Jason Paige and Jason Byous from “Moulin Rouge” in “For the Record: Baz.”
Olivia Harris and Jason Byous from “Romeo & Juliet” in “For the Record: Baz.”
For the Record: Baz
For the Record: Baz
For the Record: Baz
For Shane Scheel, it’s a honeymoon in Vegas, if not “Honeymoon in Vegas.”
The co-creator of “For the Record: Baz” is getting married this week in Connecticut. Then he is to visit Las Vegas for what he hopes is a long and open-ended honeymoon for his show, a 360-degree, stage-defying production at Light in Mandalay Bay that opens June 19.
“We will be there as long as you’ll have us. We want to make a very long run of it,” Scheel said Wednesday in a phone interview from New York. “We are very excited about our partnership, and we hope this is the beginning of a long, long relationship.”
He was speaking specifically of the show, but the sentiment is true elsewhere.
The 90-minute “Baz” is a partnership of the production company For the Record and Cirque du Soleil’s theatrical division headed up by former Base Entertainment exec Scott Zeiger. Tickets are $55 and available at Ticketmaster.com and on the Baz Facebook page.
The show is intended to bolster Light’s early evening entertainment programming and draw an audience to the club who would find cabaret-style musical theater mixed with a rock concert a refreshing alternative to thumping electronic dance music.
“We have been looking for the right way to present a show in Las Vegas with the partner in the right venue with the right timing,” said Scheel. “We want to see the next level of what we can do in Las Vegas.”
The production is a live-music adaptation of the films of Baz Luhrmann played out in a cabaret setting. Mashed together are the familiar titles and story lines of “Romeo & Juliet,” “The Great Gatsby,” “Moulin Rouge” and “Strictly Ballroom.”
Those star-crossed love stories are interwoven with spoken dialogue linking such musical numbers as “Lady Marmalade,” “Kissing You,” “Love Is in the Air” and “Crazy in Love.”
The cast members from the show’s run in L.A. — Ginifer King, Constantine Rousouli, Ciaran McCarthy, Ruby Lewis, Olivia Harris, James Byous and Jason Paige — are opening the show in Las Vegas.
Also promised are a fiery six-piece band and an aggressive, amoebic concept where the actors and musicians wade into the crowd. The choreography is by Emmy Award nominee Spencer Liff (“So You Think You Can Dance”).
“Immersive is an overused word,” Scheel said, accurately. “But this is a 360-degree show that mashes music and film. We have three stories that are very much alike, and it becomes very much one story of star-crossed love set to music.
Scheel says the show has evolved from its modest roots.
“It started out as a small concert cabaret show that each week added a new layer, new way of looking at this material, until it evolved to what people see at Light,” Scheel said. “It’s also the story of a director performed through an innovative concert.”
The show played to some highly complimentary reviews in Los Angeles and appears to be the same flavor as “Alice — A Steampunk Rock Concert Fantasy” at Vinyl in the Hard Rock Hotel, where the source matter also is given a heavy-duty overhaul, and the performers spill out to the audience.
In a statement, Zeiger said, “When we discovered For the Record, we instantly knew that their vision of turning popular cinema into immersive entertainment would be a perfect match for Las Vegas.”
Mandalay Bay also is home to Cirque’s “Michael Jackson One,” itself one of the more aggressive production shows on the Strip.
No doubt of it, this hotel is where the volume and dance is on, and “Baz” seems a marriage fit for Las Vegas.
Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.
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