Deep in The Grand Canal Shoppes at The Venetian and The Palazzo, there is an entrance to a saloon. Within that entrance, there is a winding passage with hallways evocative of an earlier era, simpler times. Smiling Western-dressed folk greet, a bartender offers to pour a drink. It’s a right friendly atmosphere with little to indicate what’s about to happen at the Atomic Saloon Show, but one way to loosely describe it is Deadwood meets The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
The acronymically named cabaret-circus brings the saloon’s audiences back to those thrilling days of yesteryear when cowboys and cowgirls dabbled in cross-dressing and wore chaps out for a night on the town. Legend has it that proprietor Boozy Skunkton once owned a hotel on land the government figured was perfect for a secret atomic test site, so the flamboyant flame-haired impresario went in search of the perfect place for her menagerie of “abnormally sexy but sensationally amoral” entertainers.
Photo by: Erik Kabik for Spiegelworld
As there is no city more abnormally sexy but sensationally abnormal than Las Vegas, Skunkton set her sites on an unused but hidden music hall rumored to be available at The Venetian. She found kindred spirits at established immersive entertainment shows Absinthe at Caesars Palace and Opium at The Cosmopolitan, and reached out to those shows’ producers, Spiegelworld. With the addition of British comedy director Cal McCrystal, they talked of many things, of Blazing Saddles and America’s Got Talent, of Westworld and nuns who twirl rings.
Skunkton took the whole adults-only shebang to Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August, where the entertainers strutted their stuff together publicly for the first time. Pioneers of polka-punk Mr. and Mrs. O’Calamity, who were in Riverdance before an unfortunate incident in Michael Flatley’s dressing room, not only choreograph the show but introduced Irish hand dancing to festivalgoers. Superbly muscular Italian acrobat the Abdominal Outlaw made audiences gasp as he demonstrated the benefits of zero percent body fat when working the aerial pole. A hula-hooping seductress, hand-balancing man of the cloth and whip-wielding whiskey smuggler all made their debut.
The Atomic Saloon Show drew standing ovations and critical acclaim at the Fringe. The Scotsman said that the show “is a perfect example of what you can achieve when you bring in a truly talented director to pull it all together” with engaging transitions between acts. The Times called it a “deliriously filthy minded piece of adult entertainment” and said McCrystal, famous for directing James Corden on the West End and Broadway, “has steered a gifted cast of circus and cabaret artistes into performance territory that is zany and seductive.”
If it succeeds in Las Vegas (and Brexit falls through), the Atomic Saloon Show may set a precedent for productions being previewed before audiences expecting world-class entertainment at places like Edinburgh. Skunkton has given her all trying to make that happen. One thing is for sure—no other production on the Strip has combined blasphemy with ping-pong balls. You’ll have to see the A.S.S. to find out what that means.
The Grand Canal Shoppes at The Venetian & The Palazzo, 7 & 9 p.m. Sun. & Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m. Mon.-Tues., $74.12-$139.53 plus tax and fee, 18+. 702.414.9000
