Lady Gaga returns to Dolby Live in June
LUCK will be a lady once again at Dolby Live. Lady Gaga’s “Jazz + Piano” show will be back in June and into July at Dolby Live at Park MGM, we confidently report. The plan is for at least eight shows in that series.
Sources with knowledge of the production indicate Gaga will follow Bruno Mars’ June dates in the theater. Mars’ added performances, announced this week, include June 7, 8,
12, 14 and 15. “J + P” would haul in after.
The superstar showed her cards this past September, calling from the stage, “We’re gonna make a contract. Everybody on this stage will be here forever. We’ll do it. I’m not kidding. I make a lot of jokes on this stage. This is not one of them.”
As the jazz production is extended, there are no dates on the books for Gaga’s “Enigma” pop show. That production originally toggled dates with “Jazz + Piano” when it opened on New Year’s Eve weekend 2018.
The two shows have combined for nearly $100 million in revenue at Dolby Live.
But Gaga has not performed “Enigma” since New Year’s Eve weekend 2019.
Gaga has most recently performed “Jazz + Piano” in a three-show run Oct. 1-5. (She also led a version of the show at Mark Davis’ “The Dinner Show” at Fontainebleau during Super Bowl weekend.) The production has been backed by a 30-piece big band featuring the horns of Santa Fe & The Fat City Horns.
Acclaimed keyboardist Michael Bearden conducts the orchestra. Trumpet great Brian Newman has assembled the horn section and plays the show with his own backing band. Both are Gaga’s longtime friends and artistic collaborators.
“J + P” is a classic throwback production. Set on a vintage Vegas showroom staircase, Gaga passionately and powerfully performs revamped arrangements of Great American Songbook classics.
Gaga unspools the above-referenced “Luck Be a Lady” and “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra, “Cheek to Cheek” and “The Lady is a Tramp” by Tony Bennett,
Ira Gershwin’s “Someone to Watch Over Me” and Dinah Washington’s “What a Diff ’rence a Day Makes.”
Her own “Paparazzi” is given the big-band treatment, and from the grand piano, Gaga also stitches “Poker Face” and “Born This Way” into the production.
Gaga had initially negotiated “J + P” into her residency partnership with MGM Resorts International. She has said during performances that she convinced officials to take on the jazz production, along with “Enigma,” and has called from the stage, “The jazz shows sold out faster!”
Puppet out
Terry Fator’s lips aren’t moving. But his show is.
The ventriloquial star is leaving New York-new York’s Liberty Loft, his performance home for the past three-plus years. The veteran Las Vegas headliner said in a statement Wednesday:
“I can confirm that I will be leaving New York-new York Hotel & Casino as of March 26, 2024. I look forward to continuing to entertain audiences both in Las Vegas and around the world, and am excited to share new updates with my fans very soon. I would like to thank MGM Resorts for a wonderful 15-year partnership. Stay tuned!”
Fator has not confirmed where he’s performing next, but look for him to resume his residency this May at The Strat Showroom. He did not give a reason for leaving the thirdfloor performance space, but word from MGM Resorts International is he was seeking a better venue.
Fator, the Season 2 “America’s Got Talent” championship in 2007, thus ends a 15-year partnership with MGM Resorts. He opened at the former Danny Gans Theater in March 2009, moving to the former Zumanity Theater at NY-NY in April 2021, then to Liberty Loft the following August.
Fator first performed at the Las Vegas Hilton Oct. 14-15 of 2007. His star puppets include Winston the Impersonating Turtle, Walter T. Airdale, Maynard Tompkins, Vickie The Cougar and Emma Taylor.
May We Recommend …
UNLV music professor composer and master musician Dave Loeb leads the 34th annual “Joe Williams Scholarship Concert,” a tribute to Marlena Shaw, at 3 p.m. Sunday at UNLV’S Ham Hall.
The show features Vegas stage greats Don Cunningham, Laura Taylor, Michelle Johnson, Jo Belle Yonely, Naomi Mauro, Gary Fowler, Clint Holmes, Lara V. Smith, Toscha Comeaux, Linda Johnson, T. Bradleigh Calvin and Steph Payne. The emcee is classic comic and master musician Pete Barbutti.
The event honors the late jazz great Shaw, who died Jan. 19 at age 84 in Las Vegas.
Proceeds go to the Joe Williams Scholarship Fund, which supports students at UNLV’S School of Music. Williams, the “Emperor of the Blues,” gained international fame initially Count Basie Orchestra, and through the Grammy Award-winning album “Nothin’ But The Blues.” He was popular on TV talk shows and in Las Vegas showrooms throughout his career.
Tickets are $10 — a mere pittance — go to unlv.edu for more intel.
Cool Hang Alert
Column fave Kelly Clinton-holmes debuts her latest production, “Unleashed,” to Notoriety Live at 2 p.m. Sunday (1 p.m. doors). This is an autobiographical, variety show that covers Clinton-holmes’ career from her time backing Wayne Newton and Engelbert Humperdinck through her role as Sister Mary Amnesia in the stage show “Nunsense.” Go to Notorietylive.com for intel.