Monte Carlo resort in Vegas replaces Lance Burton with dance crew that won MTV competition

Monte Carlo replaces Lance Burton with dance crew

LAS VEGAS — The Monte Carlo casino-resort has replaced longtime Las Vegas Strip headline magician Lance Burton with a hip-hop dance crew that shot to fame through a reality television competition, hotel officials announced Tuesday.

Burton ended a 14-year run at the Monte Carlo on Saturday. He and the Monte Carlo announced their split in April, less than a year after he signed a six-year contract extension.

Jabbawockeez, the first-season winner of MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew” competition that known for performing in white masks and gloves, will replace Burton in October.

The seven-member group, whose name is an homage to a similarly named Lewis Carroll poem in “Through the Looking Glass,” found success as a standalone act earlier this year during a run at the MGM Grand resort. The group has also made numerous other television appearances.

Kevin Brewer, a 33-year-old crew member lauded by judges and fans on the MTV show for his crotch-grabbing solo during a routine to Michael Jackson’s “P.Y.T.,” said the crew started to believe headlining in Las Vegas was a possibility during its first Las Vegas Strip performances.

“After our first run in May and the response that we got, I think that kind of put a little weight underneath our wings,” Brewer said Tuesday.

Hotel officials also cited the Jabbawockeez’ sold-out MGM Grand run in its announcement, saying the group was “back by popular demand.”

The 90-minute show titled “Mus.i.c” (pronounced “muse I see”) starts Oct. 7, with tickets on sale for shows five nights per week through December.

Terms of the deal between the dancers and Monte Carlo owner MGM Resorts International weren’t immediately made public.

Anton Nikodemus, chief operating officer of the Monte Carlo, said they’re planning to keep the Jabbawockeez well beyond December.

“We are planning an extended run for the guys at Monte Carlo. We anticipate they will be with us for a minimum of six months,” Nikodemus said. “They have cultivated a worldwide following, and we look forward to introducing Monte Carlo to a new audience.”

Brewer said the crew was mentally prepared to stay five or six months, but hopeful it will last longer.

“I’m hoping that it’s like that whole Lance Burton (run), like 14 years,” he said.

Burton, 50, has not announced his next plans beyond a vacation. He had performed at the Monte Carlo since the day it opened in 1996. Neither he, nor hotel officials, have given a specific reason for parting ways, but Burton in an April interview compared the split to a divorce for “irreconcilable differences.”

“That’s kind of what we have here. I think we’ve just grown apart, we have different philosophies, and we’re going in different directions,” he told the AP, declining to elaborate.

Burton began performing in Las Vegas 28 years ago with an eight-week run at “Les Folies Bergere,” the topless revue at the Tropicana hotel-casino that closed last year after 49 years. Burton’s initial performances turned into a nine-year run at that hotel.

Before that, Burton was the youngest magician to win the Gold Award for Excellence from the International Brotherhood of Magicians, which is the world’s largest organization for magicians.