Plaza CEO Jonathan Jossel and his right-hand man, Bronson Olimpieri, chat in a booth inside the showroom they are trying to save.
Jossel lays out ways the Plaza Showroom could be used beyond live entertainment. That list would make any entertainment fan shudder.
“A Buffalo Wild Wings, a big sports venue, a bingo hall,” Jossel recites. “We’ve had a lot of options. All good uses.”
He is right. Several Las Vegas showrooms, theaters and lounges have closed for concepts lacking adventurism but maximizing profits (and we can now play bingo at the old Ovation Showroom at Green Valley Ranch).
Why are we pushing ticketed performances at this downtown showroom?
“Because this is 1 Main St.,” Jossel says. “It deserves a room like this.”
He mentions that our conversation falls on the Plaza’s 55th anniversary; it opened as the Union Plaza on July 1, 1971. He doesn’t need to further explain his affinity for history or tradition in downtown Las Vegas.
The hotel’s classically appointed showroom is the oldest on Fremont Street. It predates the Golden Nugget, which opened during the hotel’s 1984 expansion. The Plaza Showroom is intimate, with a fire code capacity of 613 and a comfortably seated capacity of 450.
Jossel prefers one-off or limited runs to residencies. He wants original shows, not productions that have fallen short elsewhere. There is a healthy inventory of ideas to keep him and Olimpieri busy.
Dance it up
A Latin-themed dance show is at center stage of the showroom’s programming strategy. “Bolero — The Show” premiered June 20. The Latin-Caribbean-inspired revue is produced by Venezuelan singer-songwriter Adan Alejandro and directed by his wife, Colombian dance star Jenny Bolivar.
Puerto Rican artist Enrique Lugo is the director-choreographer. We got to know him in the late 2000s during “Fashionistas” at Krave/Harmon Theater just off the Strip. He has worked on “X Burlesque,” “Chippendales” and the bygone “53X.”
The creative partners convinced the Plaza officials that they could sell out the place. Olimpieri was not easily convinced.
“We get a lot of people that reach out because they hear about the showroom, that it’s the last of its kind in the city,” Olimpieri says. “But most do not know the amount of money and work it takes, the overall investment, to do a show here.”
But “Bolero” was different. No one had suggested that an international dance production, in which the crowd gets all dolled up to party in a downtown casino, would succeed. But the show sold well, just short of 200 tickets, remarkable for an unknown production. Adding comped guests further jammed the party, sparking talk that it could run on Saturdays or at least monthly at the Showroom.
“It was just a random case of somebody reaching out. They weren’t from another show. They were original. That’s why I really like them,” says Olimpieri, who has worked with Jossel at the Plaza for a decade. “This is a husband and wife that love playing music, they love dancing, and they’ve played in different bands and done things around the city.”
The cast is filled with experienced Vegas entertainment pros. A live band backs the dance numbers. A DJ is in the mix. What was originally a concept for a show is now an extended party. The room opens 90 minutes before the show and stays open with a DJ-dance party after.
Jossel says the event was “a total success.”
“Everyone was dressed up. They spent money in the casino, in the restaurants, in the bars, before and after the show,” the exec says. “For me, it was an eye-opening, wonderful experience. To us, that was something where maybe it fits in, you know, two to three times a month, maybe. We are in talks right now about it.”
Various revues
“The Tony Bennett Experience,” with tribute favorite Tom Stevens backed by his jazz band, takes the room Aug. 8. “Magic Men Australia” will play Aug. 22 and 23, a touring revue that taps into the Excalibur’s “Thunder From Down Under” market in Vegas.
The Bennett show could mean another well-suited night at the Plaza.
“I’m hoping it’s a similar turnout, meaning I think the demographic is going to be probably 45 to 75, or maybe even 50 to 75,” Olimpieri says. “I love Tony Bennett personally, and Tom’s got a really nice jazz band, everyone’s dressed in suits and tuxes, and to me he looks a lot like a Tony Bennett show.”
“Magic Men Australia” is the latest in a line of male revues, a durable concept for decades in Las Vegas. “Thunder” and “Chippendales” have run for more than two decades in Vegas. “Magic Mike Live,” on which this show is obviously patterned, opened in 2017 at the Hard Rock Hotel and has played the Sahara since 2021.
The star of “Magic Men Australia” is Will Parfitt, who looks so much like Channing Tatum (surely by coincidence) he merits a double take. Parfitt has amassed 12 million combined social media followers. The play here is that even a minuscule representation will pack the Plaza.
The show, of course, borrows from the Aussie-casting strategy, billing itself as “Australia’s Largest Ladies Night.”
The Plaza hopes a few hundred will rush the showroom.
“The show has a very big following,” Olimpieri says. “It’s done very well in Australia and they’re taking it all over the world. They do huge social media numbers.”
Persistent approach
The Plaza Showroom has a roller coaster history of entertainment thrill rides. “Nudes on Ice,” the infamous striptease show on skates, played the venue in the late 1980s. The late comic Louie Anderson headlined at the Plaza, off and on, from 2003 to 2012. “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” had a ride in 2012.
More recently, comic Doug Stanhope has sold out the venue in recurring performances. The showroom was the Deborah Vance Comedy Club in “Hacks.” That venue fared better than the Comedy Works series, in which the most popular comics were also the most politically divisive, something Jossel didn’t want.
“A Mob Story” took over the room from September 2018 to February 2019. Amy Saunders’ inspired “Mavericks” adult variety revue ran for 13 months, ending in June 2025.
Despite running in the red, both shows had moments of optimism for the Plaza team.
“ ‘Mavericks’ gave me great encouragement that it can work, you just need the right partners,” Jossel says. “It was a great example of showing the potential of the room.”
Saunders loves the showroom and is still in play for a project at the Plaza.
“A Mob Story,” even as a short-lived title, also gave Jossel hope.
“It didn’t work out, but seeing it in use and seeing the energy it brought was like, ‘OK, this can work, this is an example of what could work here,’” Jossel says. “I was encouraged.”
Jossel is well aware of the challenges in the neighborhood. Fremont Street Experience runs no-admission, live music every night. You pass its three stages, every one a party zone, on the walk down the promenade. The Viva Vision LED show also nabs the pedestrian crowd.
“People are saying, ‘Why would I pay to go see a show when I’m seeing a free show on Fremont Street?’” Jossel says. “You can walk between the different stages. So you really have to find something that’s compelling, has a good message and is easy to market.”
Jossel recalls the night Murray Hill, the “Mr. Showbiz” burlesque star out of New York, hosted a comedy/variety show at the Showroom in March 2025. The place was packed, even if papered. The show brought the burlesque community into the hotel. They had a ball, Vintage Vegas-style.
“It was a very cool room, a very eclectic room, a lot of styles from different people in the room,” Olimpieri says. “It was Murray Hill, at the end, and some friends that actually came up to Jonathan just to thank him for even doing this event, because not all venues want to do certain type of events.”
Jossel sounds like a man who won’t be deterred.
“We’re giving it another roll of the dice. We are, if nothing else, persistent,” he says. “We will figure out what belongs here.”
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.