piano Man” show was a run of Joel and Elton John hits. Martin brings a full band, two backing dancers, costumes and video mapping.

Taken alone, this show was worth the trip. But Thursday night started with a sharply focused “Queens of Rock” tribute to female rockers over the past four decades. Elyzabeth Diaga, a flamethrower out of Montreal, unleashes Pat Benatar, Heart and Stevie Nicks among many other legendary voices. She even spun around on roller skates, almost reveling in the spacing afforded onstage.

“Aussie Heat” closed the night. The male revue thrilled the ladies (and a couple of the gents). But any male strip show is uniquely challenged to connect with a crowd seated at least 25 feet from the stage. It helps not that the guys need to wear masks or face covers throughout, which is not a requirement for musicians and singers during performance.

There is no wading into the audience for the guys, at all. The folks brought onstage are plants. We know this because it is announced at the top of the show. The “Aussie” show has the sort of technical production that requires precision, and there were several missed cues, such as a curtain failing to open at the right time.

But after waiting eight months for a show to reopen, who cares, really? Fortunately the guys have mastered the “must” skills, which are the capacity to groove while disrobing.

As the host of all this activity, Mosaic has found itself as an unlikely industry leader among venues able to reopen during COVID. The former Utopia nightclub has gone through myriad changes over the years, but the site remains largely unknown even to Vegas locals. Mosaic is on the Strip, yes, but set a fair measure off the boulevard and behind a strip mall anchored by Walgreen’s.

But the venue has advantages. Mosaic is a stand-alone venue, operated uniformly by Dean Coleman of SRP Productions of Las Vegas. The space is large enough to handle spaced-out seating required by the state to stage gatherings up to 250 guests. The total fire-code capacity is 1,446. Seating for a production show is about 500.

The test at Mosaic, and for these three shows, is in the current Las Vegas market. About 50 people took in the three shows Thursday. The room’s break-even point is 76 tickets sold at a median price of $60. Coleman is not using any comps, depending largely on his in-house ticketing operation to sell online and hope word of mouth and social media can carry business.

“We’re fighting how Las Vegas has done business in the past,” Coleman says. “I’m not using any fill-a-seat comp systems. I’d rather have a smaller crowd who is there for the show than someone who is on a free-seat website who comes in and sits there and creates dead space.”

Each show drew a standing ovation from a crowd clearly relishing a chance to see live entertainment again. The performers were certainly thrilled to be back onstage. Diaga thanked the crowd for picking her show to spend a Thursday night. She was great company, certainly, and it helped that her show is about the only game in town.

The comedy front

The great George Wallace says he can’t wait to be back onstage. But adds, “I think it’ll be 2021” before he’s back onstage at Westgate Cabaret, where Jennifer Romas’ “Sexxy” and Jen Kramer’s magic show are still on hold.

Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club at MGM Grand seems open for a return, except for the niggling 25-foot rule implemented for the return of larger gatherings. The club’s design won’t allow a model that works for the funny, or the money.

Ahead of the pack

Trustworthy intel leads this scribe to believe the Michael Jackson tribute “MJ Live” at the Strat will be among the first hotel-casino productions to return to the stage. There should be onsale and scheduling info from that show, and a couple of other major titles, within the week.

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.