‘Rock of Ages’ may land on Strip

Put your butanes on standby. It sounds like "Rock of Ages" will be replacing the Blue Man Group at The Venetian once the blue guys cart their PVC down to the Monte Carlo.

The campy tribute to the big-hair pop of the '80s was a surprise hit that's still running on Broadway, and a movie version with Tom Cruise is due in theaters June 1.

Sightings of technical representatives from "Rock of Ages" touring and measuring the Blue Man theater are an indicator that talks are very serious. However, that's far from an on-the-record confirmation. "At this point we are talking to a number of different parties about a lot of exciting entertainment options," says Venetian spokeswoman Dawn Britt.

A formative version of the musical played the Flamingo briefly in 2006, after it had debuted in Los Angeles but before its Broadway bow in April 2009.

The musical follows the lead of "Mamma Mia!" by repurposing rock and pop hits as show tunes and fitting them into a narrative about a cute couple trying to save a Sunset Strip rock club from evil redevelopers.

The choice part is the character Cruise will play on film: Stacee Jaxx, a hybrid of Axl Rose, Vince Neil and every other peroxide bad boy of rock who ever snorted coke off a hooker's chest.

Most Broadway-to-Vegas musicals obsess over the show's running time and whether there will be an intermission. But we take for granted our ability to sit there with a highball in our grip.

In New York, "Rock" was groundbreaking and controversial for offering cocktail service during the show.

The Blue Man Group closes shop at The Venetian in September. And a year left on the lease is a year not to waste. The company is touting a new retail shop with an interactive video wall and "fan cam" turning shoppers into stars.

Blue Man Group also offers a holiday promotion for locals, now through New Year's Eve. (The promotion code is LOC241.) There are no blackout dates, which makes it a quality alternative to Cirque du Soleil's "O" for visiting relatives. The popular aquacade actually raises its prices Nov. 23 through 27, and again Dec. 21 through Jan. 1. ...

Free content, free idea: This weekend, cult director Kevin Smith returns for two nights of podcasting at the Hard Rock Cafe on the Strip. Nice work if you can get it, this minitrend selling tickets to podcasts that are -- like newspapers and other things on the Internet -- great to have for free, but someone has to foot the bill.

Smith and Adam Carolla do a lot of their podcasting from the CityWalk at Universal Studios, a more compact version of the pedestrian mall the Strip has become. The Jon Lovitz Comedy Club there is also known as the Jon Lovitz Podcast Theatre.

Will one of the various club-format comedy rooms here follow suit? Or is the Hard Rock Cafe on its way to a nice niche here? ...

If you're turning 90 and you helped pioneer the legendary all-night lounge scene of 1950s Vegas, then you also will be entitled to two birthday parties.

Don Hill of The Treniers has outlasted both of the group's twin brothers, Claude and Cliff Trenier, who helped popularize the phrase "rock 'n' roll" when they were billed, "They Rock! They Roll! They Swing!"

Hill celebrates, as he has the past few years, with the help of Jeanne Brei; her Speakeasy Swingers band has kept him from being forgotten. They have the first party today at the Italian American Club and another one on Tuesday at Green Valley Ranch. ...

Frank Scinta stepped away from the rest of the family act, The Scintas, to open a show for Regis Philbin in Detroit last week. "It was a great night. Really, really fun," Scinta says. The Scintas break in their holiday show at the Suncoast from Dec. 2 to 4 before taking it on the road to Ohio, Michigan and New York. "Hopefully Regis will open for us," he jokes.

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