 
Jubilee
By Chuck Rounds
"Jubilee," presented inside
Bally's hotel and casino at the
Jubilee theatre is a "more
is more" show. More girls,
more sets, more costumes, more songs,
more...everything! It is a Parisian-style
show with a Ziegfeld touch. It is
an extravaganza in the classic style.
If Las Vegas is representative of
excess, then "Jubilee"
is representative of Las Vegas.
The show recently got a face lift
(at the cost of 6 million dollars),
to make this big show even bigger
and brighter than before.
Don't go to this
show looking for any story, theme,
or meaning. This is just one big
production number after another,
broken up by a couple of specialty
acts. The sheer size and scale of
the sets, and the large number of
cast members can be overwhelming.
The excessive number of topless
showgirls can be a bit daunting
as well--just how many breasts are
we supposed to look at in one night?
I have been a bit
stumped as to where to begin with
this review--the best thing that
I can say about these production
numbers is that they're big and
pretty. The movement of the sets
is very effective. The attempts
at relating any series of events
to create a storyline within these
numbers, for the most part, falls
victim to a certain amount of cheesiness--especially
when the performers attempt any
type of dramatic storytelling. I
think that I would prefer to just
watch the sets move and have the
performers just stand there and
look pretty rather then have them
attempt drama.
The costumes (at
least for the women) are amazing.
They are everything that one would
expect of a Las Vegas showgirl--huge
hats, lots of feathers, lots of
rhinestones and sequins...and not
much else. The men's costumes, though,
are a bit less attractive. A style
of costume that works for a woman
is not going to necessarily work
on a man, and I get the feeling
that whoever designed the male costumes,
didn't really like men. The bejeweled
G-strings that look good on the
women, look horrible on the men.
The male costumes always seem to
throw emphasis on the men's worst
attributes, and while some of the
men have very good physiques, the
costumes are truly unforgiving to
the performers that are a bit older
or who have gain a few pounds. The
audience feels embarrassment for
these performers.
And while we're
on the topic of looking bad in costumes,
I have one more bone to pick, but
it is a two sided issue. On the
one hand, "Jubilee" has
been very faithful and loyal to
many of its employees and performers.
I applaud this trait and hope that
it continues. Some of their performers
have been doing this show upwards
of twenty years, and I think that
it's great. On the other hand, though,
at some point time and gravity takes
its toll on the body, and the things
that are looking good on the eighteen
year olds are not looking too good
on the forty year olds. I wish that
"Jubilee's" loyalty to
its employees extended to modifying
costumes that would allow performers
to maintain their dignity and save
the audience from embarrassment.
As far as the specialty
acts go, the balancing artistry
of Jean Nedel is terrific. This
man has perfected his act down to
a tee. He knows how to work the
crowd. One cannot help but like
this man as he does his performance
with hardly a word spoken.
The other specialty
act is Dirk Arthur--a magician who
specializes in large effects with
cars, helicopters, white tigers
and all. Most of his effects are
large prop magic tricks that require
a tremendous amount of showmanship.
Arthur performs these tricks adequately,
but does not really have the c harisma
to sustain anything longer than
a short act.
Because of the size
and scale of this production, I
would suggest sitting further back
in the house. I was sitting unforgivably
close and kept thinking that the
cheesy things that I was seeing
would look fine from about fifty
feet away.
"Jubilee"
is a production for fun and relief
from your day. It is not a production
to go to and be enlightened by the
art and the artistry. It is a pretty
show and a big show--nothing more.
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