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When the emcee at the Disco Ball at Trump Taj Mahal asks the
audience for a hometown shout-out—and the largest cheers are for
the boroughs of New York, it’s suddenly clear that Atlantic City
must be doing something right to fill a 5,000-person arena on a
Saturday night in November. In other words, the fabled Absecon
Island resort, home to the biggest entertainment complexes on
the East Coast, keeps on luring New Yorkers to its shores for a
weekend of indulgent hedonism.
Two recent back-to-back Friday and Saturday concerts at the
Arena at Trump Taj Mahal drew a sold-out crowd of diehard dance
devotees that was on its feet, cheering and singing with as much
volume as a crowd of adolescent girls. Sponsored by New York’s
number one dance station, WKTU, Friday night’s Freestyle Free
For All was literally that: a free-for-all of in-the-aisles
dancing from a crowd that remained on its feet for the concert’s
four-hour duration. It’s a rare and wonderful thing to hear an
entire audience singing “Don’t Stop Believing” along with George
Lamond, and then later, with Stevie B. to his smash hit “Spring
Love.” This was a crowd for whom the lyrics were personal
mantras—and when the twenty-minute Michael Jackson tribute went
off, complete with a thirty-person corps of dancers, the crowd
hit lift-off.
All of this cacophonous mayhem took place at the Arena, at the
Taj, where the recent addition of the $255 million Chairman
Tower has infused the Trump Taj Mahal with a massive injection
of high-gloss and top-quality glamour. For any guest fortunate
enough to check into the Chairman Tower, the rightness of
his/her choice is evident upon cruising through the private
marble-floored corridor leading to the Tower’s 74 suites and 704
guest rooms, all located in a tower rising more than twenty
floors above the glistening Atlantic Ocean.
Opened in October 2008, the Chairman Tower is a game-changer for
the Taj, proving again that Atlantic City continues to position
itself for both leisure and business travelers. With suites
nearly twice the size of many Manhattan apartments (1,000-1,200
square feet), the Chairman’s plush quarters include living and
dining areas, two bathrooms, double sinks recessed into granite
counter tops, walk-in showers, iPod docking stations—as well as
two massive high-definition plasma TV’s, one of them equal in
size to several theatre screens in Manhattan. And with
floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Boardwalk, the beach,
the ocean, and the horizon beyond, be forewarned: it’s going to
take serious motivation, something truly tantalizing, to leave
such splendid living quarters.
That was where Saturday night’s Disco Ball played its trump
card. With a cast of performers that read like a Top Ten list of
the greatest disco heavy hitters of the Seventies, Disco Ball
was the second of two concerts that had a wildly enthusiastic
audience dancing in the aisles—and particularly when France Joli
took the stage. Joli first appeared on American stages thirty
years ago—and yet her songs have remained disco staples in clubs
around the world. Small wonder then that the audience sang “Come
to Me” word for word, as Joli held the microphone out to them.
The evening’s most explosive performance was that of Ms. Bonnie
Pointer, the sister best known for leaving the Pointer Sisters
act—right before their string of hits—and yet, to see Ms. Bonnie
Pointer work the Arena stage was akin to having every last
Pointer sister bottled into one hellzapoppin’ firecracker of a
performer. Best known for her chart-topping hit “Heaven Must’ve
Sent You,” Pointer also reclaimed her sisters’ songs, “Jump” and
“I’m So Excited” with such a fiery ferocity that many in the
audience might have considered her versions definitive.
The entire weekend, subtitled Rainbow Fall, with its back to
back concerts, was part of Atlantic City’s renewed interest and
attention to the LGBT community. Spearheaded by the Greater
Atlantic City GLBT Alliance, and coming on the tails of the
recently successful OUT in AC weekend, with stars Jai Rodriquez
and Lance Bass, the weekend was a testament to Atlantic City’s
continued commitment to an environment of inclusiveness—and LGBT
pride.
The Greater AC GLBT Alliance has plenty more in store, including
a revival of the well-loved Miss’d America Pageant, which, for
years, drew the greater LGBT community to Atlantic City during
Pageant week. Started in 1991 by a former Atlantic City
councilman and owner of three AC gay clubs, the Miss’d America
Pageant took place on the Sunday after the Miss America
Pageant—usually at the Studio Six nightclub, where half a dozen
drag contestant finalists competed for the much-loved title,
while raising funds for the South Jersey AIDS Alliance. All this
pageantry, of course, is an Atlantic City tradition. Every year,
during the Pageant Parade, local drag performers would
congregate at the corner of New York Avenue (Atlantic City’s
erstwhile gay club strip) and the Boardwalk—and cajole the
beauty queens to “show us your shoes.” And the popular and
beloved drag revue, “Evening at La Cage” ran at Bally’s Park
Place Casino—for nine years.
Scheduled for the 31st of January, Miss’d America returns to the
legendary Boardwalk Hall and promises to bring back pageant
back-stabbing and melodrama—albeit in a LGBT style, making for
one of those campy, happy party weekends.
In the meantime, apart from rumors of a second incarnation of
the wildly successful OUT in AC weekend in the near future,
there’s also OUT at the INN, every Monday night at local
favorite (and sublimely elegant) Ram's Head Inn, featuring the
area's best singer-pianists at the Piano Bar.
And if for some strange reason, disco balls and beauty pageants
aren’t a part of some LGBT person’s gene code (can we say
mutation?), there’s also The Walk, an entire neighborhood of
Atlantic City, located directly behind Caesar’s and within easy
walking distance of nearly every casino. With over one hundred
factory outlet stores—and we’re talking Brooks, J.Crew, Banana,
Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren—all located within a beautifully
landscaped urban neighborhood, The Walk possesses an easy
upscale suburban vibe similar to well-heeled communities found
along the Eastern seaboard. Plus, the Walk has its own chocolate
confectionery: Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory on Arkansas
Avenue. Hello! Of course, if your retail therapy needs veer
closer to Louis Vuitton and Tiffany’s, head over to the Pier
Shops on the other side of Caesar’s. Either way, Atlantic City
has got your shopping habits covered.
And in truth, that’s how a weekend or a three- or four-day jaunt
to Absecon Island feels: Atlantic City’s got what you want and
everything you need. AC’s got you covered. |
