Burton was a specialty act in the Folies Bergere at the Tropicana for about 10 years before landing his first solo production at the old Hacienda, now the site of Mandalay Bay. He was subsequently hired to headline at the Monte Carlo . The hot new show on the Las Vegas Strip is the Rio Suite's De La Guarda. De La Guarda is expected to have several years of life at the Rio. A new structure near the pool area and outside the main building has been custom-built to serve as its Las Vegas headquarters.
Performers alternately fly above and mix with the audience, which is standing rather than sitting.
There are no characters and no script in the traditional sense. Even as De La Guarda was getting ready to open, the musical Footloose based on the 1980s movie of the same name is in the Rio's new and very comfortable 1,500-seat theater. If crowd counts hold up, it could be there through the summer or later. At the same time, the David Cassidy-Sheena Easton show is in the Copacabana Showroom, which was home to Danny Gans for a couple of years. Longtime fans of both singers seem to ensure good crowds there.