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With 21 Shows A Week, On-Stage Magic Promises Great Variety
If you had attended a show at the Palm Cabaret in the year 2000 you would have found young Liela Hamdani slinging cocktails and young-ish Mark Rome on a ladder using his camping flashlight as a follow spot to illuminate the charms of headliner Miss Ida Slapter.
The Palm is the longest running theater in Puerto Vallarta, and as you wander down the south side strip of Olas Altas today, you will often still find fearless leader Mark & box office diva Liela holding court at the entrance.
From humble beginnings almost 24 years ago, the Palm has become a premiere venue for many of the top entertainers that play Vallarta. Local acts are joined by visiting headliners from other parts of Mexico, Argentina, Panama, Canada and the USA.
The 2024 program offers 21 shows a week, every day at 6pm, 8pm, 9:30pm with some additional afternoon special events.
Hitting the stage is a grand variety of entertainment from musical tribute acts to improv comedy, to cabaret artists, to sexy revue shows, but the venue is perhaps becoming best know as #divacentral, featuring a dazzling array of drag performers from Broadway to Vegas, from Idol to Got Talent.
The longest running act is the fabulous Miss Conception, who for 10 years has been selling out her shows, offering a new theme every year.
She returns this season with her all-live vocals and over a dozen costume changes in Tooned Out, a celebration of the most iconic cartoons in history.
Also, back for a full season run is New York City’s live singing sensation sasshole theater queen Sutton Lee Seymour in Broadway Barbie and Vallarta’s Mama Tits returns for Guts & Glitter.
Comedy queen Hedda Lettuce is now making her home at the Palm as she Shaves the Day in her new show and watching for special appearances from other well known drag artists such as Evita Loca and Miss Butterfly.
Last, but certainly not least, returning to the scene of the crime will be one of the Palm’s original stars…yes, a few decades later – Miss Ida Slapter is back for three very special encore performances. Although she swears she can still do the splits, management plans to have a paramedic and an ambulance on stand-by!
It’s not just the drag artists bringing the glamor in a gown to the Palm stage. La Voz México (The Voice) finalist Diana Villamonte returns with I Will Always Love You, her spectacular tribute to the music of Whitney Houston.
Big Red aka Meghan Murphy heads south from Chicago to bring her big voice back to Vallarta for a brassy, bawdy, boozy good time!
One of the highlights of the season is sure to be the return of the #mustsee Ada Vox.
This finalist from both Queen of the Universe and American Idol is jaw-droppingly dazzling; as the HuffPost wrote, “Ada Vox had the best voice of the whole Idol competition”.
Speaking of faces and voices you will know from television, another notable returnee will be singer, actor, Broadway veteran and Top 10 Billboard artist Brian Austin Crum. Following his success as a finalist on America’s Got Talent he went on to appear in AGT-The Champions where he also made it deep into the competition.
Yet another familiar face will be Tony Award winning (playing Jerry Lee Lewis in Million Dollar Quartet) actor and singer Levi Kreis who will return to blow the roof off the Palm.
Other popular artists will include special runs with the powerful voice of Enrique de Allende and the dazzling cello and soaring vocals of Brandon & James.
The tribute shows at the Palm are legendary and will feature returning, but re-imagined runs with all live vocals from Palm headliners Maru Prado Conti in Born This Way-The Best of Gaga, Roy Cruz in Freddy Mercury, The Legend Lives On, and Beyond Beyonce starring Cecille and the Starboys. Daniel Celis will be back for Rocketman, an Elton John Tribute and he is also bringing his new Abba show with a full band to the stage!
Watch out for some special afternoon shows from such names as Sol Rose, the velvet-voiced showman and popular local restaurateur from Café Bohemia.
The Palm is a proud supporter of the charitable organization RISE, the home for local children that have been abandoned or are in crises. The theater hosts the four afternoon preliminary competitions before the Palm winners move on to the Grand Finale at Teatro Vallarta for the February 18 extravaganza. The winner takes home a $20,000 peso prize and a booking in one of Vallarta’s top entertainment venues.
Kudos to Mark Rome & the Palm team for a 2024 lineup that is jam-packed with top talent.
Rome says, “the entertainment bar has been raised in Vallarta and the Palm performers have raised their bar to match it…and even go beyond.”
However, when asked to cough up some of the best backstage dish, Rome demurs and says “Oh there are some great stories, but nothing that can be put in print!” so you will just have to be satisfied to go to the Palm and enjoy all of the onstage magic.
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