By Chuck Darrow
As recently noted in this column, the biggest casino-entertainment happening of 2023 was the early-summer debut of “The Hook” at Caesars Atlantic City.
The adults-only revue, which blends raunchy humor with top-shelf “Cirque”-style specialty acts is the first “permanent” AyCee presentation and the first ever staged in a venue built exclusively to house it. Given its special status, we figured it would be a good time to check in with creator-producer Ross Mollison to see how his groundbreaking baby is doing and get an update on what, if any changes have been-or might be—made.
Overall, offered Mollison during a recent phone chat, he is more than pleased with how the past six months have gone, both with the show itself and with Superfrico, the “psychedelic-Italian” eatery that is an integral part of the “Hook” experience. We were especially interested in how things were going during this, the slowest time of the year for AyCee tourism.
“We’ve way exceeded our expectations,” he proclaimed in the accent of his native Melbourne, Australia.
“I just came back from Japan, where I was for a few weeks, and I went last night to see the show and went to Superfrico. I wanted to see the kind of crowd we’d have on what I thought would be the toughest day of the year—a mid-week day in early January after a storm–and, we still had a fantastic vibe in the restaurant and a fantastic vibe in the theater, and that’s so exciting to see.
“And really, we are just learning the market, learning what makes sense on a monthly and yearly basis for a seasonal regional market like Atlantic City and we’re making adjustments. For instance, we’ve launched a [Sunday] brunch service that actually had its [debut the first weekend of the year] and it was a really big success; I think that will grow over time.”
As for the show, Mollison isn’t predicting any major changes, but, he does expect it to evolve over time as has his Las Vegas productions, including the raucously hilarious, Caesars Palace-based “Absinthe.”
“If you could have a house of a hundred people laughing and loving it in there on a Wednesday night in early January, then you’re on the road to success,” he reasoned. “It’s [comic] Dick Marlin’s show, but we continue to work on the comedy and I think the comedy just gets stronger and stronger.
“I believe the show has really found its feet and I think it’s got a great position within the market. People are just loving it, and the fact is the audience numbers continue to grow. We had an enormous week–I think it may have even been our biggest week ever–the week after Christmas. And I think that bodes very well for what we’re gonna do in summer of this year.”
Nonetheless, he added, there could be some cast changes.
“We’re doing [contract] renewals now because we planned this a long time in advance and everyone was contracted for a year. [Cast members] are loving living in this area, and I think we’re gonna see more people who want to come and live and work here. We’ve got a few artists from Vegas who’ve expressed interest in being here. And I think that will lead to more opportunities for us to mix it up a little bit.
“Just as in Vegas, which continues to grow year to year, and we continue to work on new ideas that go in there, we will do that with the look, and we will continue to see Dick Marlin’s show evolve over time.
“One of our biggest assets in our Vegas shows is repeat visitation. We have one guy who comes back to “Atomic Saloon” [at the Venetian] so regularly, he’s nearly about to have seen it a hundred times. And I think that’s because we do constantly evolve the shows, and we will be doing that in Atlantic City. But, it’ll still be fundamentally the same property with new artists coming in to supplement that.”
Orlando swan song at Resorts
The bad news is that Tony Orlando, who has been an AyCee headliner for some four decades (and who is one of show business’ true “good guys”) has announced his retirement from performing. The good news is that the guy who (along with his two co-stars in Dawn) topped the charts in the 1970s with hits like “Candida” and “Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole’ Oak Tree” isn’t calling it quits without one last visit to town.
Orlando, who turns 80 in April will perform March 16 at Resorts Casino Hotel. It will be a “full-circle” moment of sorts as the first legal casino east of Nevada was where he made his local gaming hall debut in 1983.
For tickets, go to ticketmaster.com.
Chuck Darrow has spent more than 40 years writing about Atlantic City casinos.
