# Jubilee!

Jubilee! was a Las Vegas Strip-based spectacular revue. It opened on July 31, 1981, at an initial cost of 10 million dollars and was originally produced by Donn Arden. 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. Many of the show's sets dated back to the original production. 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.

## Creators

* Donn Arden - Producer
* Fluff LeCoque - Associate producer
* Michael Pratt - Assistant company manager
* Winston Hemsley - Choreographer
* Rich Rizzo - Choreographer
* Pete Menefee - Designer
* Bob Mackie - Designer

## Notable dancers

* Tiffany Coyne, model
* Greta Jones, Full Show Swing
* Janet Ford Spelman, Principal Dancer, Tropicana Casino Legends Hall of Fame Inductee
* Kaleigh Jones, Featured Dancer
* Michael Forsch, Line 3 Captain
* Nathaniel Burich, Full Show Swing
* Sabina Kelley, Best Ink, Tattooed SuperModel, 1st Heavily Tattooed Dancer to Headline a show on the Vegas Strip
* Jessica Lane, Featured Dancer (Dolly Sister)
* Lisa Louise Wilson, Principal Singer, Singer Line Captain and Female Singer Swing (Fired)

## Acts

* Act 1 Showtime! Putting It into the Right Vernacular
* Act 2 A Specialty Act that varied over the years, toward the end was a hand balancing act
* Act 3 Samson and Delilah Tonight, a Lesson from Ancient History
* Act 4 Another Specialty Act that varied over the years, sometimes a magic act, towards the end was a gaucho act
* Act 5 Titanic Away We Go on the Mighty "Unsinkable" Ocean Liner
* Act 6 Another Specialty Act, towards the end was an aerial act
* Act 7 The Finale A Tribute to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

## Former staff at time of closing

* Damian Costa - Entertainment Director
* Diane Palm - Company manager
* Suzanne Swanson - Assistant company manager
* Darrell Clulow - Technical director
* Alicia Morse - Stage manager
* Amy Schrage - Assistant Stage manager
* Donna London - Wardrobe manager
* Gene Lubas - Show Manager
* Ryan Rappaport - Entertainment Manager
* Daniel Salas - Showroom Manager
* Carol Beeman - Production assistant
* Ken Billington - Lighting Designer

## Technical/show information

* At its closing date Jubilee! features a cast of 66 showgirls and show boys. When it first opened the cast had over 100 performers in it.
* The theater seated 1,033 people in a combination of theater style seats, swivel chairs, tables and booths.
* The show was topless, for 18 and over
* There were 75 stagehands working on the show.
* The total width of the stage wall to wall was 190 feet (58 m).
* All of the dressing rooms were in the basement, 2 flights of stairs below the stage, meaning some dancers had to climb over 1,700 stairs a night.
* The heaviest set piece lifted by a motor weighed over 6,000 pounds (2,700 kg) and the heaviest set piece of scenery lifted and lowered by the crew weighed 4,000 pounds (1,800 kg).
* The sinking effect of the Titanic was achieved by a combination of the ship and the stage moving at the same time, creating an optical illusion.
* Over 1,000 costumes were designed for Jubilee! By Pete Menefee and Bob Mackie.
* The feathered headdresses worn by the showgirls weighed up to 35 pounds (15 kg).
* There were between 20 and 2,000 feathers on a single costume.
* Delilah's crown was the largest jeweled headpiece in the show. The crown was 2 feet (60 cm) tall and covered with 20 pounds (10 kg) of rhinestones.
* The costumes worn in the Grand Jewel Box Finale tribute to Florenz Ziegfeld, was designed by Bob Mackie. There were 36 individual designs, each based on the jewel tones of amethyst, sapphire, emerald, and ruby.

## Legacy

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.