This is it, the long-running, historical revue is coming to the end of the line. The Folies Bergere closes this weekend at the Tropicana.
Our pal Mike Weatherford reports that ticket sales have been brisk in the waning days of the show's run.If you haven't ever seen the show or you want one last glimpse of old Vegas history before it's gone for good, you only have two night left and tickets are scarce.
We have a special place in our hearts here at Classic Las Vegas for this show. Vassili Sulich, former dancer with the Folies and co-creator of the Nevada Ballet Theater, was one of our favorite interviewees. Best of luck to all the all the guys and dolls who have danced with the Folies over the years!
As Mike says here:
Oh sure. Everyone wants to see it now. Nostalgia and the laws of scarcity combine to make the Tropicana's "Folies Bergere" a hot ticket as the venerable showgirl revue prepares to face the final curtain Saturday.
Only 100 of about 850 seats went on sale for the final show. The rest will be an invited audience, including about 400 alumni who have been in the cast at some point in its 49 years. They will be invited beforehand to pose for an alumni photo on the stage's signature "golden staircase." As you read this, four more "regular" shows remain, at 7:30 and 10 p.m. today and Friday; the early one today is not topless if you want to share a piece of Las Vegas history with your children. But people haven't waited until the last minute. Monday's show was "by far the most full I've ever seen that showroom," says Tropicana spokeswoman Brittany Markarian. Hotel officials estimate the revue will have logged more than 29,000 performances since Christmas of 1959. By contrast, the Web site for the British mystery play "The Mousetrap" cites 23,000 performances in 56 years. An Internet off-Broadway database lists 17,162 performances in the 42-year run of the off-Broadway musical "The Fantasticks" (it reopened in 2006 after a four-year break). The Tropicana made no secret of closing the house-owned production to look for an outside producer who will pay rent. But in lieu of a signed contract, casino officials still have not announced what show will follow "Folies."