Jubilee!

{{Infobox stage production

| name = Jubilee!

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| genre = Revue

| type = Resident show

| premiere = {{Start date|1981|07|31}}

| finalshow = {{end date|2016|02|11}}

| location = originally at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, which later became Horseshoe Las Vegas

| creatortitle1 = Producer

| creatorname1 = Donn Arden

| creatortitle2 = Costume designer

| creatorname2 = Bob Mackie

| creatortitle3 = Costume designer

| creatorname3 = Pete Menefee

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| website = http://www.ballyslasvegas.com/shows/jubilee.html

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File:Jubilee! Full Cast and Crew - 2014.jpg

File:Jubilee! - 2016 (Final Cast).jpg

File:Dollys - Heart.jpg

File:Disco - Close up.jpg

File:Dollys - Mirror.jpg

File:JubileeDancersByPhilKonstantin.jpg

Jubilee! was a Las Vegas Strip-based spectacular revue.{{cite news |last1=Bell |first1=Joseph N. |title=Donn Arden's Art: Beauty, Disasters Wrapped in Extravagance |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-07-15-li-7069-story.html |access-date=10 November 2024 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=15 July 1988 |quote=Donn Arden...was there, sleeping in a suite on the 10th floor when the fire broke out early in the morning of Nov. 20, 1980...Margaret Kelly...}} It opened on July 31, 1981, at an initial cost of 10 million dollars and was originally produced by Donn Arden.{{cite web|author=UNLV Libraries|title=Jubilee!|url=http://digital.library.unlv.edu/collections/showgirls/jubilee|work=Showgirls|publisher=UNLV Libraries Digital Collections|accessdate=10 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120730201804/http://digital.library.unlv.edu/collections/showgirls/jubilee|archive-date=30 July 2012|url-status=dead}} The show ended its 35-year run on February 11, 2016.{{cite web |author= |date=11 February 2016 |title=End of an era: 34-year-old 'Jubilee' concludes — what's next? |url=http://lasvegassun.com/vegasdeluxe/2016/feb/11/end-of-an-era-34-year-showgirl-history-of-jubilee/ |accessdate=23 June 2017 |website=lasvegassun.com}}{{cite web |author= |date=12 December 2015 |title='Jubilee' show at Bally's to close after 34-year run |url=https://lasvegassun.com/vegasdeluxe/2015/dec/12/jubilee-at-ballys-to-close-feb-11-after-34-year-ru/ |accessdate=23 June 2017 |website=lasvegassun.com}}{{cite web |author= |date=14 December 2015 |title=Curtain coming down on 'Jubilee!'--Las Vegas' long-running showgirl revue |url=http://www.latimes.com/travel/lasvegas/la-trb-las-vegas-ballys-jubilee-closing-20151213-story.html |accessdate=23 June 2017 |publisher= |via=LA Times}}

Model Tiffany Coyne model once danced in the show.{{cite web |last=Wright |first=Becky |title=Tiffany Coyne the real deal |url=http://www.hersutah.com/story/tiffany-coyne-real-deal |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120114152537/http://www.hersutah.com/story/tiffany-coyne-real-deal |archive-date=2012-01-14 |access-date=16 October 2013 |website=Hers |publisher=Standard-Examiner |location=Utah}}

Reception

When it closed in 2016, this resident show at Bally's Las Vegas was the longest-running production show in Las Vegas. The Jubilee! showgirls were an icon of old Vegas. The show used costumes designed by Bob Mackie and Pete Menefee. There were 36 individual designs, each based on the jewel tones of amethyst, sapphire, emerald, and ruby.{{Cite book |last=Merrill |first=Jane |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1240159008 |title=The showgirl costume an illustrated history |publisher=McFarland |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-4766-7174-1 |pages=224 |oclc=1240159008}} UNLV Special Collections houses many of the original costume design drawings which can be accessed online through the Showgirls collection from UNLV Digital Collections.

Many of the show's sets dated back to the original production. Jubilee!'s longest serving principal dancer from the opening night until her departure 23 years later was Linda Green. The final closing cast consisted of 3 female singers, 3 male singers, 18 male dancers, 23 topless dancers, and 19 female dancers. Within the female covered and topless dancers, they were further categorized as "short" and "tall" dancers. A "short" dancer is a female dancer between 5 ft 8 in (173 cm) and 5 ft 9 in (175 cm) and a "tall" female dancer is between 5 ft 10 in (178 cm) and 6 ft 2 in (188 cm). One may have been surprised at how tall the dancers were because of the proportions of the stage, which was three and a half stories high, giving the illusion that the performers are smaller in relationship to the stage.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025}}

Acts

Act 1 Showtime! Putting It into the Right Vernacular
Act 2 A Specialty Act that varied over the years, toward the end was a hand balancing act
Act 3 Samson and Delilah Tonight, a Lesson from Ancient History{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2010/11/14/131309162/moonlighting-vegas-cop-takes-it-off-onstage|title=Moonlighting Vegas Cop Takes It Off Onstage|author=Liann Hanson|date=14 November 2010|website=NPR.org|accessdate=23 June 2017}}
Act 4 Another Specialty Act that varied over the years, sometimes a magic act, towards the end was a gaucho act
Act 5 Titanic Away We Go on the Mighty "Unsinkable" Ocean Liner
Act 6 Another Specialty Act, towards the end was an aerial act
Act 7 The Finale A Tribute to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

Legacy

Screenwriter Kate Gersten visited the Jubilee! show before it concluded and was inspired to write a play about the dancers in a similar Las Vegas show's closing. That unproduced play became the basis for the screenplay she wrote for The Last Showgirl, starring Pamela Anderson as a Las Vegas showgirl near the end of her career at the closing of a long-running show.{{cite interview |last=Coppola |first=Gia |subject= |subject-link=Gia Coppola |last2=Anderson |first2=Pamela |subject2= |subject-link2= Pamela Anderson |last3=Gersten |first3=Kate |subject3= |subject-link3= |last4=Shipka |first4=Kiernan |subject4= |subject-link4=Kiernan Shipka |last5=Song |first5=Brenda |subject-link5=Brenda Song |interviewer= |title=Pamela Anderson's Role Of A Lifetime In 'The Last Showgirl' |type= |work= |date=September 7, 2024 |publisher=Deadline Hollywood |via=YouTube |location= |page= |pages= |quote= |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PlfzPlyl90 |format= |url-status= |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=}}