U.S News

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – On the stage, sextet tall showgirls cavorted in shimmery black-sequined bras and skirts that were little more than enterprising panties. They twirled plumes of super black feathers in a Rockette-style squawk distinction as digit of them sang "Bye-Bye Blackbird." (Who cares that they were ostrich feathers? And really, who was modify hunting at the feathers?)

This cards spectacle, titled "Moonshine Follies," was unfolding on a initiate not in Las Vegas, which is substitutable with the enlarge initiate production, but in ocean City, where much shows died discover in the 1990s after a comparatively brief East Coast run.

Now, the nation's second-largest recreation use is taking a page from its past: the initiate exhibit is reaching backwards in ocean City. Casino executives wager the shows as a priceless marketing tool, and a cheaper choice than top-name entertainers that play for a period or digit before moving on. And customers wager the shows as a recognize convey to the ocean City they erst knew and idolized — almost aforementioned theatrical richness food.

"We're exclusive here for a limited time, and we desired to be sure to wager a show," said metropolis Harper, a music pedagogue from Chrisman, Ill., who was in ocean City with her economise to watch "Moonshine Follies" at Resorts Casino Hotel.

"It was excellent. The whole creation was rattling professional. I was rattling impressed," she said. "The costume changes — how do they do them so quickly?"

Seven of ocean City's 11 casinos today impact lawful initiate shows or module be actuation them discover in reaching months.

"You intend fivesome or sextet nights a hebdomad of recreation versus one, for the aforementioned price or less," said Don Marrandino, orient sectionalization chair of Caesar's Entertainment, which owns quaternary ocean City casinos. "We'll intend more grouping into the places with these shows and create newborn excitement. That's our leg up on university and surrounding markets."

"Moonshine Follies" costs Resorts about $50,000 a hebdomad to produce. Many of the tickets are presented absent liberated as "comps," or gratis inducements to customers to opt Resorts as anti to the competition.

"It brings bodies in the door," said Resorts chair Dennis Gomes. He said the exhibit averages 500 grouping a period on weekdays, and fills the 1,300-seat theater on weekends.

"The continuance of those 500 grouping reaching in for a exhibit is existence change from a gaming and food and drinkable revenue standpoint," he said. "We do pretty substantially with it. And it creates a sense of excitement and forcefulness for the customers."

Gomes artfully created some pre-opening buzz for "Moonshine Follies" with a sign advertising the exhibit on the ocean City Expressway, featuring the barely-clad derriere of digit of the show's dancers. When motorists complained, a state authority that owns the realty on which the sign sits threatened to take it down, but Resorts got a suite visit temporarily protecting the billboard.

The exhibit delivers on the billboard's promise. It starts discover with a bed of dancers in flapper costumes dance it to Roaring '20s-style talking as a springy band plays onstage. Clad in black dresses and albescent produce boas, the dancers dress elbow-length black gloves and black feathers sticking discover of sequin headbands. As the exhibit progresses, the clothes mix away. As a phallic vocaliser croons "It Had To Be You," the dancers dress the bejeweled thongs made famous by the billboard, grayness sequined bras and high heels.

And lest the ladies feel mitt out, the revue's digit phallic dancers shed their shirts on individual numbers as well. Toward the end of the show, on "Fascinating Rhythm," the digit men spin and twiddle in black hats, black suspenders and tight purple pants, hunting for every the world aforementioned they meet went AWOL from an Adam Lambert concert.

"I go to Broadway and I go to Vegas to wager shows, and I idolized this," said Ephraim Carmona, 58, of Yonkers, N.Y. "The costumes and the vocals were excellent, rattling energetic, and the band is meet great."

When cards recreation debuted in New Jersey in 1978, Resorts was the exclusive legal cards right Nevada. New Jersey officials passed a accumulation requiring springy nightly recreation in an endeavor to help ensure that ocean City casinos would be full-fledged resorts and not meet slot-machine warehouses.

But that accumulation was eventually repealed, leaving it to the mart to watch what was profitable and what was not. As a result, many of the casinos obstructed hosting their own concern shows, focusing on transfer in bounteous stars for a one- or two-night stand.

That worked for a while, when ocean City was the exclusive game in municipality unless you desired to hop a form to Nevada. But the use forfeited its East Coast monopoly when casinos opened in Connecticut. The advent of casinos in neighboring university in New 2006 grazed soured a fall that still plagues ocean City more than quaternary eld later. The use has forfeited nearly a third of its playing since then, falling from $5.2 1000000000 in 2006 to $3.6 1000000000 in 2010.

Nowadays, some possibleness to alter more grouping finished the cards doors is existence pursued.

The ocean City Hilton Casino Resort has "Boardwalk Follies" running finished April 3. The exhibit centers on a vocaliser and individual variety acts, including an aerial act titled "The Aerial Sisters." The Hilton is seeking a newborn maker of customers — especially cash-paying ones — as it attempts to delude itself, having obstructed paying its mortgage digit eld ago.

The Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort has a long-running musical variety exhibit "Almost Angels," featuring a lingerie-clad someone vocal group reminiscent of The Pussycat Dolls.

The Tropicana Casino and Resort module present "Best Of Broadway" incoming month, patch Harrah's Resort ocean City module feature the a cappella group Straight No Chaser for 10 weeks during the summer. Caesars ocean City module feature Human Nature and a recognize to Motown, followed by Chazz Palminteri and his one-man exhibit "A borough Tale," blotchy after the impact movie of the aforementioned name.

Bally's ocean City module patron "The Price Is Right," and after in the summer, "Legends In Concert," the favourite celebrity commendation act.

Gomes, the Resorts president, sums up the attractiveness of the cards initiate exhibit succinctly.

"You'll wager the most beautiful rear ends you've ever seen in your life," he said.

Source