Rock out under the stars or in revamped Joint at Virgin Hotels

The theater is dark, but its prospects are bright.

You hear it in Bobby Reynolds’ voice.

The senior vice president of AEG Las Vegas, Reynolds had intended for 2020 to culminate in the christening of The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, the room formerly known as The Joint when the property was the Hard Rock Hotel.

And while there is no official opening date yet for The Theater because of coronavirus concerns, Reynolds sounds a measure of excitement when talking about the venue’s potential as a home for big-name acts until full-scale touring resumes across the country.

“Touring right now, it’s never been a more tumultuous time,” Reynolds says near the check-in area of the hotel on Monday. “On paper, you can do 100 percent in Texas right now, and in California you can’t do anything. The jurisdictions and the laws state to state are so challenging right now.

“You say, ‘Yeah, October seems like it could happen for a touring artist,’ ” he continues. “That’s going to change, because the laws around different states are just too much to navigate right now. That’s an opportunity for us.”

The Joint had a rich history of luring arena-size acts to headline a midsize room, bringing in stadium-fillers such as Paul McCartney, Kenny Chesney and The Killers, while hosting residencies from the likes of Guns N’ Roses, Motley Crue and Def Leppard.

Now Reynolds foresees a chance to bring those acts to Vegas to play some shows later in the year, safeguarding themselves against the pitfalls of attempting to mount larger tours where gigs still could be lost to COVID-19 issues.

“If they’re on tour and you lose two or three shows, it kills the economics,” Reynolds says. “We’ll have an opportunity to reach out to some big artists and say, ‘Come here.’

“Keep in mind artists aren’t working, so they’re also not rehearsing,” he adds. “They’re not going to come out of pocket to rehearse with their bands and their crew. I’d love to invite an artist to come here on a Tuesday, load in on Wednesday, get all the rust off behind closed doors and then Friday-Saturday, let’s blow out and do some big shows. That concept has definitely been well received by some big acts. They love the idea.”

New era, new additions to the room

Should Reynolds’ aspirations come to fruition, those acts will take the stage in a spruced-up room.

“We made a significant capital investment into the property,” Reynolds says. “The venue has always had great bones, great sight lines, great acoustics, but it needed some love, needed some things to be fixed up. We addressed all of those things.”

Among the recent additions to The Theater are fresh flooring, bar tops and bar facades along with the introduction of a VIP area on the ground level.

“I feel like, as a ticket buyer, you have to make a decision: Do you want to be on the floor with the ‘real’ fans or do you want to have a VIP experience?” Reynolds says. “This newly created area provides both of those opportunities.”

On The Theater’s second, all-VIP level, the suites have been redone, with new furniture, carpet, artwork, TVs and wallpaper, as well as a renovated bar.

The third floor has been refreshed with new seats, a more accessible bar and a new general admission area on the left side of the room.

“We wanted to make the VIP areas more VIP,” Reynolds explains, “but also have the areas that were rock ’n’ roll, keep those rock ’n’ roll as well. And I know we achieved that.”

Music under the stars

The Theater won’t be the only live music venue at the hotel.

There’s also a new outdoor event space in the area where the Rehab pool used to be. It will host concerts in addition to being part of the property’s convention business. The Hard Rock Hotel had a pool stage; this is akin to a bigger version of that sans the pool.

“Our expectation now is to really just home in on some of the successes that we’ve had in years past and really be able to provide a much more outdoorsy, festival-type feel to an outdoor show,” says Gary Scott, chief operating officer of JC Hospitality, who will be heading up the entertainment offerings at the property.

“Before, we had a pool; it created a lot of complications,” he continues. “We’d only be able to put out about 700 capacity. With the new configuration, we’re able to take it to about 1,800 and then also added some additional elements like the VIP viewing deck, bungalows that will be fully furnished. We provide outdoor lighting that goes around the perimeter. We’ve got some raised decks in the back that provide for some additional VIP seating opportunities.”

Scott says that he’d like to see the venue, when fully operable, host concerts two to three days a month.

“That’s our current plan,” he notes. “We’re hoping to start seeing shows out there sometime in July, but outside of reaching out and having some dialogue, we don’t have anything on the books. We are starting to get some interest from some artists. They’ve reached out to us for August.”

A larger capacity will equate to larger acts from across the musical spectrum

“We’ve had tremendous success in indie rock, reggae, and we’ll continue to open that up and add some country, modern rock,” Scott says. “With the larger capacity, it enables us to go out to some more notable and recognizable artists that we can put out there. Before, keeping capacity around 1,000, it really put some limitations on the level of artists we could attract,” he continues. “You’re going to see some bigger names out there.”

Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @JasonBracelin on Twitter and @jbracelin76 on Instagram