Splash at the Riviera Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas

Certainly among the very best shows in Las Vegas with a track records to prove it!

We saw Splash at the Riviera Hotel and Casino on Wednesday night. They do two shows six nights a week which is 12 shows a week, dark on Friday. It gets a little pricey at $65 and $51, but aren't they all? But a great value here with the-always-asked-question, "How many guys on motorcycles can you get in a giant steel ball?" The ultimate answer, I hear, is 5 but 4 is all I have ever seen and it is an effect that is truly amazing. The "globe of death" is what I used to call it and now it is the Thunderdome. Still one of the wonders of Las Vegas shows. I am told they operate mostly by sound and the visual and speed effect is truly one of the wonders of the world. With technology as it is (e.g. with cameras in cars at NASCAR) it would be cool to see bike camera cams or a view from inside the cage. The show used two video screens and this could be a super effect, born to me as I write this, no charge.

With the big giant glass pool, the show's theme was half naked girls in the water and I liked it. That disappeared 3 years back and, with the most current restructuring, the great theme song disappeared too (from the show and TV ads; I liked both). The theme song opens the show and is heard periodically during the current show; to me it was a strong staple. In the old days it seems the marketing people had this great theme song on every TV station non-stop. Alas, it is no more.

Splash at 7:30pm March 27th was one great Las Vegas show. We started with 14 bare breasted girls which I still enjoy, along with 10 male dancers. They were all in constant motion and constant costume change. All good. There was also fancy production numbers and impersonations with costume, dance and song. The traditional show fare followed, which was ok.

The show started on time and included 3 or 4 skating segments, the last ice in Las Vegas shows. Super stuff, with 2006 Olympic hopeful Jered Guzman and Olympic medalist Cindy Davis, all on a very small 15 x 35 piece of ice, certainly well-used here. Davis did a solo piece to Peggy Lee's "Fever," just lovely. She also skated to Gene Pitney's, "Town without Pity" but it was not Gene singing, unfortunately. Being old-fashioned, I love the specialty acts and vaudeville type stuff and we got a good healthy dose of it.

"Los Latin Cowboys" have been playing this game in town for a long time and they are consistently good with their standard (pretty much unchanging) spiel, which was very good. I loved the juggling "Richard Brothers," David, Manuel, and Ricardo. Their act is team juggling, comedy and a great professional effort. The show highlight for your old critic was the Scott brothers Rob and Mike who dance in their own special way. It is really a pair doing what they call "POP n LOCK," a classical video feast with timing, practice and talent overflowing. I love creativity and this is certainly a new expression and, even compared to the other good dancers in the show, stands out. It made me think of all the coordination, choreography and movement required of the many the acts in the show. Putting everybody in the right spot at the right time is no small task.

I want to like every show and my judgment for review, for me, is all that matters, plus or minus. Go see this stuff, 99 A+, thank you all for all your talent and thanks to K & R Entertainment for coordinating my visit and helping with information. They need to update the program, however. I, for one, really like to know about the show sequences and the players; bios would be good too. Sammy Davis Jr. is still the standard they are all measured by.