Just when you think Las Vegas has reached peak residency madness, another announcement makes the Strip the envy of the entertainment world.
After months of waiting, pop icon Adele finally rescheduled her postponed dates at Caesars Palace, and added even more to the calendar.
Then there’s this: Reports say legendary rock act U2 will open the nearly $2 billion MSG Sphere venue and have several dates following it.
And rapper Travis Scott just agreed to an exclusive engagement with a mega-club to revive his career after the Astroworld festival tragedy.
State of Nevada producer Mike Prevatt recently spoke to Las Vegas Review-Journal entertainment columnist John Katsilometes about the present and future of resident music performers on the Strip.
The market is oversaturated, but he said most of the Strip headliners are doing well –not selling out, but selling about 80%. Even bigger one-time acts, like Billy Joel and James Taylor, did not sell out but still had successful nights.
“I'm interested to see how The Killers do this month at T-Mobile Arena,” he said. “If they wipe the place out, they should, but that doesn't mean they will necessarily, just because there's so many options. I'll tell you, look at any given weekend, there are literally hundreds of options for live entertainment in Las Vegas.”
The term itself, residency, has expanded beyond what one may think of in terms of Celine Dion or Elton John. Now, there’s engagements, arena residents, on-and-off residencies, regular nightclub appearances, and the like.
“I think that when you build a show for Las Vegas and you come into one of these theaters, you might as well run it as an extended engagement more than once and call it a residency,” Katsilometes said. “I think people are finding that they can have a great commercial experience and have a great artistic experience with a Vegas-specific show over multiple dates.“
On Adele …
“You're going to be looking at about,I would say realistically, $500 to get in the door typically, and $5,000 at the top level. And I will tell you if you really want to see Adelel and you're really interested in trying to get the best deal, just keep hitting those sites, keep going in, because they do shift according to demand … There's a whole intricate system of how that happens. But if you're a consumer, I would keep hitting the Stubhubs and Via Gogo, LasVegasTickets.com has been around for 25 years. That's a reliable site for this kind of thing. It's market demand. You know, when you see those types of tickets listed, I mean, look at what happened with Bruce Springsteen shows. Those are $5,000 listed, you're looking at a residency that is out of the reach of a lot of people, but those are the face value prices.”
“It'll be a show you can only see in Las Vegas, it has to be exclusive. This is going to be only in Vegas and only is such a huge word … First of all, we already know she's got draw power just by putting her name up there. There is no marketing so far or no advance.”
On U2 …
The Irish rock megagroup is reported to have their first residency in Las Vegas, leading the opening of the incoming MSG Sphere, though nothing has been announced yet.
“There has been no categorical denial on this from anybody I believe .. [MSG said] they had nothing to add other than within what they had seen. Again, we talked about exclusivity because it’ll be the only place you can see U2. And now I would expect they would want to do something with U2 in the Sphere like what T-Mobile has done with George Strait and do six weekends a year or whatever. … One thing I know about U2, over the years, I’ve known people who have been involved in their camp in different ways for a long time. They like Las Vegas, they get Las Vegas.“
On Travis Scott …
The rapper is scheduled for a residency at Resorts World. He was recently in national news for the tragedy at his festival, AstroWorld, which left 10 people dead.
“They know that he's a draw. And he went through the award shows pretty much unscathed. He's been kind of stepping back in, he's going to have to resolve this tragedy at the AstroWorld festival. But it is an impactful move, seven shows in the nightclub, like that is a big commitment. And I can only say that they do go for it there. It's the ultraclub. Competition is as stiff as ever in the city. In September when it starts, this might be one who went out and even remember AstroWorld, they just want to see Travis Scott's art. … We have other examples, as I saw Chris Brown over at Drai’s. You know, he's their resident headliner. And he's not the king of positive publicity, Chris Brown, but I'll tell you what, they bank on the fact that you're buying a piece of art and you're buying a performance … And I saw the Chris Brown show, for example, I have not seen a full Travis Scott show. But holy crap, it was memorable, I'll put it that way. You get a lot on all sides of this. You get hit a lot with these guys. A lot of activity, a lot of art, a lot of risk. But, you don't know until you know, you don't fly until you try. And that's what they'll tell you.”
On Britney Spears …
Obviously she canceled her second residency. Her conservatorship is over. She's celebrating her freedom. She's recording new music. What are the chances that she comes back?
“She's recording and she's doing music. And you know, she's dancing it up to great effect on the ‘gram. … I've run this theory around folks in the entertainment community who would know this kind of thing. I'll just put it that way that Britney Spears will come back. And she'll dress it up as her big reemergence. And it'll be tied to, I don't know, what? Baby One More Time’s anniversaries around now? She still has something to achieve outside of her conservatorship on stage. She can still be a marketable headliner in Las Vegas, I'm convinced of this, if you present her the right way: ‘Britney's Back’, and you can know what that would mean.”
On Olivia Newton-John …
“When you talk to singers around Las Vegas who really studied Olivia Newton-John, they said her live performances –if you go back to the ‘80s and earlier– her live performances before there was autotune and before there were all the gadgets were flawless. Her concert performances vocally were flawless. And I don't think that she has, in her passing, been given enough credit for that. When you're thinking about her, you think about her doing a hand jive with John Travolta. But she was a very special person.”
John Katsilometes, entertainment columnist, Las Vegas Review-Journal
