‘Crazy’ Vegas gamble pays off
Dion’s arrival sparked a wave of pop stars at Caesars Palace
It used to be that if you were playing Las Vegas, it was time to check your career for a pulse. Celine Dion changed all that.
She came, saw and conquered, and all of the sudden, every second A-list pop star wanted a residency on the strip.
Dion returned to the Vegas concert scene this week to kick off another series of shows at the Colosseum in Caesars Palace. Her Vegas revolution started when her husband and manager, René Angélil, a frequent visitor to Las Vegas, had an epiphany: Why not have an artist in the prime of her career headline a long-term series of shows at one of the major casinos?
Thus was born A New Day, which premièred at the Colosseum in March 2003.
There were plenty of naysayers in the beginning, but the critics quickly fell silent when the cash started rolling in. That first Dion residency grossed more than US$400 million by the time it ended in 2007. It also changed how major artists can approach live performance.
Since then, many of the world’s top pop stars have followed Dion’s path to Vegas for lengthy engagements. It started with Elton John, who began performing at the Colosseum in 2004, and continued with Cher, Bette Midler, Rod Stewart, Shania Twain, Mariah Carey and the double bill of Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn. All of these stars have been regulars at the 4,296-seat Colosseum.
Another theatre, the AXIS, entered the market in late 2013 with the première of the Britney Spears show Piece of Me. It’s still running at the venue, which is part of the Planet Hollywood complex just down the strip from Caesars. Jennifer Lopez is scheduled to debut her Vegas show there in January.
John Nelson, the Las Vegasbased senior vice-president of concert giant AEG Live, was there right at the start of Dion’s Vegas project.
“I knew that this could be a great hit,” Nelson said. “Not a lot of people agreed. A lot of people in the music business thought this was a crazy idea. Who would take such a risk on an artist who could sell one or two or three nights in an arena here? Who would take the risk of trying to present her for 200 nights a year? That was Celine’s schedule in 2003. Five nights in a row, 40 weeks in a year.”
But AEG, Caesars, Dion and Angélil rolled the dice and won the jackpot. From the start of the modern pop biz, the philosophy was that artists had to tour the world. Instead, they put the star in one venue and had the world come to her.
Most likely, this can only work in Las Vegas — a city that attracts around 40 million visitors annually. Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté understood the potential of this extraordinary entertainment marketplace, which is why the Cirque has eight permanent shows here.
“Las Vegas affords (artists) the opportunity because there are so many visitors from all over the world that love entertainment and who are coming to look for shows,” said Jason Gastwirth, senior vicepresident of marketing and entertainment for Caesars Entertainment, which owns Caesars Palace.
“That’s why you haven’t seen the residency model pop up in other places. Because Vegas is unique that way. People come to Vegas looking for the greatest entertainment, world-class restaurants, great retail, excellent hotel products. Because of that, we’re able to support these shows.”
And the performers love the concept of a residency at a theatre.
“The artists like being able to be in one place, to set up a show in a theatre environment versus the challenges of travelling into different venues,” Gastwirth said. “When you think about these shows, they have perfect sound, perfect lighting. It gives the artist an opportunity to have a better lifestyle. A lot of our artists also have families. So they’re able to bring their families here, not be on the road all the time. Vegas is often closer to where they live.”
Denis Savage, director of operations for Dion’s show, agreed that this is a fabulous model for artists.
“It’s certainly a lot easier than touring,” he said. “It allows you to do things you couldn’t if you were touring. The stage in here is twice the width of an arena stage. It’s a luxury. Plus, you get to polish the show a lot more than if you were taking the show up and down every day.”