John Katsilometes

Story Archive

No ‘Mr. Roboto’ for Santana; Brad Garrett turns cool in ‘Fargo’; ice follies at Sin City Theater
Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015
Carlos Santana, given the Key to the Strip during a ceremony at House of Blues in Mandalay Bay on Wednesday, said work is continuing with the long-anticipated album “Santana IV.”
Sports book, typically ahead of its time, is due for an update
Sunday, Jan. 18, 2015
There is a lot of wasted space above the crowd at the Westgate Superbook. That will change.
Mariah Carey: Facts and figures as she sets up to play the Colosseum
Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015
Mariah Carey has been a top-selling singer since the release of her self-titled album in 1990 and is recognized as the bestselling female artist ever.
John Payne, ‘Rock Vault’ settle it down; 1923 summons DJ duo in official ‘relaunch’
Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015
The lawsuit filed by John Payne against his former “Raiding the Rock Vault” collaborator Sir Harry Cowell and officials with the former operators of LVH has been settled.
Sam Smith, Charli XCX in latest wave of Rock in Rio USA acts
Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015
The great block on the Strip party just jacked up the volume. Sam Smith, Charli XCX, The Bleachers, Jessie J, Magic!, The Pretty Reckless, Hollywood Undead, Foster the People, Gary Clark Jr., Saints of Valory and ...
BBR’s ‘Alice’ to open its trunk of surprises at Hard Rock Hotel
Monday, Jan. 12, 2015
The famous lyric talks of a world of pure imagination, and at first blush the production “Alice — A Steampunk Concert Fantasy” seems just that.
Monday By the Numbers: Alice Cooper’s golf handicap and lapse in shows at Versailles Theater
Monday, Jan. 12, 2015
The latest installment of our Kats Report Monday By the Numbers column culled from our scampering in VegasVille. Ring ’em up.
Live music gets boost with Lon Bronson-David Perrico; Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s $6.2M rides; ‘Showstoppers’ summons ‘Grease’
Monday, Jan. 12, 2015
The Kats Report Bureau over the weekend was stationed at two Station Casinos hotels on opposite ends of the valley, Sunset Station’s Club Madrid on Friday and Red Rock Resort on Saturday.
Billy Johnson’s new goal has nothing to do with hockey
Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015
Having left the Las Vegas Wranglers after more than a decade as its president and COO, Billy Johnson has taken the position as director of the University Medical Center Foundation.
Strip club’s new owner actually prefers to be out of spotlight
Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015
“No, I really don’t want to be known in this industry,” said the slender man born in Seoul, South Korea. “I try not to be so out front. I am in this business to make a living, not to socialize.”
Strong to the finish on the Strip, Steve Wynn’s Popeye moving to Massachusetts
Monday, Jan. 5, 2015
This Popeye sculpture is no ordinary statue. It is made of stainless steel, weighs 2,000 pounds and stands 6-feet-5 inches. And last spring, Steve Wynn paid $28.2 million for the gleaming piece of pop art by Jeff Koons.
Monday By the Numbers: New rooms at Westgate, John Legend’s birthday, and Boyz II Men add dates
Monday, Jan. 5, 2015
As someone once said, you can’t take it with you, and we believe that was in reference to otherwise useless numerical information. So, we’re test-driving this new feature.
J.T. plays to cameras at MGM Grand; Marie Osmond announces D&M world tour; Felice Garcia leaving ‘MDQ’
Monday, Jan. 5, 2015
During an appearance on NBC’s “Today” on New Year’s Day, Marie Osmond told affable co-hosts Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford that she and brother Donny (preach it, Brother Donny!) will take on a world tour in 2015.
Three to Watch: Outdoor festival visionary, would-be Strip resort mogul and Las Vegas radio star
Sunday, Jan. 4, 2015
Ever since 2011, we have compiled and shared a Three to Watch list of newsmakers for the upcoming year. Jonathan Segal, Myron Martin, Jeri Crawford and Mayor Oscar Goodman have been past subjects. So has a nonliving entertainment legend ...
Offered free limo ride, stranded Slotzilla rider says he’d rather walk
Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015
It was a Las Vegas hangover of a different order, as the tourist who hung high over Fremont Street while stuck on the Slotzilla zip line ride on New Year’s Day was returned to Earth unscathed.
It’s the J.Lo show as the Colosseum sets the stage for something big
Thursday, Jan. 1, 2015
This was a one-night-only production that was not built for one night. It’s very title, “The Best Is Yet to Come,” is practically an announcement that Jennifer Lopez is in the plans for 2015 — and perhaps beyond — at Caesars Entertainment.
