The Kats Report Bureau is about to relocate to the home of Jerry Lewis. Time for an update from J.Lew as he prepares to film National Lampoon’s “Dead Serious” next month. Also on the film front, the Lewis indie “Max Rose” is due for release by the fall.
Otherwise, let’s rake:
• A shakeup in the Zowie Bowie lineup has been announced: The act’s leading, and only, violinist has announced her departure. Lydia Ansel has announced that she is leaving the act, posting the Facebook message: “I made an extremely tough decision ... this will be my last few weeks with Zowie Bowie. I am very thankful to Zowie Bowie, Nieve (Malandra) and our band for three amazing years!” Nieve is vocalist Nieve Malandra, who has been with the act for about as long as Ansel.
As has been the case over the course of Zowie Bowie’s run in Las Vegas, the personal, artistic and professional issues have blended to lead to a change in the lineup. Band founder Chris Phillips and Ansel had been a couple during her reign in the show, as she moved to Las Vegas from Scottsdale, Ariz., in 2012. They split a few months ago and remain friends, with Ansel remaining onstage during the Z.B. gigs on Fremont Street’s 3rd Street Stage on Thursdays, Rocks Lounge at Red Rock Resort on Fridays and Sunset Station’s Club Madrid. The Zowie Bowie schedule remains the same; no replacement has been announced to fill the void left by Ansel, who is a member of Rod Stewart’s band at the Colosseum in Caesars Palace and a musician in Nina DiGregorio’s violin operation Bella Strings.
• The 6-year-old boy Owen who is the focus of Saturday night’s “Starry Night” Make-A-Wish Foundation benefit at Hyde Bellagio has a unique Las Vegas lineage. His father, Lorin-Pierre Andre, is a former acrobat in the Cirque production “Viva Elvis” at Aria and “Michael Jackson One” at Mandalay Bay. He is currently a rigger at “Ka.” Owen’s mother, Kristin, was an aerialist at Studio 54 at MGM Grand (which is now where Hakkasan looms) and also one of the artists who backed Cher during her run at the Colosseum.
Owen has been diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. His wish is to have an ADA-accommodating backyard so he can lean to cavort and bound around like his parents. Among the celebs to appear at the event: Coolio, the rap star who is, in fact, straight outta Compton (he was born there) and resides in North Las Vegas. Auction items have been donated from such stars as Jerry Rice and Pete Rose.
The event is from 8 to 10 p.m. Saturday at Hyde (the location we fondly remember as Fontana Bar) with Las Vegas real-estate agent Masheed Barghisavar, Ladies Who Dine L.V., UNLOKT and Raw Fitness. For information, go to bit.ly/1HJqBDs.
• Lounge royalty was in the house at the Lounge at the Palms on Monday night. In a rare appearance, Bob Anderson showed up at a performance by Santa Fe and the Fat City Horns. If you were to assemble a list of the all-time great lounge performers in Las Vegas, these two would be on it, with Anderson’s long run at the Top of the Dunes from 1975-85 and Santa Fe’s historic series of performances in town also dating to ’75.
Jerry Lopez introduced Anderson, still starring in “Frank: The Man, The Music” at Palazzo to the packed room and introduced him as “one of the all-time greats.” The bridge between Santa Fe and Anderson’s show is the Falcone family. Sinatra’s longtime music director Vincent Falcone is music director of the orchestra in “Frank,” and his son Danny plays trumpet in Santa Fe. Danny also swings with the “Frank” band.
• Clint Holmes has been asked back to Atlantic City.
Yes, he accepted.
A joke. But Holmes is back in A.C., at Resorts International, on Aug. 22. Resorts International was the first resort built in the rebirth of the city in the late 1970s and the first hotel-casino Holmes ever worked. He actually was the opening act for Bob Newhart on the second show ever performed at the resort in May 1978.
“It’s sort of like a return home for me,” Holmes says. He’s back at Cabaret Jazz after a two-month break Sept. 11-13 with a new show, a tribute to James Taylor.
Of Taylor, Holmes says, “He pronounces his ‘A’s’ differently, where most people would sing it as ‘Uh,’ he uses the long ‘A,” and that is one of the many things I am learning about him.” We’ll listen to it with great interest. Should be, uh, fun show …
• How focused a composer and director is Richard Oberacker? Very. Very focused. Not even a raging fire across the street from his home can distract him from directing a musical.
Oberacker lives at Panorama Towers on Dean Martin Drive, which offers a beautiful view of the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. During the fire that raced across the deck of Bamboo Pool at the Cosmopolitan on July 26, Oberacker was setting up for a rehearsal of the musical “Ace,” which he has co-written with his violinist and composing partner Robert Taylor (the show performs at 1 p.m. Aug. 22-23 at UNLV’s Judy Bayley Theater).
As black smoke ascended from outside his apartment’s floor-to-ceiling windows, Oberacker was arranging chairs and setting up music stands at his grand piano when one of the show’s cast members, ex-“Jersey Boys” performer Jeff Leibow, showed up and immediately asked Oberacker about the fire.
“What fire?” Oberacker answered.
“That one,” Leibow said, pointing to the obvious flames leaping from the 14th floor of the Cosmo.
“Oh!” Oberacker said. The fire had been burning for about 15 minutes.
In retelling the story over the weekend, Oberacker said, “I had no idea.”
The takeaway: See “Ace.” It’s a show that has the director’s full attention.
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.
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