Las Vegas Weekly

January 15, 2009 · 10:04 AM

Folies on its last legs after 49-year Strip run

By John Katsilometes

Folies Bergere is on its last legs.

Photo: Las Vegas Sun

In a knock-us-over-with-a-feather news break, a show closing for the ages has been announced today: The venerable Folies Bergere, a mainstay on the Strip since Dec. 24, 1959, is closing March 28. There is no announcement yet as to what will replace the city’s sequins-cancan-feathered boa spectacle at the hotel’s Tiffany Theater. Trop officials do have plans in the works for new, permanent production in the showroom and are in the latter stages of negotiations for that show.

At its peak, Folies entertained some 40,000 fans a month at the Trop and was for generations one of Vegas’ signature production shows. It was lured to the Strip from Paris by then-Tropicana Entertainment Director Lou Walters, father of broadcast icon Barbara Walters.

About 80 cast members and members of the support staff will be either be looking for work or working reduced schedules (Dirk Arthur still performs at the theater) after the production's closing. The show will continue its regular schedule until it closes March 28. Tickets are relatively cheap, starting at $35 plus tax and surcharge.

The dropping of the curtain at Folies leaves Bally’s Jubilee, which opened in 1981, as the most prominent (and some would say, only) remaining true Old Vegas regular production show on the Strip.

Share This