UPDATE: One-of-a-kind variety show in Dallas is canceled

If the Valentine's Day show takes off, you can expect regular variety shows at the Fairmont Dallas.

DALLAS — UPDATE: This event has been canceled. Scroll down for the full story.

This Valentine's Day, a group of vaudevillian performers will present an evening of dinner and distraction at the Fairmont Dallas. Called “A Vaudeville Valentine in the Venetian Room,” the variety show will display talent of all kinds from our many DFW artists.

Artist Julia Schloss, organizer of the variety show

It will also be a dream come true for the organizer, "salvagista" Julia Schloss, who wandered into the Venetian Room as a 13-year-old and dreamed up a variety show that hadn't come true until now. “I thought, Someday, when I grow up, I'm going to have a show here,” Schloss said. “And my whole life, since then, has just been a series of experiences to prepare me to be ready to do this. The creativity's always been there, but the discipline and the skills, the tools that needed to be honed, weren't.” Today, she has networked with DFW artists and says she has a cast who can execute this show and many more. Her hope is to make the variety show into a quarterly gig at the Fairmont.

“We don't have anything we can dress up for anymore,” Schloss said, remembering the old black and white glamorous movies she loved as a kid – and a time when people really did dress up and go out. “When we go to the opera and musicals, people are wearing jeans! … With this, I would like to introduce glam back to Dallas,” she said. “This is a reason to get dressed up and go out and celebrate our local artisans and musicians, and this grand old dame, the Fairmount.”

Venetian Room at Fairmont Dallas

A Vaudeville Valentine in the Venetian Room is February 13 from 7-10 p.m. It includes a meal of organic food while a sitar player entertains guests – which will soon give way to acrobats, burlesque dancers, and comedians. In short, this is as close as you'll get to Las Vegas on Valentine's Day.

The burlesque dancers will be tasteful, she says. “I want this to be innocent and sweet and old-fashioned. This variety show is truly a tease – they won't show it all.” And each act will stretch right into the next one, just like the variety shows of old. “It's going to beautiful,” Schloss said.

Performers include: The Mistress of Ceremonies, Violet O Hara; the HiLifers Romantic Retro Lounge, who will play swing and jive; comedienne Ashlie Rhey; Annie Benjamin, the show's torch singer – who will croon blues and love songs; Ivy Divine and Spunky McGee, burlesque-style dancers who will be accompanied by Sarasvati Bodhisatva on sitar; Jericho St Etienne of Torch'd Entertainment will invoke the sorcerer, and Lisa Renee teases from the shadows; musician and poetry editor of MadSwirl.com, Michael Clay performs as Viceroy of Velvety Verse; and Tiffany Diamond, dancer and choreographer, “stirs the vapors of Valentines and closes the show.”

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A Vaudeville Valentine in The Venetian (CANCELED)

Sun
Feb
13^th
7^PM

The Fairmont Dallas
1717 North Akard Street
Dallas, TX
$150

General admission per seat is $150 and includes dinner. VIP seating is also available. For ticket information, go to ResurrectionArt.com. Tickets go on sale Wednesday at noon.

We think it will be a heck of a good time.

UPDATE: We got the sad news that Schloss' event is canceled on Monday, which was less than a week before the show was to take place. Schloss said via email that the private supporter decided not to fund the project.

She recounts the past few weeks, when she learned how much it would cost to fund a party in the Venetian Room. "And we just don't have that kind of money," she said via email. "But a private entity insisted that they help us produce the show. So we jumped on it. Two weeks into the process, a very successful process, the person that was so enthused, lost the glow and pulled out.

"We believe that the pressure of the Super Bowl, plus the winter storm, made this person believe that tickets wouldn't sell at all. We didn't feel that way. In our experience as event producers for over a decade, we've learned that Dallas is a procrastinator. Dallas doesn't decide what it's going to do til the last minute. Plus, folks are spending their entertainment dollars very carefully right now. People are spending that money creating memories. Which is why we had such confidence in this show, regardless of the time constraints on marketing."

Schloss said that she and her partner Desmene Statum, plus Bryan Embry, owner of The Ross Akard Gallery, were "crushed." They were stuck at home because of the weather and couldn't find anyone to fund the event in place of the private donor.

"Apparently, this kind of thing happens all the time," Schloss told me in an email. "We are not familiar with stopping a project before it's finished. It's a very odd feeling."

But she insists the show will go on. When? We'll let you know.