Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Chasing Elvis, a Manilow Vegas thing
BARRY MANILOW never met Elvis Presley. But the two are forever linked by the theater Elvis made famous and where Manilow is on schedule to break the King’s record for total performances.
International Theater at Westgate Las Vegas is the place, 636 is the number. Manilow has just released a new spate of dates in 2023, a total of 57 dates over 19 weekends starting Feb. 16 and carrying through to Dec. 9 (tickets range from $54.75 to $354.99, not including fees, on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at ticketmaster.com, barrymanilow.com or westgatelasvegas.com).
The record-breaking show should come in late September, after the Sept. 14-16 run but not yet booked. The superstar who made “Could It Be Magic” a classic will be feeling it that night.
“It’s a very big moment for me, such an honor to have been working on a stage that he was on,” Manilow says during a phone chat. “Elvis was so before my time, you know. I was in high school, but of course you couldn’t get away from Elvis.”
Not then, and not now. “Being in this room that he sat down in for a residency, just like I have, and to see my name in the same sentence is so amazing to me,” says Manilow, who turns 80 in June. “It’s a privilege. He invented a style of music, which is still popular today. How many people can say that?”
Manilow says he brings up Elvis to other artists and remains astonished at how deep his influence is.
“You know, Billy Joel, one of the great songwriters, who doesn’t sound anything like Elvis, you mention Elvis to him and he just goes off,” Manilow says. “Elvis was one of his idols. It just goes on and on, with people you never would have expected to have connected with Elvis’ music and style.”
Manilow has studied the Presley career, even weathering his film career, movies that Manilow describes as, “Terrible. He was so much better than those movies.” But Manilow says of the Baz Lurhmann “Elvis” movie, “I loved it. Austin Butler played him beautifully; it was beautiful work.”
Manilow actually showed Lurhmann around the International Theater in pre-production (a replica for the film was rebuilt in Australia). “It looked just like it must have looked, with the banquettes back in the room and returned to the whole Elvis era.”
Manilow is considering a shuffle of the set list to include an Elvis classic or a two-song medley.
“I covered ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight’ on my ‘Greatest Songs of the 50s’ album, which I like a lot,” Manilow says. “I did my own arrangement on it. I could do that. I also do a pretty interesting arrangement of ‘If I Can Dream,’ another great one. I used to do it here when the hotel was the Hilton, and it went over great. I might do one or both of them.”
Manilow’s Christmas show is also being reset at Westgate. “A Very Barry Christmas” is exactly that, a gush of holiday cheer running Dec. 1-10.
“Oh, we have a Christmas show,” Manilow says with a laugh. “I love doing it. It’s a whole different show than we do year-round. I’ve got, I think it’s three Christmas albums. It’s great fun, and I have a whole bunch of Christmas songs ready to go.”
Manilow recalls his road schedule from years past. It was common for him to spend months on tour.
Those memories make the Westgate series even more fulfilling.
“We were on flights, not private planes, but commercial flights, for months at a time,” Manilow says. “We were very successful, but you know, it just finally got to me. I didn’t want to tour like that anymore. I’ll do 6-7 shows at a time, but I don’t want to do 16. Now me and the band get to play music and be with each other and then go home and play with the dogs and actually have a life.”
As any Fanilow can recite, this is Manilow’s second run at the International Theater, dating to his original series that ran from 2005-2010, when the hotel was branded Las Vegas Hilton. He moved to Paris Theater for two years, closing in December 2012. He returned to Westgate in May 2017.
His is the latest superstar residency where Barbra Streisand, Liberace, Wayne Newton, Tony Bennett and Bobby Darin, among many other legends, join Elvis as legendary headliners.
“There has been so much entertainment history made on this property in the International Theater, and we are so excited about the history Barry Manilow will be making in the coming year,” Westgate President and General Manager Cami Christensen says. “What is really special is watching and feeling the magic he brings to his audience and Westgate Las Vegas.”