Jubilee! | |
---|---|
Genre | Revue |
Show type | Resident show |
Date of premiere | July 31, 1981 |
Final show | February 11, 2016 |
Location | originally at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, which later became Horseshoe Las Vegas |
Creative team | |
Producer | Donn Arden |
Costume designer | Bob Mackie |
Costume designer | Pete Menefee |
Official website |
This article contains promotional content .(January 2025) |
Jubilee! was a Las Vegas Strip-based spectacular revue. [2] It opened on July 31, 1981 at an initial cost of 10 million dollars and was originally produced by Donn Arden. [3] Donn Arden set the standard for all the spectacular Las Vegas shows that celebrated female beauty, in combination with a demand for only the best; in costumes, set, and talent. When it closed in 2016, this resident show at Bally's Las Vegas was the longest-running production show in Las Vegas. The Jubilee! showgirls were an icon of old Vegas. The show used costumes designed by Bob Mackie and Pete Menefee. UNLV Special Collections houses many of the original costume design drawings which can be accessed online through the Showgirls collection from UNLV Digital Collections. [3] Many of the show's sets dated back to the original production and include the sinking of the Titanic and the bull used in Samson and Delilah. The bull was 27 feet (8 m) tall and collapses down to 13 feet (4 m) after it has been destroyed. The bull was the heaviest single piece of scenery in the show weighing 3 tons (2700 kg). It took 9 stagehands to move it from one position to another. Jubilee!'s longest serving principal dancer from the opening night until her departure 23 years later was Linda Green. The final closing cast consisted of 3 female singers, 3 male singers, 18 male dancers, 23 topless dancers, and 19 female dancers. Within the female covered and topless dancers, they were further categorized as "short" and "tall" dancers. A "short" dancer is a female dancer between 5 ft 8 in (173 cm) and 5 ft 9 in (175 cm) and a "tall" female dancer is between 5 ft 10 in (178 cm) and 6 ft 2 in (188 cm). One may have been surprised at how tall the dancers were because of the proportions of the stage, which was three and a half stories high, giving the illusion that the performers are smaller in relationship to the stage.
The show ended its 35-year run on February 11, 2016. [4] [5] [6]
Screenwriter Kate Gersten visited the Jubilee! show before it concluded and was inspired to write a play about the dancers in a similar Las Vegas show's closing. That unproduced play became the basis for the screenplay she wrote for The Last Showgirl , starring Pamela Anderson as a Las Vegas showgirl near the end of her career at the closing of a long-running show. [10]
Anna Haining Bates was a Canadian woman notable for her great stature of 7 feet 11 inches (2.41 m). She was one of the tallest women who ever lived. Her parents were of average height and were Scottish immigrants.
A G-string is a garment consisting of a narrow piece of material that barely covers the genitals, a string-like piece that passes between the buttocks, and a very thin waistband around the hips. There are designs for both women and men. Men's G-strings are similar to women's but have a front pouch that covers the genitals. G-strings are typically worn as underwear or swimwear or as part of the costume of an exotic dancer.
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Angelique Pettyjohn was an American actress and burlesque queen. She appeared as the drill thrall Shahna in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Gamesters of Triskelion".
A showgirl is a female performer in a theatrical revue who wears an exotic and revealing costume and in some shows may appear topless. Showgirls are usually dancers, sometimes performing as chorus girls, burlesque dancers or fan dancers, and many are classically trained with skills in ballet. The term showgirl is also sometimes used by strippers and some strip clubs use it as part of their business name.
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O is a water-themed stage production by Cirque du Soleil, a Canadian circus and entertainment company. The show has been in permanent residence at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, since October 1998. O, whose name is pronounced the same way as eau, the French word for "water", takes place around and above a 1.5-million-US-gallon (5,700 m3) pool of water. It features water acts such as synchronized swimming as well as aerial and ground acts. The O theatre, which is designed to resemble a 14th-century European opera house, has 1,800 seats, thus allowing the performance to be watched by 3,600 people a night since the performance usually plays twice in a given day. The theatre was also designed to meet the special demands of the show.
Robert Gordon Mackie is an American fashion designer and costumier, best known for his dressing of entertainment icons such as Cher, Farrah Fawcett, Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Diahann Carroll, Carol Channing, Ann-Margret, Bette Midler, Doris Day, Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Eden, Lola Falana, Judy Garland, Mitzi Gaynor, Elton John, Liza Minnelli, Marilyn Monroe, Marie Osmond, Dolly Parton, Miley Cyrus, Dottie West, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer and Oprah Winfrey among others. He was the costume designer for all the performers on The Carol Burnett Show during its entire eleven-year run. For his work, Mackie has received nine Primetime Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design. In April 2023, Mackie was awarded with the inaugural Giving Us Life-time Achievement Award by RuPaul at the RuPaul's Drag Race Season 15 finale.
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Donn Arden was an American choreographer and producer.
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Donn Arden...was there, sleeping in a suite on the 10th floor when the fire broke out early in the morning of Nov. 20, 1980...Margaret Kelly...