By Chuck Darrow
There’s no question that Atlantic City audiences adore the music that emanated from Detroit in the 1960s and ’70s. From the earliest days of legal casino gambling, legends like Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, The Temptations and The Four Tops have been—and continue to be—gaming-hall headliners. And even when those pop icons aren’t physically onstage, there’s a good chance some lounge act or other is performing songs from the Motown Records catalog.
And then there’s producer Allen Valentine, who staged the “Motor City Live” revusical at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City in 2018 and 2020 and gave it a new name—“Motown Forever”– when he took it to Bally’s Atlantic City in the summer of ’21.
Once again, the AyCee-based impresario is counting on casino audience’s can’t-get-enough love of the music for a “Motown Forever” reboot, which is scheduled to run Sunday afternoons from Feb. 18 through April 28 at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa.
Despite the new venue, Valentine is definitely in don’t-fix-it-if-it-ain’t-broke mode.
“The cast is about 20 percent new performers,” he offered during a recent phone chat. “And we changed about five songs.”
It’s not that Valentine is being lazy about the content. Instead, he reasoned, his hands are pretty much tied by audience expectations.
“With Motown, you’ve got to keep in the iconic songs [by] the Tempts, the Tops, the Supremes; you want to keep all those songs in there. I think that’s what people are expecting and we want to deliver that. So we changed out a few things just to make the show a little bit more up-tempo.”
Supersonic pacing is a hallmark of Valentine’s musicales (including such recent programs as “Dance To the Music—A ‘60s Celebration,” “’80s Live” and “Disco Inferno”). When asked why he feels his shows need to keep the pedal to the metal virtually all the time, his reply included a reminder that all of his casino productions are primarily marketing tools designed to lure gamblers to a property.
“I’ve been doing this for so long that I’ve learned that if there are too many slow spots, the energy in the room feels like it drops a little bit,” he explained. “And so I’m constantly trying to keep that energy up; I feel that a big part of my job is to whip the audience into a great mood, and then send them out onto the casino floor with really high energy.
“I think the customers who see a show that is really entertaining is an audience that’s more apt to maybe stick around on the casino floor longer than people who see a show that was maybe low-energy, or not that entertaining, and just go home afterwards. So I think a big part of my job is to deliver to the casino executives a show that is basically putting people in a great mood as they’re leaving the theater and walking out to the casino floor.
“And I’ve learned that a higher-energy approach to these shows delivers that result.”
Of course, “Motown Forever,” isn’t the only presentation on Valentine’s 2024 to-do list. He’s in discussion with casinos in Atlantic City and elsewhere, and is already planning the 11th annual edition of Borgata’s “The Burlesque Show,” which will debut in early May and run every Thursday night through October. He promised that, unlike “Motown Forever,” there will be a significantly different look for the naughty, bawdy and gaudy adults-only rave-up that has become an Atlantic City show-biz institution.
“This year we’re throwing a lot of new stuff into it,” he said. “We didn’t set out to do that; we thought maybe 50 percent new. But we just decided to up it and have a lot more new material.”
For tickets to “Motown Forever,” go to borgata.mgmresorts.com.
New retail outlet at Ocean
Ocean Casino Resort recently cut the ribbon on its latest shopping outpost.
Located next to the Starbucks on the casino level, NectarLife—the first East Coast operation for the Las Vegas-based outfit– is described as a “handmade, sustainable dessert-inspired bath and body outlet” featuring such offerings as hand scrubs, body washes, bubble baths and body-polish scrubs.
All of NectarLife’s products are manufactured in the U.S, and are 100-percent vegan, ethically sourced, free of all parabens (chemical preservatives), sulfates and phthalates (used to make plastic durable) and never tested on animals.
For more, go to theoceanac.com/experience/nectar-life
XO Bar back at Resorts
Also currently doing business under a gaming-hall roof is XO Bar, the popular pop-up that Resorts Casino-Hotel has revived for the Valentine’s Day season.
The temporary saloon, which will shut down on Feb. 29, is located at Bar One and boasts a number of Valentine’s-themed drinks with names like The Love Bug, The Red Velvet Flirtini and The Spicy Hot Shot. A daily happy hour runs from 4 to 8 p.m.
On Feb. 6, XO will celebrate “Galentines Day” with an appearance by popular AyCee drag performer Brittany Lynn. She’ll be joined by Brittany Marie, Billy Cavallo, Miss Redd, and DJ Da Boo Boo.
The free event starts with a 5 p.m. happy hour with show time at 6.
For more, go to resortsac.com.
