The Press in Las Vegas | Booming residences

Katy Perry, Adele, the Jonas Brothers, Usher, Maroon 5, Bruno Mars and Carrie Underwood will all be in residence in Las Vegas in the coming months. Popularized by Celine Dion 20 years ago, these series of concerts in the city of vice are more in vogue than ever, in a changing entertainment industry. Our report.

At the end of January. We’re at Resorts World Theater in Las Vegas, the newest performance venue built on the Strip. Designed by the Montreal company Scéno Plus, the complex joins the ten theaters already erected in the city over the past 20 years. So you might wonder why Las Vegas needs a new venue. “We offer a model primarily tailored to residences, which includes the latest technologies,” explains HC Rowe, vice president and general manager of Resorts World Theatre.

The rooms are not lacking. But the industry is booming and the offer of a more modern room is not too much.

As HC Rowe shows us around the massive 4,700-seat theater, the only other people there are technicians putting on a show for the next day, the Chinese New Year. One-off events like this take place at Resorts World, but the stage is mostly used by Katy Perry, Luke Bryan and Carrie Underwood, all of whom put on a residency show there these days. Others decide to offer just a handful of performances, like the Jonas Brothers did during an exclusive weekend in February at the Dolby Live Theater at Park MGM.

“Here, it’s really possible to build a show that is unique,” says John Nelson, senior vice president at AEG, which manages the residencies.

We are back in Quebec during this phone interview, but he is sitting in Resorts World when he calls us. The hall is AEG’s newest construction. A project that fell through during the economic crisis of 2008, but has been revived in recent years. Because the entertainment industry, especially the touring industry, has changed dramatically since 2008.

“First, there was the digitization of music, which makes artists much more dependent on income from shows, describes John Nelson. Then there are the effects of the pandemic and inflation: it becomes a challenge to have the means to go on tour. More and more artists are seeing the value of using the Las Vegas show model and having fans come to see them. »

Celine Dion’s Legacy

The Resorts World had first been designed to accommodate the new residence of Celine Dion, undisputed queen of the Strip. With Charlemagne’s diva struggling with health issues, the schedule has changed somewhat, but audiences are well and truly there for the new shows on offer, H. C. Rowe assures us, as he leads us through the state-of-the-art dressing rooms, the recording studio and the gigantic hangar, installed under the Resorts World stage.

As for Céline, if she is not on stage as planned at the moment, it is her legacy that is causing the number of residencies announced these days to explode. “Before her, it had been a long time since artists had set up a residence in Vegas”, as Elvis had done in his time, explains John Nelson.

John Nelson was working for AEG when Céline decided to partner with Franco Dragone for this major show at the Colosseum, custom-designed by Scéno Plus. It was in March 2003, exactly 20 years ago. “No one had done what she was doing, let alone at this level. It exploded beyond expectations. And now we have a lot of theaters and artists doing the same thing. »

Thus, modern residences have been commonplace in Vegas since Celine landed at the Colosseum with her show A New Day. But the scope of possibilities for directing and production is much wider today, as technology continues to evolve. Another reason why more and more artists, who would have no difficulty in attracting their audience if they hit the road for a tour, are putting their suitcases temporarily in Las Vegas.

At Resorts World, for example, immersive technology offers a sound system unmatched in Las Vegas, explains Olivier Berthiaume-Bergé, president of Scéno Plus, met in his offices in Montreal. In addition to an up-to-date interior design, the specialized equipment makes it possible to push the production of shows to new heights.

Katy Perry’s show, currently playing at Resorts World, which took almost a year to put together, “is so beautiful, so extravagant, so Vegas,” says John Nelson.

How does he see the future then? “There is less and less room to build a new complex in Las Vegas. I don’t think we’ll see any more in our lifetime, observes John Nelson. But the technology will continue to improve and the rooms will need to be modernized. »

However, the vice-president of AEG does not see any slowdown on the horizon for residences, on the contrary. “We even see the concept expanding, as with what Harry Styles did, presenting a dozen shows at Madison Square Garden in New York, then at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles. He called it residences. I think we’re going to see more and more of that, just like we’re going to see more residencies in Las Vegas. »

Which residences to see this year?

Bruno Mars at the Dolby Live Theater at Park MGM

This is not the first time that Bruno Mars has offered a residency in Las Vegas. Since 2016, he has presented different versions of a residency show at the Dolby Live Theater, his favorite venue in Vice City. For this 12^e tour of the track by Bruno Mars, the interpreter of 24K Magic first presented a show for New Years Eve, then from the end of January until Valentine’s Day (obviously). The singer returns to the Strip in May for the rest of his residency, just after having presented a few shows there with his project Silk Sonic, a duo he formed with Anderson .Paak.

From May 23 to June 3.

Katy Perry: Play in Residence at Resorts World

Katy Perry is one of the artists who inaugurated the new Resorts World theater in 2021. She will be back in residence in the hall with her show Play, a “grand” experience in the entertainment capital, where the extravagant costumes are matched only by the colorful sets. Katy Perry’s shows have received the most positive reception from critics. The “California Gurl” has even added fifteen dates to her residency to extend it until the summer.

From February 15 to August 12

Luke Bryan at Resorts World Theater

A country music superstar, Luke Bryan is now a regular fixture on the Resorts World stage. The American trade magazine Billboard called the nearly two-hour show “electrifying.” The singer and his musicians take advantage of the room’s exceptional acoustics. Walls of LED lights turn the scene into a giant screen. Bryan interacts with his audience. In short, we are dealing here, it seems, with a show that exploits the model of the residence to its maximum.

From March 22 to September 9

Maroon 5 at Dolby Live at Park MGM

Maroon 5 is not in its most glorious period (the leader Adam Levine, singled out for having cheated on his wife, is no longer as popular as he once was), but the group launches immediately even in a series of ten residency shows in Las Vegas this spring. The magazine RollingStone even posted an unflattering post at the time of the announcement last September, indicating that the band lacked relevance right now. Either way, Maroon 5, which released an album in June 2022, maintains a strong fan base, which should be there when the series of shows kicks off.

From March 24 to April 7, then from July 28 to August 12

Usher in residence at Park MGM

Usher will not be on the road this year. The one who has made six world tours since the beginning of his career offers himself this time the comfort of a residence, which is spread over seven months. His show is called My Way and it is presented from March to October, on selected dates, at Dolby Live, one of the halls that hosts the most residencies. He had already presented this show in residence in 2021 and 2022. Like several others, Usher is thus extending the experience, which seems to be working at full speed, although the artist has not released a new album since… 2016.

From 1^er March to October 28