When you've been in Vegas a while, either as a resident or a frequent guest, you begin to get the itch for a new show. Is it so much to ask for something fresh? Something different? Sure, there are plenty of nights where it seems like it might be nice to sneak off to watch the flippedy, floopedy exploits of French acrobats, but sure as hell not every night, and it seems like that's all Vegas has to offer these days.
Happily, everything old is new again, and nestled in the drunken wonderland that is Planet Hollywood's Miracle Mile is The Awesome 80's Prom, a new show hoping to help revitalize the Strip's otherwise tiring tirade of failed comedians and aged strippers. Its a different kind of evening's entertainment, a perfect, light-hearted, jubilant show, that you can either take your kids to or get drunk at, your pick (maybe both?), and enjoy yourself either way. You might know a couple of the names attached to the Prom, Sirc Michaels, Producer of the infamous and awesome Evil Dead: The Musical (also running at Planet Hollywood), and Ken Davenport, who has been directing another rendition of the show, successfully running in New York for 8 years now. But even if you know the names you might not know exactly what Awesome 80's Prom is...
Get your tickets taken at the door by the prom committee head and the school's principal, head up the stairs and through the time tunnel, and you'll pop out the other side in 1989. There, you'll attend Wanaget High's senior prom, traveling back to your high school days. The actors themselves portray your classmates, and everyone is there: the jock, the nerd, the princess, the spaz, all of them anxious to see you, to dance with you to classic 80's pop music, and to live out all of their fun, their drama, the sheer madness of their Senior Year with you.
Awesome 80's Prom is, then, an interactive show, where you don't just sit and watch, but you live the experience with everyone around you. You drink, you dance, you meet your classmates and become enamored with them as they play out their last night before the harrowing, soul-rending experience that is adulthood mars them forever. You yourself become a character in the play, as twenty talented performers make it their goal to entertain you, their new friend.
So now you know what the show is but, all hyperbole aside, how's the show? This blog doesn't normally cover Vegas shows, but has made exceptions for Rocky Horror Live! and Evil Dead, and now here's the third. This is a pretty great, and very original show. The actors are all very charming in their parts; Nicole Unger and Jennie Carroll also appear in Evil Dead, and Maxim Lardent was recently the star of Dick Johnson: Private Eye. The other cast members, though I don't know them by name, are all familiar faces from off-strip productions, but here they lend themselves totally to their characters, all mugging and improvising their way through the night. What's impressive is that all of them have their own lives and backstories made up, and when I pressed them for details, they told me of their plans after High School, career goals, personal heroes, and all the little goals that made the characters seem alive, and the show feel immersive. … well, maybe not Carroll's Swedish exchange student. She was more concerned with seducing me into becoming her new host family... but somehow I'll forgive her that.
The characters live in an endless cycle of prom parties, with 80's soundtrack blasting on forever, movie and political references from the time bouncing around the show, and homages to all of our favorite moments from what was, surely, mankind's finest 10-year run. Every few minutes, new events fire off on the stage, including, just maybe, some song and dance from a celebrity mystery guest or two. It is, after all, billed as the greatest prom of all time.
Obviously, the show is a lot of fun, BUT there is one caveat that I offer before you go in, and that is that you CAN'T BE A WALLFLOWER! And I say that knowing full well that I'm a giant hypocrite, because I absolutely did not want to dance when I got in there. But, much like the real prom, there are two kinds of people in this room: those who sat along the wall, watching people have fun, and those who got out of the floor and talked to people and danced and drank and basically made it into a night they remembered for the rest of their lives. So I suggest that you go, you grab a date (its an absolutely perfect date show), get in your best 80's attire, down a couple of stiff drinks at the bar, get in character, and go have the best damn prom of your life.
And, just like the real prom, hey, maybe you'll get lucky afterward. Prom is magic like that.
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