They listened to Celine, but they didn't learn from Celine.

It was Celine Dion who talked up a Las Vegas residency to Toni Braxton. But no one at the Flamingo Las Vegas remembered that Dion got a lukewarm response when her Caesars Palace show opened in March 2003 after only a handful of previews.

History repeated itself Aug. 3, when Braxton's new resident showcase invited celebrities and members of the media after only two ticketed performances. Reaction the next day came from various people but all reached the same conclusion: The debut was nothing short of a train wreck.

"Ouch! This is painful," one spouse text-messaged to the other outside the showroom.

"Everybody was looking at their watches a half-hour in," said another of the 90-minute show.

Other viewers complained the song lyrics were inaudible and the singer failed to project her likable personality onto the rigidly choreographed affair.

Some wondered if the singer had lost her vocal chops altogether during her four-year materinity leave. Or if she were lip-syncing, though one would think that would have resulted in perfect sound.

(Me? The day before the show, the Flamingo folk and I agreed I could see the show the next day, thus trading a high-demand seat on the night of the VIP party for one that better fit the domestic schedule at home. But the next day, the Flamingo folk called and asked if I might not be able to hold off a review to a time still to be determined.)

Braxton's manager, Aaron Walton, blamed technical issues with the sound system. "No one had to tell me, I heard it," he said earlier this week.

But he said many of the problems were resolved by the next night, if not by the end of the same show. Trouble came from two fronts, he said.

One was the difficulty in switching back and forth between Braxton's headset microphone and two handheld wireless mics, one of them a diamond-encrusted Shure model touted as a "million-dollar microphone."

Eventually, the singer and her technicians discovered "if you (touch) the antenna on the bottom, it will cut into the signal," Walton said.

The other issue was a reconfiguration of the showroom's seating. New seating areas were created, but new speakers aimed at these sections weren't installed by opening night, creating a dead acoustic space.

Walton denied any health problems for the singer who has a history of asthma and more recently battled a heart inflammation, pericarditis. "Her voice is really strong," he said.

But there are plans to add two new numbers that could perhaps add more depth and variety to the show: A cover of the Natalie Cole hit "This Will Be," and a segment in which Braxton plays piano to accompany video of her first audition for Arista Records.

The Flamingo has a lot staked on this, and I'm anxious to see if the technical fixes will put it on the right track or if a larger problem looms. There seems to be an inexplicable disconnection between the astonishing number of albums Braxton has sold -- more than 16 million for her first two titles combined -- and people's inability to remember more than three of her songs.

I had credited my own faulty memory to the fact that I was already in my 30s when Braxton hit big during the Clinton presidency. The songs didn't have the nostalgic impact of those tied to one's formative years. But getting the same vibe from people of various ages -- some younger, some not -- is starting to make me wonder if a hit song in the 1990s wasn't the same as a hit in the '70s or '80s, when radio's influence was starting to be diluted by the Internet and Gameboy.

If that's the case, this show will need more than a million-dollar microphone. ...

The Las Vegas Hilton is facing some empty showroom nights after Barry Manilow's announcement that he will undergo outpatient arthroscopic surgery on both of his hips, canceling Hilton shows between Aug. 19 and Nov. 8.

Manilow will make up those dates next year, but country and classic-rock acts such as fellow Hilton performers Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn are already booked on the state fair circuit during the fall season. "If something works, we'll do it," says hotel spokesman Ira Sternberg. "We're just looking around right now."

Mike Weatherford's entertainment column appears Thursdays and Sundays. Contact him at 383-0288 or e-mail him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com.