Subject: dlvorg Room notes, etc. ...
From: Annie (annie )
Date: Sun Jul 25 1999 - 11:54:05 CST
In this mailing:
Meeting room progress:
Meeting room concerns:
La Cage review:
Activities, events, and schedule items:
Administrivia:
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Meeting room progress:
Sarajayne reports ...
>I am going to start the search soon. My wife came up with a great
>idea. Get a pair of adjoining suites that all can have access to.
>When she was in Phili, they had 45 people in these two suites
>comfortably. If this is the case I can book them in my name and stay
>there myself. Then we can everyone to pitch in say an extra $5-10 for
>the entire weekend depending on the price.
(In a later note, SaraJayne has volunteered to coordinate this.
Thanks, SJ. :)
>An estimated price is $69 per nite per suite. Obviously if I stay in
>one suite then I will pay for most of that suite. If someone else
>wanted to take the other suite then great. I will get an exact price
>and the actual hotel.
Let's pull out the handy-dandy calculator here ....
If we assume this will be available from Thursday evening thru the
following Tuesday, that comes out to 5 nites at $69 per.
$69.00 * 5 = $345.00
Assuming 30 people share in the cost ...
$345.00 / 30 = $11.50
>Let me know if this will be feasable.
IMAO, $12 per person is not bad, and I would be willing to pay that
even though I might not use it very much.
However, my questions are ...
Is the $69 per nite a real-world figure? Two of those 5 will be on the
weekend, historically higher.
Will there be 30 or more people who will be willing to pay for this?
We may not know the answer to this until next year when everybody makes
plans to attend.
Are you (and/or others) willing to coordinate this, and make
arrangements for how much everybody pays? Remember that people will
come and go all weekend. Some will stay from Thursday thru Tuesday, but
I'm sure several will (as always) arrive Friday, Saturday, and even
Sunday.
Thanks again, SJ. :)
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Meeting room concerns:
>> >I have been reading a lot about your meeting rooms and I have to agree
>> >with people who would like to have one. You are right though it may
>> >cost significant money. I will shop around, since I live in Vegas, to
>> >see what the cost of such a room is. I will also see if I can get it
>> >in conjunction with rooms etc.
>Pardon me, I think I walked in on the middle of this discussion. What
>would you be using a Meeting Room for? Tri-ESS type meetings? I
>certanily hope not! Isn't the idea of Diva to go out?
Yes, I agree. I see this as an option for those who want it, kind of a
"home away from home" to relax, to meet before and between events, etc.
I also see it as a place some of the local ladies can use to change and
freshen up. On two occasions I let a couple of the locals use my room
this last time for just that.
However, what I don't wanna see happen is this to turn into a big
communal closet. As you said, we are there to go out, on the town. Las
Vegas is simply too nice a place to waste by spending much of the time
in a meeting room!
I don't see this replacing our many planned and impromptu get-togethers
at Keys/Goodtimes/Freezone/whatever, or any of the more exciting things
that go on.
I want to thank SaraJayne for taking the ball and running with this.
We also have not had the feedback I had expected on this, yours was
the first and only comment so far. We need to know a few things, so
if you're reading this and plan to attend DLV next year, please
simply hit REPLY now and answer these questions:
1. Would you make use of a meeting/hospitality room?
2. How much would you be willing to pay for this? (How much is it worth
to you?) Another way of putting it might be: Are you willing to pay
$12 or so for the use of this over your stay?
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La Cage review:
Andrea sends the following article, a review of the Riviera's La Cage
show, which was seen by several DLV99 people last May.
Thanks, Andrea. :)
. . . . .
Hamming-it-up, celebrity style by Tim Cooper
Backstage at the Riviera, Michael Jackson is putting on his nose. It's
not a pretty sight. He's got a little spatula and a big pot of putty
and he's sculpting it into just the right pointed elfin shape with the
skilled assurance of a man who does this every night. Which he does.
On the next seat, Diana Ross is adjusting her cleavage beneath a
gigantic vermilion ball gown. Meanwhile, Celine Dion, in a silver
sheath dress, is putting on her hair, a hugely overweight Madonna is
squeezing into her conical bra and Shirley Bassey is discussing her
repertoire.
At which point it becomes clear that Shirley, when you look below the
neck, has rather more body hair than might be anticipated, as well as
some other more masculine equipment that would have earned some funny
looks on the dockside at Tiger Bay.
Welcome to La Cage, the all-star drag revue which is one of the
longest-running shows in Las Vegas, the fantasy town where everything
is an illusion, from the replica of St Mark's Square and the Doge's
Palace at the newly opened Venetian hotel (wall-to-wall slot machines
and damn fine cups of cappuccino) to the half-size Eiffel Tower that's
just been hoisted into place at the other end of the Strip.
Nothing is more of an illusion than La Cage, where pop's female icons
have been impersonated night after night by a cast of men for the past
16 years. Which is all the more bizarre when you reflect that, in an
average year, the audience could see most of the real stars on the very
same street. It's the brainchild of French impresario Norbert Aleman,
whose showbiz career began as bodyguard to French rock star Johnny
Hallyday and is now the sort of character who would seem like a
caricature anywhere except Vegas: six-times married, driving a white
convertible Rolls-Royce, with a penchant for snakeskin shoes and
voluminous zebra- skin shirts slashed to the waist to reveal a huge
solid-gold crucifix complete with Jesus.
