Once upon a time – prior to legal casinos in Pennsylvania – the summer always brought with it seasonal production shows in Atlantic City. During the last week of June and first week of July, it wasn’t unusual to see the opening of at least a half-dozen revues whose schedules featured six or eight performances a week for eight or nine weeks.
Thanks to the Keystone State’s siphoning of the millions of bus riders who used to regularly visit AyCee, such presentations are no longer as crucial to gaming hall marketing as they once were. But while their numbers and frequency have diminished, the temporary resident production show, as opposed to “The Hook” at Caesars Atlantic City, a permanent, year-round attraction, hasn’t totally faded from the casino entertainment scene.
There are now four such programs on the boards, three of which are produced by AyCee-based impresario Allen Valentine. They are:
Super Trans Am: Ocean Casino Resort, 4 p.m. Sunday through Sept. 1, ticketmaster.com
The only attraction not conceived and staged by Valentine features Super Trans Am, a five-piece rock band that focuses on classic rock anthems of the 1970s. The quintet is essentially a cover band on steroids; members don’t do anything that bands in bars all across America don’t on any given Saturday night. But their casino show has the budget to juice the material with an interesting and engaging video presentation, including clips from Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein” displayed during the band’s rendition of “Frankenstein,” by the Edgar Winter Group.
That – combined with the individual and collective talents of the five Super Trans Am members – makes for a solid 75 or so minutes of guitar-based nostalgia in a repertoire that also includes such ’70s sonic totems as Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ “American Girl”; “The Boys Are Back in Town,” by Thin Lizzy; The Eagles’ “Take It Easy”; Peter Frampton’s “Show Me the Way”; and a medley that mashes up Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” with Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In the Wall,” the connection being the latter’s jaundiced view of education.
Pop Divas: Ocean, various show times through Aug. 29, ticketmaster.com
The only new Valentine production is “Pop Divas,” a tribute to a number of popular music’s female megastars. As per the producers’ successful musical salute blueprint, this isn’t a “Legends in Concert”-style affair featuring clones of famous artists, but a celebration of various performers and their most revered tunes, via original arrangements and choreography performed by a small army of performers. They include seven vocalists, 10 dancers and eight cracker-jack musicians who are without an actual moniker, but which we’ll call the Allen Valentine Orchestra.
“Pop Divas” is typically rich-looking and eye-catching, thanks to Kristine Valentine’s smart costume designs and an impressive video presentation boasting some really cool AI-generated graphics. (Allen Valentine appears to be taking the lead in terms of incorporating the cutting-edge technology into live entertainment).
“Pop Divas” differs slightly from such Valentine efforts as “Disco Inferno” (see below) and “Motown Forever,” in that it occasionally takes its foot off the pedal to allow for slower tunes, most notably Dionne Carole’s stunning rendition of the beloved Whitney Houston ballad, “I Will Always Love You.” The only real problem with “Pop Divas” is what it doesn’t include because of time restraints: songs by, among others, Pat Benatar, Deborah Harry, Cyndi Lauper, Carly Simon and Carole King. I guess there’s always the possibility of “Pop Divas II.”
Disco Inferno: Bally’s Atlantic City, 8 p.m. Sunday through Sept. 8, ticketweb.com
“Disco Inferno” is the third iteration of the atomic-powered revu-sical; it debuted in 2018 as “Disco Live” at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City and subsequently had a run under the “Disco Inferno” banner at Resorts Casino-Hotel. The crowd at a recent performance was literally dancing in the aisles to a jukebox full of beat-heavy 1970s hits, among them the Trammps’ “Disco Inferno,” to these ears the genre’s greatest song of all; “Jive Talkin'” and “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees; “Bad Girls” and “Last Dance” by Donna Summer; and, of course, “YMCA” and “Macho Man” by The Village People.”
‘The Burlesque Show: Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, 9 p.m. Thursdays through Sept. 26, ticketmaster.com
Our Town’s naughtiest, bawdiest show is back for its 11th year at the Big B’s Music Box, with the same blend of female flesh and raunchy, but mostly hilarious, humor that has made it a local show biz institution. This year’s edition seems to be a little more – for lack of a better word – demure than some of its predecessors, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still an adults-only hoot.
The featured female performers bring the art and craft of old-school stripping to life in ways that are sensual, but never vulgar, and the Albanian Balla Brothers fascinating balancing act is a real crowd pleaser. But as always, the best reason to see “The Burlesque Show” is comic/emcee Chris Morris, whose arsenal of good, old-fashioned – and wonderfully politically incorrect – dirty jokes keeps the audience in stitches throughout.
