"Whoops" and Peter, Paul and Mary

Whoops is, unfortunately, an appropriate name for this ill-fated concept for a show.

This comedy spoof on aging ran 8 times over four days at UNLV's Judy Bayley theatre.

I was not comfortable with it and could not possibly conceive of this playing on the Strip, which is the hope of writer/producer Ted Bergman. Here are some of the features: The Senior Cheerleading Champions (awful), The River Dance Rejects (not bad), Comedy by Glucosamine & Chondroitin (slow), and The President of the Senile Citizens Anti-Defamation League (very good). Berman tried this once before in Sonoma County, California after his TV writing career ended. Not successful!

It seemed so strange to see actors that have played theatre parts in plays throughout the city the last decade in this uncomfortable role. I am all for everyone and if I liked it I would say so, but the comparison between the pace of this show to the 21st century shows in Las Vegas casinos is astronomical. Who would buy this? And with the closing of The Main Event at the Venetian, a Sinatra revue, "if you can make it here you can make it anywhere," neither seems to have made it.

Bergman, who is a skilled writer and obviously a man with guts to try this thing, deserves credit for the effort but it looked like bad vaudeville at Caesars Palace (more an audition than a performance). Peter Bugel, who has a world class voice, was the host of what was a hostless show. Andee Gibb was brilliant in a couple of shticks, she has a super face for comedy and is a hard worker, but after attending an Ultimate Fighting match the day before (where I at 57 was the oldest one in the crowd), it would be hard to visualize an audience for this audition. I am looking in the mirror!

Thanks for trying which is all we can do. I appreciate the effort in what was a musical/dance comedy spoof that was not devoid of its moments. They had a great program!

70 a D+ is all I can do.

The answer my friends is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind!

Or so Peter, Paul and Mary would have you believe after their Sunday night show at the Orleans. What a downer this was and, after Whoops in the afternoon, I finally ran into two shows (in the same day) that I was not pleased with. P P & M brought back the old Dean Martin theme of how much screwing around on stage you actually can do without singing a song. Seems like at the 50-minute mark we had eight songs. Awful! Just awful!

This is so sad, because this a classical group with a 42-year history that can still produce some nice sounds. They did, although at a very infrequent pace, at the Orleans to first class ticket prices of $60, $70 and $80 a pop; you should get more song and less bullshit for your buck. Great concept, two guys and a gal, two guitars, a bass and a string player, great harmony, that's it.

P P & M played my University at Vermillion, South Dakota in 1962 and I did not go. I wish I had the comparison, I'm sure it would have been astounding. This is my third trip to P P & M here in the Las Vegas area and each succeeding show gets progressively more political. That's okay to a degree, but is this what the audience wants? I thought it was "Puff the Magic Dragon"!

In discussing the body of work they have done, a colleague said they do not have a large songbook. I thought untrue! Wrong McCartney breath, my colleague was correct! They don't have a large songbook. There is "Puff," "Blowin in the Wind," "Leaving on a Jet plane," "500 miles," "This Train," "Lemon Tree," "If I had Hammer," "Where have all the Flowers Gone" and "Wasn't That a Time" (only three of which we heard). This is not a McCartney, Sedaka, Diamond songbook. Their sound is fine but there just wasn't enough of it. How much can you do in an hour and 40 minutes? Easily 3 minutes a song comes to 33 numbers, but we didn't get half of that. Some biography is good, yet Neil Sedaka at the same venue a week earlier did not leave me wanting. Shame!

79 a C+ NOT FOR THE QUALITY FOR THE LACK OF QUANTITY.