Bublé puts Vegas performers to work

IT’S a Las Vegas show when Michael Bublé is singing “Smile” and you look down the line of choir singers and say, “Hey, that’s Michelle Johnson, Janien Valentine, Naomi Mauro

…” Then the string players, “That’s Crystal Yuan, Jennifer Hellewell, Carissa Werner …”

And on and on. It felt like a night at the Composers Showcase. Bublé said before his production at the Theatre at Resorts World Las Vegas that he was investing in musicians and singers over pyro and strobes. He followed through, even beyond covering “Viva Las Vegas.” More than 30 Vegas singers and musicians shared his stage in the production, which closed its sixshow run Saturday night.

Bublé’s outreach to local musicians follows a trend established over the years (to varying degrees) by such headliners as Celine Dion, Lady Gaga, Shania Twain, Donny and Marie Osmond, Johnny Mathis, John Fogerty and Journey, among a host of other acts.

Bublé was also reportedly a gem to work with. Great to know. We’re happy he worked here, period. A return and extension of his residency would be most righteous.

Given the stress and uncertainty musicians endured in the pandemic, it’s worth drawing a light to the Vegas entertainers in these shows. We’ve noted the musicians backing Gaga. Here are the locals from Bublé’s show:

Strings

■ Cello: Sarah Chaffee, Amanda Andreasen, Julia Chan.

■ Viola: Yuan, Hellewell, Werner.

■ Violin: Rebecca Oliver, Nataliya, Monique Olivas, Weishan Chang, Chandra Meibalane, Christina Levi, Megan Wingerter, Monika Limlingan, Ellie Krasner, Katherine Garcia.

■ Vegas singers from the Desert Angels choir: Johnson, Valentine, Mauro, Gret Menzies Gonzales, Rob Hyatt, Paula Ingram, Danyel Arianna, Fred Crescente, Eileen Deadwiler, Viqtory Destined, Aretha Harden, Karen Michaels, Hector Ramos, Stephanie Riley, Karen Scott, Jake Skarin, Lisa Rogers Smith.

Bublé also brings in singers enlisted by L.A. vocalist Angie Fisher. David Daughtry, Tirrell Hestle-Dilliard, Jason Morales and Sharon Youngblood were in the Resorts World production.

Bublé makes a unique decision to split his stage between the men and the women players, strings on house left, music director Nick Jacobson-Larson and the traveling horn section/rhythm section on the right. The staging looks like an old “Snowball” roller skate arrangement (look it up). But like everything else Bublé puts onstage, it works.

Vanishing act

The real trick is making it reappear.

We speak of the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign. Magician Xavier Mortimer has plans for that iconic landmark. He intends to make it vanish in a clip to be posted on his ever-expanding social media empire.

The Strat headliner was at the sign’s artificial turf location on Las Vegas Boulevard on Thursday afternoon. He and renowned magician and production consultant Joaquin Ayala reviewed sight lines and sketched the sign to prep for the act.

Mortimer has yet to announce when he will perform the routine, if or how the public will be involved, and when it will post.

“We’re going to try to make it public,” Mortimer said. “But right now, I’m still trying to make it work.”

The “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign was placed on the site in 1959. To our best knowledge, no one has attempted to perform a stunt such as Mortimer’s at the sign. He and his producer, French TV personality and director Alex Goude, came up with the idea.

Mortimer has posted a series of stunts on his TikTok page. He’s shown on the beach, sitting in a folding chair, which is yanked free by a bystander. Mortimer remains in place. In another, he’s packed in plastic wrap, placed in a cardboard box, and lifted by a forklift driven by an assistant. She lifts the box, the camera cuts away, then pans back to the piece of equipment. Mortimer is shown in the driver’s seat, the assistant wrapped up in the box.

Such clips have helped Mortimer expand his TikTok platform to 3.2 million followers. He’d not been active on TikTok until the pandemic shutdown. Overall, he’s drawn 6 billion views and 12 million social media followers on all platforms.

The “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign stunt follows a tradition among magicians in making famous landmarks vanish. David Copperfield, of course, leads that trend. The MGM Grand headliner made the Statue of Liberty disappear on national TV in 1983.

“The Statue of Liberty was such a huge event,” Mortimer said. “We wanted to find something famous, a good challenge, in Las Vegas.”

Cool Hang Alert

Longtime column fave Anne Martinez is heading up “Music, Mayhem and More” on Wednesday (doors at 6, dinner at 6:30 and show at 8 p.m.) at the Italian American Club Showroom. Chris Phillips of Zowie Bowie and Lorena Peril of “Fantasy” at Luxor are co-stars. We met Martinez in her days as a singer in “Bite” at the Stratosphere (now The Strat). She’s since developed the stage show “Alice” and the cabaret band Red Penny Arcade. She also appeared in “Baz” at the Palazzo Theater and has been a swing for Peril in “Fantasy.” Tickets are $65 for the entire experience; go to iacvegas. com.

Patrick Gray Kabik Photo Group More than 30 Vegas singers and musicians shared the stage with Michael Bublé during his six-show run at Resorts World Las Vegas.