He also owns a casino in the Caribbean and has three other productions
of La Cage running in Japan, Aruba and Hong Kong. He has, in short,
taken drag queens out of the gay clubs and turned them into mainstream
entertainment. Las Vegas, of course, is undoubtedly the bad-taste
capital of America, but dressing up in women's clothing is still the
sort of activity that can get you pistol- whipped in most states south
of the Mason-Dixon line. "When I first put on the show in Atlantic City
the authorities wanted to be assured that it was not a gay show,"
Aleman recalls. "And that has been the key to its success - 99.9 per
cent of the audience are straight."
The same could scarcely be said of the performers, who include a
transsexual and a full-time transvestite, although Michael Jackson -
alias Lane Lassiter - turns out to be a married man with an eight-
year-old son and what seems, at first, to be the easiest job, since
he is the only one who does not have to change sex. But with
Jacko's regular transformations, he now has to change colour,
which is not the way it used to be. "It used to be so easy," recalls
Lane (who is black) as he puts the finishing touch to his nose - the
only prosthetic enhancement he uses in what is an uncanny
likeness - and starts to apply a coating of white make-up to his
entire face and neck. "When I started in 1980 he was still black
and I didn't need to alter my nose ... the more he's changed, the
more I have to spend on make-up."
The audience certainly enjoy it, as do the celebs themselves when they
visit the show, judging by the signed photographs that adorn the
dressing room. The performers even have their own fan followings: Lane
proudly produces a pair of panties that have been sent along to his
dressing room with a suggestive note, and another female fan once sent
him her pubic hair in a card.
Some of the audience are more fanatical than that: the show's number
one fan, Fran, has been almost 300 times, a statistic that is all the
more incredible when you learn that she lives more than 3,000 miles
away, in Tampa, Florida. She comes four times a year for two weeks at a
time, and sees all 14 shows a week as well as telephoning and writing
to relations of the performers. Amazingly, they don't seem to find any
of this at all scary.
In the autumn, they switch from the desert heat of Vegas (115 degrees
in the shade on our visit) to the chill of London, when Aleman teams up
with British producer David Michaels to bring La Cage to London for a
six-week run. "We're aiming for the office- party crowds," admits
Michaels candidly. "I'm sure women will love it, in particular, and
I've no doubt that there will be a stronger gay element in the audience
here than in Vegas." So what are the cast looking forward to most?
"Cloudy days," sighs Lane. "Fog. Rain. Pubs." Like most of the
performers he does not actually come from Vegas (no one - except Andre
Agassi - actually comes from Vegas) and the town's main claim to fame
holds no attraction for him. "I hardly ever gamble," he admits. "I go
to watch my friends who sing in lounges and I play darts." Suddenly, in
walks Shirley Bassey clutching a copy of Hello! magazine and a batch of
videos - Larry Edwards's homework before he chances his arm singing
Goldfinger on the West-End stage. Larry is more at ease being Tina
Turner, Patti Labelle or Aretha Franklin (and even Pearl Bailey) and
he's not entirely sure how he got dragged into this latest role. And,
although he's been listening to some Bassey tapes to familiarise
himself with her repertoire, he takes some convincing that her other
signature song is Hey Big Spender.
It's the same story when Chad Michaels, a San Diego barman with
cropped blond hair, appears as Celine Dion, complete with Titanic
sapphire necklace, and goes on to sing (in fact, like all the
performers, he is miming to a backing track) All By Myself and River
Deep, Mountain High ... but not My Heart Will Go On.
Likewise, his other act as Cher misses out on her early hits to
concentrate on Believe, which means he has to wriggle into that
spider's-web outfit with the little black strap around the crotch. It's
all too much for the man from The Sun, who simply has to ask in
mid-performance, "Where does he keep his tackle?" To which Chad/Cher
sings, right on cue: "I don't neeeeeeeed it any mooooooore!"
Not that there is a lot of ironic humour in the show; with the
exception of fat man Jimmy Emerson who does highly irreverent versions
of Madonna and Tammy Wynette for light relief, the performers tend to
take their roles, if not themselves, rather seriously. "Celine has an
incredible voice," pronounces Chad when asked what he thinks of her.
And her looks? He chooses his words carefully: "I wouldn't say she's a
classic beauty but she does a lot with what she has to work with, in
terms of make-up, stylist, clothing and hair. "She has created her own
look and I think it works well for her."
In Vegas, the serious approach might work well - no one can argue with
a 16-year run - but in London the boys are going to be confronted with
audiences of boozed-up office parties in search of a good laugh, so
they would be well advised to up the camp factor.
That means choosing the cheesiest songs, hamming up the
impressions, engaging in banter with hecklers and losing the
outdated Joan Rivers impression that anchors the show.
Something a little more risque would work wonders ... how about
Fergie?
Associated Newspapers Ltd., 14 July 1999
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Activities, events, and schedule items:
1. Group dinner (theme night?)
2. Hospitality/meeting room.
3. Thrift shop tour.
4. Legacy LV show (Splash, Follies).
5. Behind-the-scenes Follies tour.
6. Red Rooster club.
7. Concert at Hard Rock.
8. Trip to Rhyolite.
9. Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Anything missing here? Incorrect? If so, send it in.
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Administrivia:
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Diva Las Vegas 2000
Tentative dates: Thursday, May 11 thru Tuesday, May 16, 2000
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
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*hugs*
annie :)
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