Retro singer’s Vegas gig comes early

Chantal Claret shaved 30 years off her dream of playing Vegas.

"I thought you needed to have some crazy illustrious career behind you to be able to do it. My fantasy was that I was a 60-year-old woman," says the singer, who confesses to fantasizing about "doing a residency specifically in Las Vegas since I saw Bette Midler play two years ago."

"But lo and behold, I guess I'll cut off half my life and do it right now."

Claret is starting smaller than the Colosseum, but the retro-inclined singer is the first recurring artist booked for the Hard Rock Hotel's new Vinyl club, with 10 shows between Saturday and Nov. 30.

With a choreographed stage show and an eight-piece band with horns, Claret lands in the middle of a live lounge resurgence that suggests casinos haven't entirely written off a sit-down, spectator experience in the era of the DJ.

Live music is already thriving in the suburbs. Knowing it's not competitive on the supersized club front, Station Casinos opened the doors to the likes of pop singer Jeff Timmons and now a group called Elvis Monroe, launching a monthly Thursday show today at Red Rock Resort.

Elvis Monroe is a pickup band of semi-known players, fronted by Bryan Hopkins and including Matthew Nelson of the group Nelson and Lifehouse guitarist Ben Carey.

Such a band brings Station Casinos "instant name recognition," says Judy Alberti, who oversees entertainment for the company. "They're creative guys looking for an outlet, and they can get paid enough to make the side project at least break even."

The locals casinos also deliver the entertainers "a little more mature demographic that's done the club scene and they're over that," Alberti says.

Even the tourist corridor casinos seem to be realizing the need to diversify their entertainment beyond the low-hanging fruit of the nightclubs. The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas arguably pointed the way with fast-breaking acts such as Black Rebel Motorcycle Club in its Book & Stage, though it now seems to be tapped out on the free loss-leader stuff.

Claret also stands to tap into the base of local players who migrate to wherever Lon Bronson or Santa Fe and the Fat City Horns happen to be playing. "The show I put on is like old Vegas - and it's all ages," she says. "It's a big affair."

"If I'd thought about it, I should have just done a DJ gig because it's a whole lot easier. I know why they do it," she adds with a laugh.

Claret put some points on the board with the bygone band Morningwood before going solo. Her new album "The One, The Only..." picks up where Amy Winehouse left off but steers the ship into '60s-mod Burt Bacharach territory.

"Everything that I do and I love is retro with a modern twist," she says. "I love all that classic stuff and that's the stuff I'm inspired by, but I can't help but modernize it. I don't want things to sound like they're recorded in my grandma's basement. I want them to sound like they're recorded in 2012." ...

Depending upon how much you believe in reality TV as the driving force behind "Peepshow," Holly Madison's pregnancy-related departure could work in the producers' favor at Planet Hollywood.

Why? Madison doesn't have a TV show anymore and Coco Austin does.

"Ice Loves Coco," which chronicles the domestic bliss of Austin and actor-rapper Ice-T, returns to E! cable Oct. 28, while "Holly's World" seems relegated to E! history.

Of course, "Ice" can't work "Peepshow" into the narrative before Austin debuts Dec. 3. But it can certainly build interest, particularly if "Peepshow" buys commercials on the show. ...

Only a lucky few got to see "Play Dead," the creepy little horror show helmed by Teller of Penn & Teller, during shakedown performances at the Rio before it headed off-Broadway in 2010.

But now a filmed version of the one-man show starring Todd Robbins will be screened Oct. 5 as part of the Vegas CineFest at the Palms.

And while Las Vegas will have no shortage of auteur haunted houses by Eli Roth, George Romero and the Amazing Johnathan, you will have to go to the Universal Studios theme park in Orlando, Fla., if you want to see Penn & Teller's New(kd) Vegas.

The maze burned with the duo's warped humor imagines a post-apocalyptic Vegas, including, by one published account, "Roy with a white tiger on his throat." Time plus tragedy equals comedic spook house thrills. ...

And speaking of spooky magicians, Dan Sperry thinks I was overly dismissive of his post-"America's Got Talent" career in last Sunday's column. He points out that he was able to parlay his exposure into a show at the Times Scare attraction in New York.

So if I can take off my Vegas blinders enough to acknowledge there is entertainment elsewhere - and I seemed to do just that for Penn & Teller - then I will concede that the Big Apple's not so bad these days. ...

Comedian Louie Anderson and I had some interesting chats about how Twitter and smartphones are changing stand-up comedy. On Friday and Saturday, he's hosting the #140 Tour, which us hep, techno-savvy cats will immediately recognize as a roster of comics who consider Twitter a career boost instead of giving away jokes for free.

The bill offers @travon, @elibraden, @hallib and @paulypeligroso, better known to older relatives as Travon Free, Eli Braden, Halli Borgfjord and Pauly Casillas. Their followers range from 1,200 to more than 86,000, so some of them are better at this stuff than others.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.