The Taj Mahal, a Disco Ball, and a Miss'd America Pageant :: Where Else But Atlantic City?

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 is impressive. 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 WKTU, New York's number one dance station, 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.

The Chairman Tower :: high-gloss, top-quality glamour

~
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 and 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.

Disco balls beckon...

~
That was where Saturday night's Disco Ball played its trump card- no pun intended. With a cast of performers that read like a Top Ten list of the greatest disco heavy hitters of the '70s, Disco Ball was the second of two concerts that drew a wildly enthusiastic audience dancing in the aisles- 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.

LGBT indulgences & entertainment

~
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 LGBT style, making for one of those campy, happy party weekends.

Miss’d America

~
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 more than 100 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.