A continual headliner on the casino circuit from Reno, Tahoe and Las Vegas to Atlantic City and the legendary London Palladium, as well as pop-concerts with symphonies in every major American city, Debbie has made live performing her primary occupation for the past 40 years, and still continues to tour on the average of forty-two weeks each year.  Presented here is a brief history of this phase in her career, which will in future be augmented by the memories of fans and admirers who have had the pleasure of seeing Debbie in concert.  If you have at any time been an audience member and would like to send in your congratulations or recollections, please click here.  All participants' entries will be posted, as a tribute to Miss Reynolds.

CURRENT BILLS PLAYING IN LAS VEGAS: Milton Berle at the Desert Inn; Betty Grable and Dan Dailey at the Dunes; Pearl Bailey, Harry James and Della Reese at the Flamingo; Patsy Cline at the Mint; Buddy Hackett and Helen O'Connell at the Sahara; Joey Bishop and Frankie Avalon at the Sands; Georgie Jessel at the Showboat. And joining their ranks with her brand new act Miss Debbie Reynolds at the Riviera...

In 1962, with the help of a few creatively artistic friends, Debbie began putting together her first nightclub act [read the original review], slated to open only weeks later in Las Vegas, where other Hollywood stars had gone before her and had met with wild popularity.  Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, Mitzi Gaynor and others had all enjoyed great success with their nightclub revues.  In late December of 1962, Debbie bounced on the stage of the Riviera Hotel before a star-studded opening night audience.  She was joined by talented partners Jerry Antes and Roy Fitzell, both of whom received high praise after the act's fabulous debut.  The show began with a lively rendition of "I Want to Be Happy", finished with Debbie in full clown getup singing "Be a Clown", and for an encore, a sweetly-sentimental version of "Tammy".  The act met with rave reviews wherever it went from then on; Houston, then back to Vegas, later on Miami. 

"I’m a ham, an exhibitionist.  I’ve never been nervous about doing anything. The only time I get nervous is when I’m doing a stage appearance and the man is out there talking about me. I just wish he’d say, ‘Here she is,’ and let me get on. I can’t stand that awful waiting."

When her film work had slowed down in the late '60s, Debbie was better able to concentrate on her stage performances.  In 1967, she was back again at the Riviera, where she'd made several returns since her first opening there, and would continue to make many more.  She appeared in the hotel's Versailles Room that year, as did notables such as Ann-Margret, Louis Armstrong, Allen & Rossi, Roy Fitzell (now going solo), Trini Lopez, Sheila MacRae, and Tony Martin with Dan Daley.

In 1973, Debbie took a break from her nightclub appearances to star in the sensational Broadway revival of "Irene", which went on to break all previous box office records for a Broadway musical. 

Old-style vaudeville was a hard sell in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and audiences were getting their amusement at home - much to the chagrin of Debbie and her company of 38.  She commented at the time: "Of course, why should anyone go anywhere? You have good entertainment on TV today, really tops. To get people away from their tubes you’ve got to five them what they can’t get at home. That’s why I thought of this vaudeville show, something for everybody, from our Lady Weight-Watchers, our Barbara [Streisand], who weighs 300 pounds, used to be a stripper, but she keeps her clothes on - to our young, young, young kids who sing and a Washington comedian named Rip Taylor."  The next decade brought an act with "Singin' in the Rain" co-star Donald O'Connor, which opened at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles in 1988.  O'Connor, like Debbie, had also been enjoying success in stage shows on Broadway and in television appearances since he'd been away from the silver screen.  They made the perfect team.

Today, Debbie's act is her mainstay, overshadowing occasional spots in film and television.  Though life on the road is exhausting, she says "I'm really not happy unless I'm performing".  In a recent interview about her stage performances, she explained more about the format of her current show: "Every year I put in a new medley. I’m putting in a song called “That’s Life,” which is a Sinatra B hit many years ago and a really great song. Another song that I like very much, “From This Moment On.” Another new Forties medley because I love the music of the Forties....I’m doing Dolly Parton this time in my impression section. I do Barbra Streisand and Katharine Hepburn. I’ve been doing impressions many, many years. I like the comedy. You can be outrageous when you play somebody else. You can be Mae West, say things and do things that she actually did say. You can do a lot of comedy in your show doing other people. It’s just something I’ve been enjoying doing for a long time. I worked with a lot of these people and I started imitating them. As I heard them, I found their voices different. You have to have an ear for it. You can’t just decide you are going to do it, you have to have perfect pitch. I have the right ear."

In October of 2001, Norm Johnson noted in the Las Vegas Review Journal: "Debbie Reynolds, the unstoppable one, opened last night at The Orleans showroom and will be singing, dancing and doing her impersonations through this Sunday. This is a lady that just keeps going and going and going. And to be perfectly honest with you every day she ages it's just like fine wine, she just gets better and better. One cannot go wrong paying for a ticket to one of her shows."