“Raiding the Rock Vault” Falls Victim to Tropicana Curse, Set to Close

By Scott Roeben, on July 17 2016
3 min read 9 comments
Las Vegas Las Vegas Shows

“Raiding the Rock Vault” appears to have fallen victim to the “Tropicana curse.” The show will close July 31, 2016.

“Raiding the Rock Vault” has been described as a “90-minute history of classic rock performed by members of some of the greatest bands in history,” mainly by the producers of “Raiding the Rock Vault.”

The show, which features former members of classic rock bands, is closing due to flagging ticket sales.

Tropicana hotel
Beware, all ye whose shows open here. Because “ye” makes things sound more ominous, doesn’t it?

“Raiding the Rock Vault” had a pretty good run at Westgate Las Vegas (previously LVH) after it opened in March 2013. The show closed at Westgate in December 2014 after a fair amount of drama, then took up residence at the Trop.

“Raiding the Rock Vault” joins an ever-growing roster of entertainment offerings that have shuttered at Tropicana.

Paul Shortino
Paul Shortino has been a fixture of “Raiding the Rock Vault.” He sang with Quiet Riot. Yes, Quiet Riot songs had singing.

“Mama Mia” closed at Tropicana after just three months. Which wouldn’t scream “curse” were it not for the fact the show had run for six years prior at Mandalay Bay.

“Purple Reign,” the Price tribute show, gave Tropicana a go, but sputtered, despite success in other venues. Currently, it’s at Westgate.

Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club made a go of the Tropicana, too, but jumped ship in late 2011 to open in a better location, MGM Grand.

Aspiring “Celebrity Magician” Murray Sawchuck not only saw the plug pulled on his show at Tropicana, but to add insult to injury, Criss Angel stole his girlfriend, Chloe Crawford. If you lose your girlfriend to Criss Angel, there’s simply no other explanation than you’re the likely victim of a curse.

Our candidate for most-cursed Tropicana show? “New Illusions” starring Jan Rouven. Rouven, of course, was arrested for child pornography charges. All traces of his show vanished virtually overnight.

Beyond lackluster ticket sales, and the so-called Tropicana curse, “Raiding the Rock Vault” had taken its share of hits in terms of the quality of the show itself. Twisted Sister singer Dee Snider once slammed the show, calling it “a tribute band with a bunch of add-on people.” A sentiment which, inexplicably, was only rarely used in the show’s advertising.

Raiding the Rock Vault billboard
Quite the wordsmith, that Dee Snider.

The demise of “Raiding the Rock Vault” will give others shows the opportunity to defy the Tropicana curse. A new show, “Cherry Boom Boom” will debut at Tropicana on Sep. 8, 2016. It doesn’t bode well that the show is being billed as “immersive.”

It remains to be seen if a new show can shake the curse. The last successful show at Tropicana ran 49 years, “Les Folies Bergere,” a topless revue.

Here’s a theory: What if the Tropicana curse is the result of the cancellation of a topless revue?

“Crazy Girls” closes at Riviera, the casino is imploded.

“Minsky’s Follies” closes at the Dunes, imploded.

“Lido de Paris” closes at Stardust, imploded.

Maybe all eyes should be on Bally’s since it closed “Jubilee!” Then again, this is the hotel that brought us the Grand Bazaar Shops. Who’s laughing at our curse theory now?

Update (7/18/16): “Raiding the Rock Vault” had a few things to say about our take on this story. Via the @Rock_Vault Twitter account, the show wrote, “1) Dee Snider walked his comments back. 2) We did more shows and were active at Trop longer than at Westgate/LVH. 3) Won ‘Best of Las Vegas’ again at Trop in 2015, so not sure the ‘Trop curse’ applies here.”

Our takeaway: Told you there’s a Trop curse!