The pairing of Lipshtick comics and the Venetian is a social thing
Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2014
It’s funny how social media can help fill a showroom with comediennes. Ed Huckfeldt, director of entertainment marketing at the Venetian whose very surname reminds of laughing, has found the funny on Twitter ...
Events boss: 40 million visitors is not enough
Sunday, Dec. 28, 2014
Pat Christenson talks about the tourism record broken in 2014 and the opportunity Las Vegas has to set the mark even higher.
Billy Johnson, Las Vegas Wranglers team president, exits after 11 years
Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2014
About a year ago, Billy Johnson announced that the Las Vegas Wranglers were leaving Orleans Arena. Today, Johnson, the team president, said that he has left the Wranglers.
Viva, Idaho: Holiday tales of hot baths, a sweat lodge and a volunteer greeter
Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2014
The morning after attending the premiere of “Steve Wynn’s Showstoppers” and attending a press conference on the stage of Encore Theater, I had flown into Boise and then drove through heavy winds across the state toward Pocatello ...
A few months after opening, SLS has a new beginning
Sunday, Dec. 21, 2014
The face of the resort's rebranding has been replaced ...
Frankie Moreno hitting Carnegie Hall in 2015; Wynn gives ‘Showstoppers’ dancers room to stretch legs
Friday, Dec. 19, 2014
The Kats Report Bureau this week made a stop at an open terrace just outside the 50th-floor Voodoo Steakhouse at the Rio for announcement of the New Year’s Eve fireworks show on the Strip. Seven hotels will fire pyrotechnics during …
Mark of ‘Mark & Mercedes in the Morning’ leaves; J.C. Fernandez steps in Jan. 5
Thursday, Dec. 18, 2014
Half of the long-running and market-topping KXMB 94.1 “The Mix” morning radio team has announced a departure. Mark DiCiero, who teamed with Mercedes Martinez for 18 years ...
Theater scene feels ripple as ‘Rat Pack,’ ‘MJ Live’ move to Riviera
Monday, Dec. 15, 2014
They may have been given a later checkout time, but the shows “MJ Live” and “The Rat Pack Is Back” are leaving the Rio and headed to the Riviera.
Fired by Gaz and leaving ‘Absinthe,’ Penny Pibbets takes shot with her own show
Sunday, Dec. 14, 2014
Penny Pibbets is done as the assistant in “Absinthe,” having performed for the final time as a full-time cast member last week. Her energy is now directed to “The Penny Pibbets Show” ...
Lawsuit against Westgate owner dismissed, for now
Sunday, Dec. 14, 2014
Heather Atwell vows to continue the fight ...
Wayne Newton is making a return to Casa de Shenandoah
Saturday, Dec. 13, 2014
Mr. Las Vegas is ending 2014 by making some major news in his Old Vegas neighborhood. Returned to the corner of Sunset and Pecos roads is the famous Casa de Shenandoah sign ...
Piff the Magic Dragon fires up Rose. Rabbit. Lie.; Brian Wilson without pier at Venetian
Thursday, Dec. 11, 2014
A member of “Vegas Nocturne” performed at Rose. Rabbit. Lie. last week. Lest you get all giddy over this concept, it was actually a former member of that wildly imaginative production, Piff the Magic Dragon, along ...
Jeff Dunham, Terry Fator in voice-throwing throwdown on the Strip
Thursday, Dec. 11, 2014
“I started doing this when I was 10 years old, and I really had an obsession with it. When I was about 15, I told myself that I wanted to be one of the greatest ventriloquists ever,” Terry Fator once said ...
Oscar Goodman hungry to celebrate pre-Venetian Venetian Pizzeria
Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014
One could argue, and Oscar Goodman would, that the spine of Las Vegas’ history is the pork neckbone recipe of Angie Ruvo.
The PRCA strategy: Rope ’em while they’re young
Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014
Karl Stressman finished his annual NFR Week news conference. Stressman has been the PRCA commissioner for seven years now, and I’ve only known him during the times when his organization was bulldogging ...
Flowery praise for Bellagio Conservatory; Andrea Bocelli asks for tender love at MGM Grand
Sunday, Dec. 7, 2014
During his chilling performance at MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday night, the great tenor Andrea Bocelli was backed by singers from one of the city’s longest-running arts organization. Appearing onstage ...
Change afoot backstage at infamous Las Vegas strip clubs
Sunday, Dec. 7, 2014
Club Paradise will reopen in January, and Crazy Horse Too may have to change names if it wants to do the same ...
