Downsizing theater no insult to its new stars

When Frankie Moreno first visited Planet Hollywood’s upstairs theater with a serious eye toward digging in as a headliner, he had one immediate thought.

“It’s just too big.”

And a wise thought it was, based on most of the shows the PH Showroom hosted prior to comic ventriloquist Jeff Dunham, who finally filled more of its 1,500 seats in a one-year residency.

From “Stomp Out Loud” — which opened the venue in 2007 — to four years of “Peepshow,” respectable crowds of 300 to 350 people seemed outnumbered by the empty seats behind them, and created an audience perception that perhaps they had picked the wrong show.

And size may not have been the only issue with the theater that is prime real estate on the Strip, yet has a reputation closer to that of a white elephant.

Perhaps it’s the venue’s location at the top of the world’s longest, most vertiginous escalator (a subjective claim, not scientifically proven).

Or maybe Planet Hollywood’s concert stars in the Axis — Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull — claim so much of the signage and general excitement around the casino, they suck the oxygen out of the smaller venue upstairs.

But now the theater leased and operated by Base Entertainment has locked in two new roommate tenants, with an eye toward a stable future of three years or more.

Singer-songwriter Moreno opens “Under the Influence” on April 20 in the 9 p.m. time slot, while British ventriloquist Paul Zerdin takes the 7 p.m. berth starting April 30.

Neither of them will have to worry about the back half of the house. Base is installing retractable panels to cut the capacity down to 750 and create what Moreno calls “a realistic playing field here.”

“I think shrinking the room will play a major role in the success of the room,” he says.

The producers are adding a center aisle and bringing in a lighting designer to re-light the theater, “so that it looks good both in the house and onstage,” says Scott Armstrong, vice president and managing producer for Base. “It’ll still be a nice, vast room, but with the intimacy of a 750-seat theater.”

The two headliners offer an interesting contrast.

Moreno is a local favorite with enthusiastic support from Las Vegans and the service industry. But he spent much of last year on the road, trying to raise his national profile.

Zerdin, on the other hand, has no track record on the Strip, but won the last season of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.”

Armstrong says it’s a coincidence that Base also produces the previous year’s “Talent” winner, magician Mat Franco, at The Linq. But Franco’s show is doing “extremely well,” he says, giving the producers faith that a second variety winner will have a longer shelf life than some TV-winning singers who haven’t sustained their moment of fame.

Zerdin performed a single headlining weekend promised with his victory in the same Planet Hollywood theater last fall, and “the crowds just ate it up,” Armstrong says. “We fell in love with his show and think it will do really well.”

Base’s lease with Caesars Entertainment includes an independently run box office. “We’ll be able to talk to the customers more and be able to engage them,” Armstrong says, as well as cross-promote the two shows with combo ads and generally “go outside the box with these shows.”

Moreno says he had interest from Caesars Palace, the Rio and The Venetian after his three-year run at the Stratosphere ended in late 2014. But 45 dates in The Smith Center’s Cabaret Jazz room, combined with touring, “afforded me to be very picky, I guess. … The only way to get what you want is not care if you get it,” he adds with a laugh.

“Under the Influence” will take its title from strategically chosen covers meant to “show my path” to Moreno’s original songs; “what influenced all that writing.”

The arrangements will favor a ’60s horn sound, “which is kind of the sound of the day with people like Bruno Mars,” he notes, “even though it’s vintage to all of us who experienced it.”

Read more from Mike Weatherford at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com. Follow him @Mikeweatherford.