Average ticket prices for Vegas shows hit a new high at $90

Show ticket prices have gone up again. No surprise, if you follow the research of the one guy who tries to average them every year. But the new question is, what do you count as a “show”?

Maybe you’ve noticed the drift from production shows to stars performing in concert format and booked in recurring “residencies.” That’s why the Monte Carlo is building its own version of Caesars Palace’s Colosseum. Whether it’s Pitbull or Rascal Flatts, the musical names compete with year-round fare such as Cirque du Soleil.

How to factor their ticket prices only further complicates the task of Anthony Curtis, who each year volunteers for the thankless task of trying to average more than 100 shows for his Las Vegas Advisor, the Consumer Reports of casino tourism.

If it were easy, more people would try it. As it is, the rest of us are happy to take Curtis’ word for it when he says the average ticket price is now $90, up $5 from last year. Prices are up about $15 from five years ago, the last time Curtis charted a dip from the previous year.

In that time, we’ve seen the Hard Rock Hotel and Planet Hollywood Resort emulate the Colosseum’s rotating stable of concert stars. Colosseum ticket prices were easy for Curtis to average, since its stars have uniform pricing.

But the survey had to make choices on whether to include concert stars who don’t play in frequent rotation. Planet Hollywood’s Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez were included, but Pitbull wasn’t. Neither were Hard Rock stars such as Journey and Rascal Flatts, who visited for one multi-weekend batch of shows last year.

Celine Dion and other concert stars early to the party were rarely discounted. Tickets went fast and fans paid the advertised prices — which average about $168 at the Colosseum — rather than dive into the confusing array of discounts that make show tickets more like airline pricing.

But apparently, that’s changed too. Curtis found 37 different prices for Spears. She also had the dubious honor of having the highest advertised ticket price, $1,040 for a VIP package (but he did not include that in the survey average; only the standard seats).

When it comes to the magic, comedy and adult cabaret shows that keep the Strip turning each week, the advice never changes: “Face value” is marked up to be marked down, so try not to pay it.

“The important thing to understand is that now more than ever, you have to take advantage of the available deals,” Curtis writes. For comic ventriloquist Paul Zerdin to open at Planet Hollywood later this month with tickets priced at $50 to $105 highly suggests “tickets are being priced with an expectation that you’ll do that.”

A few more findings from the survey:

■ Donny and Marie Osmond actually have a higher average ticket price ($181) at the Flamingo than Elton John and Rod Stewart at the Colosseum ($168).

■ Seventeen shows now have a face-value ticket of more than $200, and six have one that is $300 or more.

■ The best values are downtown. The lowest face-value ticket once again is offered by Four Queens comedy magician Mike Hammer at $28, and impressionist Gordie Brown is packaged with a Golden Nugget buffet for $35 plus taxes and fees. …

Those who complain of nothing different in the tourist corridor get their bluff called when “Kabukilion Shi-Shi-O: The Adventures of the Mythical Lion” takes over David Copperfield’s MGM Grand showroom for six performances May 3-7. It’s presented by Japanese entertainment company Shochiku, and stars Ichikawa Somegoro, touted as the world’s most celebrated Kabuki artist. …

Wednesday brought the high-profile return of Wayne Newton to the Strip, as part of the Las Vegas-themed opening night for T-Mobile Arena. But April 21 brings the Midnight Idol back on a steady basis in a more modest venue, the cabaret-sized Windows Showroom at Bally’s (Newton’s ’80s-era fans will remember the room as the hotel’s bygone buffet).

Newton had discussed a live-interview format with the original operator of the Sin City Comedy club at Planet Hollywood, but it never came to pass. The new show is called “Wayne Newton: Up Close and Personal,” and sounds like it combines elements of that idea with the standard musical show he performed for decades.

The quality of his singing voice has been an issue since the mid-’90s for a star who still gets by on his considerable charm. Newton’s last run on the Strip, “Once Before I Go” at the Tropicana in 2009-10, already was using a memoir structure to reduce the amount of singing he did onstage.

Read more from Mike Weatherford at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com and follow @Mikeweatherford on Twitter.