‘I Love The 90s’ show closing Las Vegas Strip production
The dance floor has cleared at “I Love the 90s — The Las Vegas Show,” which today announced it is closing at Paris Theater. The production, headed up by co-producers and of-the-era hitmakers and video trailblazers Salt-N-Pepa, is the fourth show to close at the theater in a year.
Even so, co-producer Seth Yudof of UD Factory continues to pursue funding to keep the show onstage. In an e-mail sent by his company to the show’s dance troupe, Yudof said he continues to assemble the finances and investors to return the show to the stage. Yudof says his company has tried to overcome unspecified disputes with its past investment partners.
In a statement issued Thursday afternoon Caesars Entertainment President of Entertainment Jason Gastwirth said, “We are committed to introducing innovative productions and show concepts that our guests enjoy however, the reality is some shows work out and some do not based on different reasons. We plan to continue this great tradition of bringing fresh and new entertainment to Las Vegas.”
The production originally went dark for from Dec. 6-17, owing its schedule break to Salt-N-Pepa’s “exhausting” (the term used in the show’s official statement) Australian tour in support of Usher. The show had scheduled a return date of Jan. 17, but all dates have been taken off the schedule.
The show had announced it would return Jan. 17. It celebrated its premiere Oct. 25. Along with Cheryl “Salt” James and Sandra “Pepa” Denton and sidekick DJ Spinderella, the show rotated such top retro artists as En Vogue, Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray, All-4-One, Rob Base and Kid-N-Play.
“I Love the 90s” which was highly entertaining and routinely had audiences up and dancing, drew far stronger word-of-mouth support than box-office success. Effectively marketing the rotating, 90s-flavored lineup is a top priority if and when the show comes back.
Paris Theater, with its large-scale, 1,200-seat capacity and comparatively expensive production costs, has seen a quartet of ambitious shows go dark since January 2018: “Circus 1903,” “Inferno,” “Marilyn — The New Musical” all preceded “I Love the 90s” through the exits. However, “Marilyn” producer Tegan Summer has consistently contended his show will return to the Strip after multiple delays.
Caesars Entertainment officials have not yet detailed what will move into Paris Theater, which was also home to the final run of “Jersey Boys,” which closed in September 2016.
Salt-N-Pepa are still scheduled to take the stage this year. They are in the lineup of acts in “The MixTape Tour,” a highly anticipated all-star tour of ’80s and ’90s acts starring the full lineup of New Kids on the Block and featuring Debbie Gibson along with Tiffany and Naughty By Nature.
The 53-city tour opens May 2 and stops at Mandalay Bay Events Center on May 25. Salt-N-Pepa, with its name on the “I Love The ’90s” production title, would be touring through mid-July. Meantime, the fate of “I Love The 90s” in Las Vegas is open. As Yudof told his team in his e-mail, “We really hope to deliver good news and be able to work with you all again very very soon.”
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.