Britney Spears’ Vegas future dormant after manager Larry Rudolph splits

At the risk of belaboring the obvious, the latest development in the Britney Spears’ saga makes it clear her future as a Las Vegas headliner is over, until further notice.

Larry Rudolph, the man who orchestrated Spears’ headliner residency in on the Strip and has managed her career since the mid-1990s, is breaking from the pop superstar. Rudolph brought Spears to Las Vegas some eight years ago and has been the conduit for all of her live performances for 25 years.

Nonetheless, Rudolph issued a letter published Monday night in Deadline that Spears’ apparent decision to retire has led him to split from the partnership.

“It has been over 2½ years since Britney and I last communicated, at which time she informed me she wanted to take an indefinite work hiatus,” Rudolph, who has a home in Las Vegas, said in Monday’s letter. “Earlier today, I became aware that Britney had been voicing her intention to officially retire.”

He added, “As her manager, I believe it is in Britney’s best interest for me to resign from her team as my professional services are no longer needed.”

Rudolph said his decision to step aside was prompted by a recent New Yorker profile of Spears.

In that lengthy piece, her reps indicated she planned to retire if the court didn’t grant her wishes. The story reports that probate lawyer Sam Ingham told the court in November that Spears informed him she was “afraid of her father” and that she “will not perform again if her father is in charge of her career.”

“That was the first I’d heard of it,” Rudolph said Tuesday, adding that he has had no contact with Spears since January 2019. “If she wants to work, she knows where to find me.”

Rudolph issued his formal letter to Spears’ co-conservators: her father, Jamie Spears, and court-appointed Jodi Montgomery. On June 23, Spears’ co-conservator Bessemer Trust withdrew itself from Spears’ career and personal management arrangement, which has been in place since 2008.

On that day, Spears said in open court in Los Angeles that she wanted to seize full control of her assets, valued at more than $50 million.

“It is my wish and dream for all of this to end. I want my life back,” she told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny. “I truly believe this conservatorship is abusive … I want to end the conservatorship without being evaluated. I want to petition to end the conservatorship.”

On June 30, the judge denied her request to remove Jamie Spears from the conservatorship, a move that appears to have prompted Britney Spears to stop performing altogether.

Aside from a two-year period from 2007-08, when Spears’ erratic behavior prompted the creation of her conservatorship, Rudolph had been Spears’ primary manager since 1995. As he has long stated and reiterated in Monday’s formal letter, Rudolph is not directly involved in her conservatorship provisions.

“As you know, I have never been a part of the conservatorship nor its operations, so I am not privy to many of these details,” he wrote. “I was originally hired at Britney’s request to help manage and assist her with her career.”

Rudolph led Spears’ highly lucrative “Piece of Me” production in Las Vegas during the residency at Zappos Theater (first Axis Theater) at Planet Hollywood from 2013-2017. According to resort owner Caesars Entertainment, the show grossed $137,695,392 with 916,184 tickets sold in 248 shows.

Propelled by that success, Rudolph also had worked the deal for Spears’ next planned residency, “Domination” at Park Theater at Park MGM, announced in October 2018.

Those plans were halted in January 2019, after Spears’ team announced Jamie Spears had suffered life-threatening health issues. According to Rudolph’s timeline, that was the last correspondence he had with Spears.

Rudolph continues to manage rock icon Steven Tyler, and Aerosmith is expected to return to Park Theater in 2022, possibly as early as the spring. Rudolph also is part of the production team for the upcoming Luxor Theater stage show “America’s Got Talent Live!” and has joined Simon Cowell in that project.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.