October surprise: Madonna at T-mobile
THE superstar whose career has spanned vinyl to digital, and “American Bandstand” to Instagram, is sweeping to the Strip this fall.
“Madonna: The Celebration Tour” will stop at T-mobile Arena on Oct. 7. The international superstar announced the tour in a video that revived a famous truth-or-dare scene from the movie that chronicled her 1990 “Blonde Ambition” tour.
The video on Madonna’s Instagram Reels feed costars Diplo, Amy Schumer, Judd Apatow, Jack Black, Lil Wayne, Bob the Drag Queen, Kate Berlant, Larry Owens,
Meg Stalter and Eric Andre.
In the clip, Schumer challenges Madonna to play her four decades of hits.
“I dare you to play a world tour and play your greatest (expletive) hits,” Schumer offers.
“(Expletive) yeah,” Madonna answers.
Tickets for the 35-city world tour, produced by Live Nation, are on sale at 10 a.m. Friday (Pacific time) at Axs.com. For more information, go to Madonna.com.
The tour comes just ahead of the 40th anniversary of her debut album, “Madonna,” in 1983. “Like a Virgin” was issued a year later. The series pays homage to New York, where her music career began.
“I am excited to explore as many songs as possible in hopes to give my fans the show they have been waiting for,” Madonna said in a release. Bob the Drag Queen (aka Caldwell
Tidicue), a frequent performer at the Miss Exotic World competition in Las Vegas, is special guest.
Madonna most recently played Las Vegas on Nov. 7, 9 and 10 at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. These were her “Madame X” shows, for which she showed up at 12:15 a.m. Hundreds of fans reportedly filed out amid chants of “refund!”
The superstar was undaunted. “There’s something that you all need to understand,” she told the crowd. “And that is
that a queen is never late.”
Before that series, Madonna headlined the MGM Grand Garden in October 2015, her most recent arena date. The show was on her immensely successful “Rebel Heart Tour.”
‘Blame it on Edge’
U2 is inching to a bona fide announcement about its series at the MSG Sphere that we’ve been tracking for the past few months.
The Edge has reportedly been sharing some renderings of the show with actor and “Smartless” podcast host Sean
Hayes. And Bono has both teased to and denied the Vegas residency in that podcast, co-hosted by Jason Bateman and Will Arnett.
In an exchange from an upcoming episode of “SmartLess,” reported by the Irish Sun tabloid, Hayes told Bono he’d recently had dinner with The Edge. The musician showed him plans for the U2 show at the Sphere, saying, “It’s incredible.”
Hayes elaborated, “The Edge told me that you guys are going to go on tour in Las Vegas and he showed me the renderings of this new theatre, it’s going to be unbelievable. It’s a brandnew venue, right?”
Bono answered, “You are a news network now, because that’s breaking news! Blame it on Edge! But it’s great.”
The podcast will post to the public Monday.
This is likely the closest we’ve seen to a U2 confirmation of opening the 17,500-seat venue, which is still under development behind The Venetian/palazzo. We expect word within the month that U2 will premiere at the Sphere in late September, playing a dozen shows over six weekends.
The 62-year-old Bono hedged on these plans, saying, “We haven’t signed off on it, but if we do, if we do sign off on this, I will say that if we can pull off what we’re talking about, it’s not like anything we’ve ever done before.
“It’s nothing like Las Vegas has ever seen before. If this happens this will be really extraordinary.”
There is no word on whether drummer and band co-founder Larry Mullen Jr. would participate in the Vegas shows. He told The Washington Post in December that he will undergo surgeries that will keep him off the stage this year. Mullen has been battling neck and elbow problems, and has a history of knee and back ailments.
This week, the band announced the March 17 release date for “Songs of Surrender,” its reimagined and re-recorded collection of 40 of its classic songs.
No illusion
Planet Hollywood Resort headliner Criss Angel checked out David Blane’s uber-entertaining “In Spades” show at Resorts World Theatre on Sunday night. No barbs, just cards, in this one. Angel stood as Blaine took questions from the audience. Blaine had just finished his 11-minute breathhold number (fantastic) and mentioned his daughter prefers him to stay onstage while recovering from the act.
As Blaine chatted with the crowd, Angel rose without introduction from his seat in the middle of the lower section. He related his son Johnny Criss
topher’s fight against cancer. Angel also wished Blaine good luck in his run at Resorts World. Blaine nodded, grinned and said, “I would love to meet your son, Criss, and thank you so much. God bless him, and God bless you as well, and God bless everyone.”
Angel later posted a shot of the two backstage, also with a message of congratulations and saying “Thank you for your hospitality.”
Cool Hang Alert
Steven Page is playing The Duomo at the Rio on Saturday night. Barenaked Ladies fans know him as co-founder of the great Canadian rock band. Page left BNL in 2009 for a solo career and headlines with his trio at the Rio at 8 p.m. Go to ticketmaster.com for info.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section.
His “Podkats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal. com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal. com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @Johnnykats1 on Instagram.