In coronavirus fight, Las Vegas’ Smith Center keeps it clean
Anyone interested in buying tickets to last week’s Shen Yun production at the Smith Center was met with a clear message on the show’s website:
“Proudly made in the USA. Cannot be seen in China.” Click on that message, and you see the bold headline: “Shen Yun Is Not From China, Shows In No Way Affected By Coronavirus.”
“They made it clear that none of the performers were from China, and that it was an American production,” Smith Center President Myron Martin said Friday. “This show visits every year, and this is the first time that had been emphasized.”
Martin said he understood that a troupe of acrobats visiting from China, where the COVID-19 originated, might curtail business. There was a slight dip in ticket sales from last year’s run to this year, which Martin termed as “insignificant.” Thus far, no shows at Smith Center’s primary venues Reynolds Hall and Myron’s Cabaret Jazz have been taken off the books.
The Smith Center has added 25 industrial-size sanitation stations around their three performance venues — Reynolds Hall, Myron’s Cabaret Jazz and Troesh Studio Theater. The stations have been placed in the lobby, at entrances and backstage.
“We got the last 25 stations available from our vendor, and all the refills are already on back-order, so there has been a run on these dispensers,” said Martin, who moved to Las Vegas in 1995 from New York to run the Liberace Museum and Foundation.
Martin has seen all measure of scare and tragedy in Las Vegas since, and produced a post-9/11 show at Mandalay Bay Events Center to benefit the USO, just two months after the tragedy.
This time around, Martin stresses, “I am not alarmed. The Smith Center is increasing its efforts for disinfect, and to provide sanitizers. But we have no reason to believe that any of our shows will cancel.”
Resorts play it safe
A read of the marketplace shows a uniform emphasis on safety and sanitation efforts. Typical of the citywide effort is MGM Resorts International posting safety directives on its official website. That’s the uniformed sentiment from such Vegas-based companies as Caesars Entertainment, Boyd Gaming and Cirque du Soleil.
Show schedules are being reviewed among the city’s main venues as the ticket-buying climate, which is already fickle, turns even more uncertain. The concert production Raiding the Rock Vault has trimmed its schedule from five shows to three, eliminating its Monday and Tuesday performances while running Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays.
But at the moment, such decisions are the exception.
In a statement Thursday, Jason Gastwirth, Caesars Entertainment president of entertainment, said, “Caesars Entertainment will continue all regularly scheduled live entertainment in our venues while supporting our artists’ personal decisions if they seek to modify their performance schedules. We have always adhered to comprehensive cleaning of our venues before and after performances while, as a further precaution during this time, we are strongly emphasizing to our guests the importance of extra hygiene measures.”
Anecdotally, having visited four resorts Thursday and Friday, I can report new sanitation stations were in place at Westgate Las Vegas, Aria, Caesars Palace and MGM Grand. Expect those dispensers to be as much a part of the casino landscape as the Wild Panda slot machines.
Doin’ it bald
The annual St. Baldrick’s shave-a-thon is back where it all started, McMullan’s Irish Pub, and also at Nine Fine Irishman at New York-New York throughout the day and evening Saturday. Brian and Lynn McMullan host the sheer madness at their place on West Tropicana, just west of the Orleans, from 11 a.m.-11 p.m. The fine time at Nine Fine is from 10 a.m.-7 p.m.
The celeb shavers at NY-NY include cast members from “Potted Potter,” “Wow — The Las Vegas Spectacular,” Chippendales, “Friends! The Musical Parody,” “Thunder From Down Under,” “Fantasy,” “Marriage Can Bea Murder,” “Celestia, “Zumanity,” “Atomic Saloon Show,” “Opium,” “Absinthe,” and New York-New York’s Coyote Ugly Girls. A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces and Tape Face are also shaving us down. “Us” includes yours truly, being shaved by Enoch Augustus Scott of “Zombie Burlesque” at 1 p.m.
From there, Augustus Scott and I hustle to McMullan’s to join that event, joining Channel 8’s Brian Loftus and Sherri Swensk, Wayne “Big D” Danielson from KWNR 95.5-FM The Bull; Channel 3’s Gerard Ramalho, Heather Mills and Krystal Allan; Antonio “Huggy Bear” Fargas; Excalibur exec James Healey; “Sexxy” creator Jennifer Romas; and Simon Hospitality Group Cory Harwell.
The McMullans are again heading up the shave ensemble Team Kyra. The crew is named for thee couple’s late daughter who died of a brain tumor in 2007, inspiring the first Baldrick’s event in Las Vegas. As Brian McMullan says, “This event is no longer about McMullan’s Irish Pub, it’s a community event that we hope will grow each year and spread the word about the desperate need for funding and awareness for pediatric cancer research.”
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.