IT IS, IT WOULD seem, a classic no-brainer: a magic show with a spooky, Halloween theme. But despite the countless magicians who have hocus-pocused their way across Atlantic City casino stages over the past three decades, no one has ever thought to stage such a pageant - until now.

Tomorrow, David Caserta brings his "Haunted Illusions" presentation to Resorts Atlantic City. It's a multimedia affair that adds an element of theatrical spookiness to his onstage wizardry.

"I developed it a few years ago," said the native of the Lehigh Valley burg of Nazareth. "I thought there was a niche there. Few magic shows have themes. I thought you'd be able to tell stories if you script it right. So, it's not just a 'did-you-see-that'? kind of show."

According to Caserta, it wasn't just a matter of throwing a couple of skeletons onstage while he went through his paces.

"The challenge was to come up with some illusions that have some eeriness to them," he said. "Some people have seen magic before, but you can still come up with something new. I take a lot of pride in the show. There is a lot of production to it."

Among the illusions he conjured are the two that bookend his performance. He opens the show by seemingly emerging on stage from a video clip of a cemetery, and ends things by returning to said bone yard. He is similarly proud of the bit in which he walks through a steel slab - an illusion, he admitted, that didn't just materialize out of thin air.

"Seven or eight years ago, I had the mind to do it," he explained, "but I never could get it. I finally got it a year ago."

While video figures in his entrance and finale, music plays a role in much of "Haunted Illusions." "It's actually one of the most important parts of the show," he said, noting that music is a way to manipulate an audience's emotions.

"Through the years, I've actually had four or five [pieces] for each illusion. I have to go through literally a thousand songs to find one that works."

The real trick (as it were), was to choose music that fits the mood of a given illusion but isn't so familiar to the audience that they'll be distracted from the business at (sleight of) hand.

"We want to keep the illusions at the forefront," he said.

Caserta is especially excited to be making his AyCee debut, having taken group bus trips there as a child to see such legends of legerdemain as David Copperfield and Harry Blackstone Jr.

"I never hit that market before," he said. "It's great to have a show there. I've spent a lot of time to make sure it's right."

Resorts Atlantic City, Boardwalk at North Carolina Avenue, 8 p.m. tomorrow, $20, 800-736-1420, www.ticketmaster.com.

A nice surprise

 

After the fiasco that was Tropicana Casino and Resort's production of "Fame," I was hardly thrilled by the prospect of "Footloose," another based-on-an-'80s-movie Broadway musical about high school students.

Imagine my surprise - not to mention delight - to find that "Footloose," which runs through Nov. 4, is a solid effort.

Perhaps what makes this latest gaming-hall version of the play so strong is that it doesn't follow the traditional truncated-Broadway-show format of squeezing as many songs as possible into a 90-minute running time. Most of the time, irrelevant things like plot and character development are sacrificed for the sake of nonstop tuneage.

But this version keeps those elements in place. What's more, the cast is populated with performers who can really act, rather than just sing and dance. (To tell the truth, during a recent performance, the dramatic turns outshined the musical work, but that might have been because the vocals were much louder than the accompanying prerecorded soundtrack, which rendered them somewhat distracting.)

Not that "Footloose" doesn't have its problems, beginning with its preposterous tale of a small Oklahoma town that has outlawed all forms of dancing, and the feisty kid from Chicago who challenges the ban.

And its score is an odd mix of old-school show tunes (the song, "I Can't Stand Still" rhymes "come from" with "humdrum"), and tracks from the mega-selling film soundtrack LP that features such slick pop hits as "Let's Hear It for the Boy," "I Need A Hero" and, of course, the title track.

But none of that keeps "Footloose" from being the best Trop offering in recent memory.

Tropicana Casino and Resort, Boardwalk at Brighton Avenue, 9 p.m. tomorrow, 7 p.m. Sunday, 8 p.m. Monday, 3:30 and 8 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, $25, 800-736-1420, www.ticketmaster.com.

People needing Barbra

 

Tomorrow night, Harrah's Chester Racetrack & Casino presents "Simply Barbra," a tribute to Barbra Streisand. What sets this apart from many similar programs is that Babs will be portrayed by a guy, Steven Brinberg.

Show time is 7:30 p.m. Admission is $75 and includes three-hour open bar, hors d'oeuvres and dinner, which features a carving station. Tickets at www.harrahschester.com.

Chuck Darrow has covered Atlantic City and casinos for more than 20 years. Read his blog http://go.philly.com/casinotes.

E-mail him at darrowc@phillynews.com.

And listen to his Atlantic City report Saturdays at 1:25 a.m. with Steve Trevelise on WIP (610-AM).