|
|
|
ICE CUBE: Bath, Beyoncé and beyond at Revel
Sorry it took a minute to process Atlantic City's Revel, the $2.4 billion hotel/casino on its opening weekend with Beyoncé in tow.
ICE CUBE: Bath, Beyoncé and beyond at Revel
Sorry it took a minute to process Atlantic City’s Revel, the $2.4 billion hotel/casino on its opening weekend with Beyoncé in tow.
A glass-and-steel structure 710 feet high (NJ’s second talent building) filled with nearly 2,000 rooms (each with a bay or ocean view) and a 130,000 square-foot casino is plenty to consider. The pop-soul queen’s show at Revel’s 5,050-seat Ovation Hall was just gorgeous icing on an extravagant cake. And I didn’t even get a chance to sample restaurants (Philly’s Jose Garces has three) or the spa.
The Ovation is a wide room whose acoustics were stellar and sightlines were great. There wasn’t a bad seat in the house as Beyoncé, her all-female band and crew of dancers, wound through the most spell-binding light-and-visual display I’ve witnessed since Roger Waters’ “The Wall.”
While loud geometric symbols popped behind her, Bay (never in better voice) sashayed and dry-humped as she made silly tough-girl faces. She raced through the femme-empowered “Run This World” with its heart-beat bass rumbling through the Ovation and turned a mash-up of “Naughty Girl” and the late Donna Summer’s “Love to Love You Baby” into a snaky delight. Beyoncé slowed to a romantic shimmer on heart-break ballads such as the heavenly “Halo” and a handily grand version of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.” While the smashing “Crazy in Love” had the thrilling sonic vibrancy of a fast train riding off its rails, the quick dance-off “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” shook even harder.
With that, it was difficult to know which was more epic — witnessing Beyoncé at her best or Revel at its start.
I’d say it was a tie.
For a hotel dweller rarely impressed with surroundings, Revel was swanky cool (for the record, everything was comped). So much so that its casino space paled in comparison to the stature of the hotel. And I won money too, so it’s not sour grapes. The six floor casino, topped by a cross-cut open ceiling felt squashed, as if it didn’t belong. Then again, the red-hued casino may take time to get used with its constant cram of activity coming from scantily clad go-go girls and Cirque-du-something athletes within spitting distance of Ivan Kane’s amusing Royal Jelly Burlesque Nightclub. A casino whose street-level entrance has a 24-hour laptop-spinning lady DJ can’t be bad.
Beyond that gripe, everything was cream. After driving up to its slice of A.C. (it looks like a machete poking through the skyline) Revel’s guest-receiving lobby is space-age swell. From the mirrored-glass-and-gold mosaic through to its airy corridors, intimate breakfast nooks (O Bistro, complete with fireplace centerpiece and grass wall) and Mod-decorated couch-filled spaces and bars, the 11th floor receiving area rocks. A great introduction to Revel’s spacious design elements.
That’s crucial: Rather than nestle you in hidey-hole darkness — the gaming industry standard — Revel keeps you suspended in floating oceanic animation. Only the casino and the “Think Tank” meeting rooms are noir-ish. At Revel, when the light is on — and that’s almost always, even at night – it’s ON.
During this opening weekend, the staff was calm and informative. (I heard lousy stuff about soft openings previous to this.) Even if they didn’t know exactly where you were going, they had a pleasant manner about not getting you there. At least, they got me to a highly stylized, sparely decorated suite with a great view of the Atlantic where a high-standing bed and a mini-bar awaited, so that’s cool.
Along with computer-pads offering access to amenities, bathrooms were massively-mirrored, complete with large stone-and-glass shower stalls. The main room offered space for desk work (nice writing sets at the ready) and comfy leather seating. There was even a gift from Beyoncé. “personally” welcoming me to Revel: her new signature scent. I preferred Bay up-close-and-personal, but smelling her was nice too. The whole place had that new hotel smell. Bravo.
- Activism
- Arts
- Arts Events
- Books
- Dance
- First Person Fest
- Last Chance
- Museum
- On the Fringe
- Philly Artists
- The Curator
- Theater
- Visual Art
- Arts News
- Artist Profile
- Arts Preview
- Street Art
- Been There, Done That
- Big Ups
- Comedy
- LOL With It
- Stand-up
- Critical Mass
- DVD
- Events
- Friday Fill-in
- Ice Cubes
- In Memoriam
- Interview
- Just Do It
- Just Opened
- Kaleidoscopic
- LGBTQ
- Art Phag
- Mailbag
- Movies
- Film Fest
- Movie Review
- On set
- Scenester
- screening
- trailer!
- Music
- 10 Track Mind
- Album
- Album Review
- Concert Review
- DJs
- Local Support
- Now Hear This
- One Track Mind
- Philly Bands
- Show
- Somebody Else Was There
- Song
- The Showdown
- concert photos
- jazz
- DJ Nights Blogged
- Night Watch
- Now See This
- Poetic License
- Printed Matter
- Radio
- Shopping
- Coveted
- Fashion
- What We Heart
- TV
- 24
- Idol Hands
- Mad Men
- ProjRun
- True Blood
- Useless Lost Recaps
- Couch Potato
- Shore Trash
- Turned ONN
- TopMod
- Video Games
- Free Online Game
- PSP
- PlayStation 2
- The 1-Upper
- Wii
- Web Junk
- CAGE MATCH
- Free Online Toy
- Weekend Omnibus
- Win
