GARTH BROOKS
When one thinks of Las Vegas, images of glitter and neon come to mind, not cowboy hats and fringe! But now there seems to be a resurgence of country-themed entertainment on the Strip that disappeared a decade ago along with early 90s.
It shouldn't come as such a big surprise that these new country nightclubs and bars are opening up after the recent success of country stars in Vegas, like Garth Brooks. Country has crossed over into the mainstream (Hi, Taylor Swift!) and now its crossing over to Sin City as well.
The fight which country singer Garth Brooks and hotel mogul Steve Wynn have waged against ticket scalpers has escalated. Six arrests were made by the Metro Police Department of scalping suspects who will now be prosecuted for two felonies and violating Clark County laws against ticket scalping.
Tickets for Garth's next series of shows at Encore Theater in the Wynn are being released on Saturday. And to stop the $125 tickets from being resold for more than face value, Garth and Steve have executed an array of safeguards and procedures to deter scalping. The pair also stated that any tickets purchased through unauthorized channels, such as scalpers, will be cancelled.
I am a huge Celine Dion fan. I'm not ashamed of it. I own the scrapbook, Celine Dion: For Keeps. My friend and I once payed $12 to see her last Vegas show, A New Day, broadcast to our local movie theater. I. Love. Her.
And now she's back.
The super-songstress announced last week that she will be returning to Caesars Palace next spring in a $100 deal consisting of 70 shows a year for three years beginning March 15, 2011.
Bette Midler is said farewell to Vegas on Sunday after 180 shows on the Strip with audiences totaling more than 750,000. The Colosseum in Caesars Palace housed The Divine Miss M for two years since she first took the stage February 20th, 2008 to the joy of the audience including Siegfried and Roy, Meatloaf, Angela Bassett, Joey Fatone, Lance Bass, Alan Thicke, Ricki Lake, and Taye Diggs.
Since her debut, countless other celebrities have come to see her show, from Rob Reiner and Dita Von Teese to former Vegas headliner Celine Dion. In fact, just last week David Copperfield was in attendance to catch the show before it was too late.
Billboard recently named The Colosseum the 'Venue of the Decade' based on gross ticket sales, and there is not doubt that Bette played a big part in that.
While Bette's stage was slightly smaller than when Celine used it for A New Day a few years back, her show was just as big. It took 34 stagehands and crew to make the set changes during The Showgirl Must Go On and Bette used a mountain of Louis Vuitton luggage in her opening that weighed approximately 2,200 pounds. Coupled with the fabulous Caesar Salad Girls, her take on the traditional Las Vegas showgirl, whose hair and makeup takes two hours each time before they take the stage, proved to be one hell of a show!
Probably one of the most remarkable things about The Showgirl Must Go On was that out of the ¾ of a million fans who have gone to see it, none were ever seated more than 120 feet away from the Divine Miss. That was close enough to truly take in all 132 costume changes in each performance, enough for each Caesar Salad Girl, the Harlettes, and Bette to change outfits six times during one show. That was also close enough to admire the 75,000 individually hand-painted gold coins that made up the coin curtains and coin trees that decorated the stage.
Though for the ones that were seated in the dastardly 120 feet section (!!!), The Colosseum also houses the largest indoor, HD LED screen in North America, measuring 34 feet tall by 109 feet wide and weighing 31 tons. That should have enabled the audience to see maybe even a little bit more of Bette than anyone can or could desire.
As her shows neared their final days, Bette had her dancers collect contributions from the audience each night to benefit Haiti and personally matched the donations dollar for dollar. Within just the first four shows since starting that idea, Bette helped earn more than $100,000 to aid the relief operations, reminding us why she earned the Woman of the Year award last year from the Nevada Ballet Theater.
Las Vegas was sad to say goodbye to Bette, but rumors are circulating that she may return soon with a one-woman acoustic show at the Encore Theater similar to Garth Brooks. Part of me just hopes she does it undercover, Chris Gaines style instead.
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