‘Show’ finds new area code

Every time Tim Ellis went to visit Lori Brystan’s studio over the past five years, the photographer made a point of talking about this dream she had.

The Elite-model-turned-photographer has had a lifelong love affair with music and dreamed of a nightclub experience like her grandparents enjoyed. Classy, grown-up entertainment — dinner and a show, as they would say. Not fast-food and a movie: nightclub singers and a four-course dinner. It bugged her that most nightclubs just offered drinks and a deejay.

Ellis, who produces mostly kids and family entertainment, would hire Brystan for her photography, but he was intrigued by this idea she had.

“Every time I’d see her at the studio she’d be shooting, and she’d always talk about this idea,” Ellis said. “It was obviously her passion. So I thought, ‘I have a lot of relationships in the entertainment field, I could help her.’ It just looked like fun, and I was willing to take the time to make it a reality.”

With Ellis’ contacts and Brystan’s money, the two eventually found a home for “Show: the Supper Club” at the new Code Restaurant in Newport Beach. It seemed like a perfect match initially. Code needed something to attract customers, and “Show” was appealing to an upper-income 35- to 55-year-old demographic, Ellis said.

But now the live-musical-theater experiment appears to be in jeopardy. It started out with a variety show Friday nights featuring 1930s and ’40s music with singers and burlesque dancers and even some comic spoken word. It expanded to include a night with a Sinatra theme. Then there were plans for a “Whole Lotta Love” Wednesdays featuring ’70s rock and burlesque dancers and an Americana-rock night Fridays. The Americana-rock show was canceled before it started, and “Whole Lotta Love” lasted one night before it ended up in limbo.

After spending tens of thousands of Brystan’s money on the project, “Show” isn’t generating quite enough profit to sustain itself, Ellis said.

“I’m 80% sure it will keep going,” Ellis said. “We’ll be spending some time [Tuesday] with [Code’s owners] to try to come up with a plan. We have to work together for their success and our success.”

The show drew strong crowds when it debuted in May, but part of the problem was the transition from the supper club to the singles crowd Friday nights, Code General Manager George Fortier said.

The supper club fans didn’t want to stick around for the singles-crowd dancing and drinking, but the show was ending too late to clear the room, Fortier said.

“I think it had a lot of potential,” Fortier said.

“But it was a little bit too overdone. It didn’t need to be that extensive. People could have appreciated it the way it was, but it was too much.”

Ellis agreed. The show could thrive with fewer performers.

“It’s probably too much great stuff,” he said. “It’s a matter of reduction and getting the best stuff out there.”

If “Whole Lotta Love” continues...

Here’s what you can expect if the show goes on:

 MOB (a jokey acronym for My Other Band) supplies the late ’60s, early ’70s musical vibe as they cover the era when Led Zeppelin picked up the mantle from the Beatles. Guitarist Kenny Hale hot dogs just enough to be fun, but not obnoxious, while lead singer Michael Olivieri wails like a cross between Robert Plant and Chris Cornell. Bassist Mike Cowden’s got hyperactive-John-Entwistle digits and drummer Dave Goode would make Charlie Watts proud.

In between the band’s sets, the Shimmy Sisters and others offer up sexy dance numbers, including one that features fire and another a snake.

 Dinner is four courses.

 To see if the show continues, go to showthesupperclub.com