A-ha: Dolyniuk embraces ’80s, adds symphony for Smith Center show
Saturday, Dec. 6, 2014
"I'm a workaholic," says Brody Dolyniuk, but there is a lot of fun mixed with this show that evokes The Tubes, Oingo Boingo, INXS and other '80 acts at Reynolds Hall.
J.Lo talk es en fuego at Caesars; Steve Wynn seized advice in naming ‘Showstoppers’
Friday, Dec. 5, 2014
Jennifer Lopez is hot — hot, I tell you! — as a topic of discussion around Caesars Entertainment venues.
With ‘Re-Animator’ at Smith Center, George Wendt is a member of the grateful dead
Friday, Dec. 5, 2014
George Wendt was introduced to TV audiences as if he just happened to saunter into a neighborhood tavern. Actually, that is exactly how it happened. The trajectory of Wendt’s career ...
Brad Garrett, David E. Kelley lead a fast break back to network TV
Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014
Brad Garrett, proprietor and frequent headliner at Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club in MGM Grand, can act, and not just in comedic roles.
Colosseum opts for real country in Reba and Brooks & Dunn booking
Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014
The conversation among the trio of superstars about playing dates in Las Vegas started several months ago. They agree on the environment, which was just before a concert at MGM Grand Garden Arena, but not exactly when ...
Las Vegas of yesteryear is revived every week with ‘The Dennis Bono Show’
Monday, Dec. 1, 2014
Dennis Bono knows all the old tricks, as he should. He is both the pilot and navigator of one of the last remaining genuine Old-Vegas entertainment pleasures, “The Dennis Bono Show,” which is performed ...
Despite protests, Dirk Arthur debuting his own production of cats
Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014
The Kats Report Bureau this weekend has been ensconced at the Riviera, and that hotel is happening this weekend with a couple of conventions that helped fill the lobby with hundreds of guests on Friday afternoon.
For keyboard master Ronnie Foster, reunion with Stevie Wonder is just human nature
Friday, Nov. 28, 2014
Ronnie Foster is the cornerstone of Funk Foundation, the band who backs Human Nature at Sands Showroom in the Venetian. Foster is the band’s music director.
‘Pippin’ effectively takes flying leap into land of Cirque
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2014
“Pippin” is not a Cirque show, of course, but it is dropping into the epicenter of acrobatic-infused performance, with Cirque the city’s predominant production vehicle. And if the company is looking for a way to incorporate gymnastics with musical theater, look no further.
Fire and rain usher in ‘Le Reve’s’ 10th anniversary
Monday, Nov. 24, 2014
This $3 million upgrade to the show is titled “Denouement,” itself a mini-production lasting about four minutes. Sixty designers worked 3,000 hours over 18 months, developing first an idea that has exploded ...
SLS off to rough start but looking forward to 2015
Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014
Scott Kreeger talks with John Katsilometes about the struggles experienced at the north Strip’s newest resort, as well as plans for next year.
How many presidents have played golf at Shadow Creek? Four!
Saturday, Nov. 22, 2014
Today’s reported golf round at Shadow Creek Golf Course involving President Barack Obama, ex-Yankee Derek Jeter, Diamond Resorts International founder Stephen Cloobeck and Greenspun Media Group owner Brian Greenspun is ...
The quack attack uproots ‘MJ’ and ‘Rat Pack,’ but they’ll be back
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014
This is a full-scale, authorized, licensed and big-budget musical in which the Robertsons are to be played by actors who can sing and dance. One of the show’s producers is Tommy Mottola, the Sony music exec and former husband of Mariah Carey. So this is a show that has some serious ...
Jeff Civillico’s greatest juggling act: The annual Win-Win ‘Headliners’ Bash’
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014
Jeff Civillico is finding it easier to stage a charity production for his Win-Win Entertainment Foundation than it was a couple of years ago. ...
David Perrico’s imprint is on powerful Tuscany lineup; change in cast brings a Fenton to ‘Showstoppers’
Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2014
The scene tonight is twofold, with Mark Shunock hosting the latest installment of “Mondays Dark” at nearby Vinyl benefiting Vegas Shepherd Rescue. Shunock’s next charity event is ...
If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, it’s probably ‘Raiding the Rock Vault’ at Trop
Monday, Nov. 17, 2014
Now at the Tropicana, "Raiding the Rock Vault" is comfortably familiar, ever-rocking and absent the notorious "Orkin Scene." ...
Clint Holmes and Santa Fe christen the Quantum
Monday, Nov. 17, 2014
Clearly, all of this was a direct rip-off of how we announce major happenings in Las Vegas and as such should be richly applauded. ...