‘Wedding’ moving to bigger venue

The off-Broadway hit closes at the Rio Saturday night and reopens Feb. 6 in what used to be the London Club, a second-floor loft area that previously housed high-limit gaming.

"We moved as a success," co-producer Raphael Berko says of the interactive dinner comedy that opened at the Rio in early 2002. "We left to grow the show more."

He says an air of indifference had settled in at the Rio. "We need some excitement, some marketing help and some new ideas," all of which he claims Planet Hollywood chairman Robert Earl is enthusiastic to provide.

The show’s original director, Larry Pelligrini, is revising and updating the spoof of Italian weddings for the new room, Berko says. Pelligrini was an original cast member when the interactive hit debuted in 1988, and he launched the Rio version with original writer Nancy Cassaro.

The seating capacity will increase from 275 to 450, which Berko and co-producer Jeff Gitlin are optimistic about filling even in a bad year. Besides increasing the number of "cousins" in the cast as needed to interact with patrons, the show now plans to feature a weekly guest star.

In New York, the use of guest stars began in 2005 with Rikki Lee Travolta. The guests have ranged from Frankie Avalon to former New York Met Lee Mazzilli. Berko says that most of the time the guest stars will appear as themselves — introduced as a friend of one of the families — unless the guest is an actor who wants to play a character. …

No one is saying for certain that the "Laptop of Life" has been cast into the fires of Mount Doom, but it’s now clear that "Fuego" is being reborn as a nightclub, not a sit-down show with that dumb plot device.

Producer ND (Nicole Durr) is moving all the impressive lighting and sound hardware that surrounded the Sahara failure — which opened as "Raw Talent Live" — into the former Club Rio, which will reopen Feb. 12 as ND’s "Fuego."

Performers from the Sahara cast are now described as "interstitial" by Michael Weaver, vice president of marketing for Harrah’s Entertainment. "There are things going on around you which are interesting if they catch your attention, but they don’t demand your attention if the person next to you is more interesting," he explains.

Weaver’s chronology for the deal suggests a sit-down version of "Fuego" was never on the table. "With Penn & Teller as headliners we don’t need another show."

ND approached Harrah’s with a combination show-and-club concept two years ago. "The concept was really interesting, but we just didn’t have a location for it," Weaver says. "Fuego" already was running as a show at the Sahara, and "we contacted her" once the decision was made to reopen the room as a club.

While the bar staff inside will work for ND, the security team — including those who man the line out front — will work for Harrah’s, Weaver says.

That’s significant if you remember the still-unresolved IRS raid on another Harrah’s club tenant, Pure at Caesars Palace, which is said to involve possibly unreported cash going to doormen as tips for club entry. Weaver suggests this division in the work force might be standard from now on. …

History repeats itself — to a degree — when Danny Gans offers the first look at his new Encore showcase as a charity performance Feb. 6. Regular performances begin Feb. 12.

Benefit tickets range from $95 to $120 and aid the Greater Las Vegas After-School All-Stars and Communities In Schools of Southern Nevada, programs chaired or co-chaired by Elaine Wynn.

If you remember, the charity unveiling of "Le Reve" didn’t go so well a few years ago, and the word-of-mouth poisoned the show for a long time. But Gans is a Vegas vet who isn’t starting from scratch. …

Speaking of the Encore theater, Gans will use the room four nights a week and Steve Wynn had suggested he would book free nights with other attractions.

Could last Saturday’s private Harry Connick Jr. concert with full orchestra, staged for Wynn’s birthday, be a harbinger of public performances down the road? Sounds like Connick was treated well during his stay here.

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