Westgate Las Vegas Expands Elvis Legacy with Two Immersive Shows

The July 31 King Weekend — All Six Events, Sorted by Priority

The weekend stacks six separate events across Westgate‘s venues, and not all of them demand equal attention. Here’s how I'd rank them for someone trying to figure out where to spend their time and money.

“1969 LIVE! The King Returns” at the International Theater is the obvious anchor. Travis Powell has been doing this long enough to have a reputation, and two sold-out runs last year tell you the room responds to what he‘s doing. The show is specifically about Elvis’s 1969 performances — the comeback period, when he‘d been off the road for years and came back swinging — which is arguably the most dramatically interesting chapter of Elvis’s live career. The theater itself holds that story. Westgate was the International Hotel in 1969, and Elvis set records there that stood for years. Sitting in that room for a recreation of those shows is a different experience than seeing an Elvis tribute at a generic showroom. Curtain is at 7 p.m.

The VIP International Theater Tours at $69 are the sleeper pick of the weekend for anyone who actually cares about the history. You're getting access to a theater with a specific, documented place in rock-and-roll history, with guides who can walk you through what happened there. If that sounds like your kind of thing, $69 is reasonable. The tours also run July 31, so you could go earlier in the day and still catch the show at 7.

The Living Legends Series — a panel featuring Elvis insiders and special guests — is free, which removes any reason not to go if you‘re already at the property. Panels like this can be hit or miss depending on who shows up, but the “insiders” framing suggests people with actual firsthand stories rather than just tribute artists talking about their craft. It’s also at 7 p.m. on July 31, so you‘ll need to choose between this and the theater tour if you’re doubling up on events.

“Karaoke with The King” inside the Cabaret Theater is exactly what it sounds like — Elvis-themed karaoke. I‘ll be honest: this is the event I’d skip, unless you‘re traveling with a group that specifically loves karaoke. The Cabaret Theater is a fine room, but karaoke is karaoke. That said, if you’ve got someone in your group who‘s been waiting their whole life to sing “Suspicious Minds” in an Elvis costume, here’s their moment.

The Blue Hawaii Pool Party runs August 1 starting at noon, with cabana reservations available. Westgate's pool on a Saturday in August is going to be hot and crowded, so if you want a cabana, book it now. Elvis-inspired pool parties are a soft concept — mostly the playlist and maybe some decorations — but the pool itself is a reasonable way to spend the second day of a weekend trip.

Rounding out the weekend: Elvis-inspired food and beverage offerings, specialty spa and salon experiences, go-go dancers, and free live entertainment throughout the resort. These are ambient additions rather than scheduled events, but they indicate Westgate is genuinely trying to theme the whole property rather than just slapping an Elvis poster near the front desk.

For anyone building a full weekend around this, Westgate's room and package options are bookable directly through the resort.

October 24 — "1970 LIVE! That's the Way It Was"

The fall show is the more interesting artistic proposition of the two productions. The 1970 documentary “That‘s the Way It Is” (the full title, slightly adjusted in the show’s name) was filmed at the International Hotel during Elvis‘s summer and fall residency. It’s one of the better concert films of that era — not just an Elvis artifact, but a document of what live performance looked like at that scale in 1970.

Staging a recreation of those performances in the same theater where the documentary was filmed is a specific, defensible idea. The production promises to faithfully recreate the music, fashion, and energy of that residency. Whether it lands depends entirely on execution — the concept is sound, but this is a debut production, so there‘s inherent uncertainty. That said, Westgate has now run “1969 LIVE!” twice with sold-out results, so they’re not building this from scratch.

For fans of the documentary specifically, October 24 is the more compelling night. The 1969 comeback story is better known; the 1970 residency material runs a little deeper into the catalog and will likely draw an audience that‘s thought more carefully about Elvis’s Vegas years.

Tickets for the October 24 show are already on sale. You can find event and ticket details for “1970 LIVE!” on the Westgate site.

The International Theater's Place in This Story

I‘ve been in that theater more times than I can count. Barry Manilow has performed there for years — he’s essentially the current resident — but the room‘s origin story belongs to Elvis. He performed there starting in 1969, sold out every show, and turned what was a brand-new hotel into one of the most talked-about rooms in the country.

That context isn’t incidental to these productions. It's the whole point. You can see an Elvis tribute in dozens of rooms in this town. The Westgate shows are specifically using the fact that the original performances happened on that stage. My granddaughter came with me to a show there last year and had about a ten-second attention span for the history lesson, but even she understood why the room felt different once I explained it. People tend to sense when a room has actual weight — and this one does.

For tickets to the July 31 show and more details on the full King Weekend, the Westgate Las Vegas entertainment page has current availability.