Folies Bergere, Las Vegas Philharmonic

The French-import Folies Bergere at the Tropicana Resort and Casino arrived in 1959 and has been there ever since, thusly the nation's longest running production show.

I am glad it is HERE. It is first class all the way with a happy colorful theme and a fast pace.

Nice to be treated so well and nice to see all of the performers with a big smile whether they meant it or not, it made me feel good.

I like color and pageantry and we have plenty of both in this twice-nightly sometimes semi-nude show for $55 (and 12 shows a week; what a load). Lots of production with super colorful costumes, and about 30 dancers who all looked like they knew what they were doing. It was a pleasant surprise to see a couple of short (less than 5 foot 8) dancers, as this is the required height in Bally's Jubilee. You can be pretty and dance well at 5 foot 4.

I love specialty acts and the Folies has one of the best in comedy juggler Wally Eastwood. Lots of talent here with the bottom line, entertainment and Eastwood got the biggest cheers from what was a pretty blah touristy audience on a Friday night. I don't think they appreciated all they saw, but I made up for them though. Not too many of my reviews are negative, but that's because of the great quality of shows here in Las Vegas. Believe me if something sucks you can hear here, just ask the House of Blues at the Mandalay Bay (a real dump coupled with an equally poor timetable). So thanks to Folies for starting right on the minute!

A MAJOR LEAGUE production show has a multiplicity of facets unrecognizable or invisible to the audience. Look at the list and it is only a sample! Theme, lighting, audio, spotlight, props, costumes, talent, continuity, script, grips, sets, management, advertising, promotion, costs, program segments, maintenance and the overall image and credibility of the show. The Folies has all of this and the track record to prove it. Everything is subject to taste and I continue to follow my mother's advice, "try it, whatever it is, because you might like it."

Folies would have the Can-Can and a co-worker who was a professional dancer said you don't have guys in Can-Can. I don't know, the last two shows I saw in the last two months had guys! Maybe its like having beans in chili!

It was also pretty impressive to race the 57 Chevy out and play off of it, lots of memories back to when Kenny McElhose tooled around in one. This was no model either; 2-door and silver. The program lists 12 scenes with 23 items and they got them all in 83 minutes.

Still love the dance and the adagio team of Stephanie Shaw and Chris Nicholson, who had three nice segments. What does adagio mean, you ask? I looked it up: adverb meaning "slowly, but faster than lento (used as a musical direction)" and, as a noun, a musical piece, "a movement or piece of music played or marked adagio". It's basically a dance pair in slow motion!

Jerry Jackson is the creator, director and choreographer, and has been with the show since 1966. From my seat, it would be safe to say that he has got the hang of it.

The current show theme is the evolution of women and the show itself sees bodies and themes come and go but the premise seems timeless. The current show gets a 100 A+ from me. Sammy Davis Jr. is still the standard all shows are judged by.

Following the Folies, I went to the Las Vegas Philharmonic with guest pianist John Browning. When did they take the program picture, in 1974? Despite the false advertising, he was fine.

It was a different experience here. They were 12 minutes late with 26 minutes for intermission. It was great to see the concert sold out, but to have four windows open with staff and 3 for will-call empty while 12 people wait as another late patron tries to run a bad check and two bad credit cards is unacceptable. I hate to wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anytime you get 46 strings assembled it is a good thing. Mozart and Schumann were okay and the philharmonic was fine. Finally at 9:26pm we get to the main event with Browning playing Beethoven's piano concerto #5 in Eb, Op.73 ("Emperor"). It was swell. Browning was fine, the blend of orchestra and piano was perfect, and all written by a man who was deaf. Truly remarkable.

The success of this new orchestra is most encouraging, and director Harold Weller seems to be the man for the decade. Needless to say the ways to irritate me are endless and my latest one is the sound of stripping velcro during the concert. This follows up on coming in late, leaving early, your phone ringing, eating potato chips and bringing children (anyone younger than me) to the performance.

This program was fine but it's the peripheral crap that kills me, so I am going to deduct 20 points for this.