The Ultimate Vegas Show review

The Ultimate Vegas Show is a night of magic, illusion, circus, songs, dancing and music. It's got all the ingredients for a brilliant and captivating show, yet sadly this experience left me feeling underwhelmed and wanting to head back to 'Melbourne'.

Host/MC, David Cotter did pleasantly well with his Dean Martin impersonation but that's all there was to it. Cotter's Martin did not possess enough dynamic stage presence or charisma to keep the audience strongly entertained and generate excitement about the upcoming acts, although perhaps in a more intimate setting as opposed to the expansive space of The Palms, he might have had more of an effect.


Among the performances themselves though, Michael Boyd's magic and illusion act was definitely a showstopper, with some of his tricks defying logic and eliciting a lot of delighted "how did that just happen?" from the audience, especially the one involving his loyal sidekick, Thurston the Duck. Similarly Spain’s Duponte Nicole with his clowning and mime act was perfectly timed and his finale had everyone gasping with amazement and laughter at the same time.

The inherent problem with this show was filling all the space between these two mentioned acts. While the vastness and glitz of a Vegas experience was present, I felt it lacked the heart and sparkle to really draw the spectators in and take them along for the ride (although many of the older women in the audience would disagree with me judging by their enthused and emotional reactions to Elvis impersonator Marcus Jackson's vocal numbers). Furthermore, the dance numbers had uninspiring choreography that left me feeling like I was watching a lot of the same routines just with different costumes on.

The Ultimate Vegas Show had potential to be a captivating spectacle on a grand scale. Unfortunately, in its focus to capture the “Vegas vibe”, it seems to have forgotten about capturing all its audience. Maybe it is iconic example of showy grandeur of the productions in Vegas - I’ve never seen one so I don’t know - but in this case and for me, what happens in Vegas really should have stayed in Vegas.

The Ultimate Vegas Show was performed at The Palms at Crown Melbourne between 15 - 16 January 2016.