Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
‘We Did It For Andy’: Chiefs hit the Strip
SOME of the merrymakers at Jewel Nightclub late Friday night and early Saturday might not have connected with the message on the club’s LED screens: “We Did It For Andy.”
But the mass of massive men understood.
Members of the Kansas City Chiefs, led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce, checked into Aria on Friday and flooded the resort’s megaclub. Several players were on hand, but accurately identifying them — especially face-to-face — was impossible. Club security resisted photos or videos in the interest of privacy, though the club was slammed to capacity with a line still snaking out to the escalators at about 3 a.m.
Inside the two-level, 24,000-square-foot club, there were frequent reminders that “The Super Bowl champs are in the house!” with the Chiefs’ famed KC arrowhead logo and message to head coach Andy Reid displayed around the venue. Servers wore the team’s red T-shirts, and at one point Mahomes and Kelce took to the DJ booth for a few moments of well-deserved basking.
But otherwise, it was much like any other club night in VegasVille. Staffers roamed the VIP area with champagne sparklers and LED wands, dancers squished against one another and strobes flashed around the room. Oh, and party cannons fired cool blasts of CO2 just as the place was about to become too hot to handle.
The Chiefs are expected to hit another club in the Hakkasan Group collective on Saturday night. Can’t quite predict which, though. Mahomes, the Super Bowl MVP, is known to audible, and is tough to corral.
CeeLo show change
The CeeLo Green residency is down to a “Crazy” eight.
The rap star has halved his original 16-show “Man in the Mirror” schedule at Flamingo Showroom. The production has taken all eight of its shows from March 24 through April off the books. The production is still scheduled to return for eight shows beginning Aug. 24.
Green posted a message Monday on his official Facebook page, announcing but not fully explaining the cut in performances. He posted: “Change can be unexpected and change is often inevitable. With that said we are making a slight change to my ‘Man in the Mirror’ Vegas residency at the Flamingo Las Vegas. The show will be beginning in August (instead of March) and tickets are on sale now @ceelovegas.com. This will be my most visually stunning show and a musical think-piece centered around self love. I encourage you to not miss it! See you in August.”
A Caesars Entertainment spokesman termed the lopping of shows a postponement, but the eight dates have not been rescheduled.
Green is a well-known fan of Las Vegas who performed a Las Vegas-fashioned “Loberace” show at Planet Hollywood in 2013. He also delivered a memorable moment at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden, performing “Forget You” as his grand piano rotated over the crowd while the artist was seat-belted to the bench.
Green also headlined a four-show series at Cleopatra’s Barge at Caesars Palace in July 2017, performing such hits as “Don’t Cha” (which he wrote for the Pussycat Dolls), “Crazy” and even Morris Day & The Time’s “The Bird.” The show roared in the smaller venue, and seemed built for a bigger stage. It has one at the Flamingo, where the “thinkpiece” will spin through town later than planned.
Shania adds shows
Shania Twain’s Zappos Theater party will continue through the fall. Her “Let’s Go” show, which features Twain Saloon as one of its backdrops, also will two-step with the National Finals Rodeo in December.
Twain has added 14 dates to her spirited production at Planet Hollywood, beginning Aug. 21 and continuing through the first week of
September. She returns for six shows Dec. 2-12 (tickets for the new dates are onsale at 10 a.m. Feb. 14, and those already on the books in March, May and June, are available at ticketmaster.com/ shaniavegas or at the Planet Hollywood box office).
Twain’s December dates are in line with the annual NFR, which drew 171,000 fans to Las Vegas in 2019, and sells out all 10 shows at the Thomas & Mack Center. Country artists and parties are front and center in Las Vegas during the NFR week, and Twain attended the 2019 event.
Twain’s announcement arrives on the 25th anniversary of “The Woman in Me,” her second studio album. The album has sold 20 million copies, and is peppered with such Twain favorites as “Any Man of Mine,” “(If You’re Not in It for Love) I’m Outta Here!” and “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?”
Those songs, along with such hits as “You’re Still The One,” “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” and “That Don’t Impress Me Much,” are highlights of “Let’s Go.”
In an interview prior to her receiving the Nevada Ballet Theatre Woman of the Year honor in January, Twain said, “I’m just appreciating, more than ever, my ability to get up there and run around and just be athletic. I’m really enjoying that, the interaction with the dancers, involving myself in the choreography and staging.
“When I get on the stage I am presenting, top to bottom, something that is me and it’s so satisfying.”