Tickets to Adele’s Caesars shows as pricey as expected
NEW YORK — The Kats! Bureau at this writing is Boulevard Carroll Entertainment Group rehearsal studios in Midtown Manhattan. Las Vegas is heavily present as Bob Anderson and his orchestra rehearses his “One More For The Road Show” set for Saturday night at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage.
The Auditorium is the Big Room among big rooms, opening in May 1891 with headliner Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The famed Russian composer’s performance of “Marche solennelle” earned him a $5,000 appearance fee. That’s about $152,000 in modern-day money, and about a full year’s salary for a conductor in those days. This, with no pyro, LED walls or backing dancers.
The scene: W/ #BobAnderson & orchestra, rehearsing “One More For The Road,” @ Boulevard Carroll Entertainment Group studios in #NYC. Revival of his “Frank. The Man. The Music.” show at Palazzo Theater in 2014-2015. #RJNow @reviewjournal pic.twitter.com/WXn61QnmhO
— John Katsilometes (@johnnykats) December 9, 2021
More from this scene, and elsewere:
Tix to ride
As anticipated, the “Weekends With Adele” tickets are taxing to the takers on Ticketmaster. The Verified Fan Presale was delayed by a day by an Amazon Web Services crash. Finally posted Wednesday, prices ran from about $316 in the Colosseum’s upper regions to more than $4,500 for Platinum VIP in the front orchestra section. Prices started at $450 in the second and third sections back at the Colosseum, which seats about 4,100 for Adele’s shows.
Several contacts in the Vegas entertainment community said they experienced long waits, and tickets dissipated fast. Some who qualified were repeatedly bounced from the system before being able to finish the purchase. Some were bounced, and never made it back.
Dria Baum, an entertainment executive at House of Aces sports/entertainment marketing company, cleared the hurdles to find a seat listed for $316. She said, “I’m not paying $316 for bad seats, or the jump to $698 for mediocre seats to see Adele. I love her, but not that much.”
Amanda King, a popular singer in Las Vegas (she’s at The Mob Museum on NYE), hopscotched through the online directives, only to be KO’d by a system pause. “The system crashed at one point, and then froze a couple times,” King reported in real time as she worked through the steps. “I click on the NEXT button and nothing happens … Now, all sold out.” Of her attempts to see Adele’s first ticketed show since 2017, King said, “The whole process was a kerfuffle of epic proportions.”
A lot to consider with this show. The secondary market prices, as reported previously, have outpaced Ticketmaster’s base listings. StubHub for a time was offering two VIP seats for about $30,000 on Tuesday (before the show even went on sale), but has since re-calibrated and are offering spots closer to the Ticketmaster prices. Thursday, SeatGeek was listing spots upstairs starting at $1,467 apiece. LasVegasTickets.com offers ran from about $2,200 to $11,000.
The total seat availability of the Colosseum for Adele’s run is just under 100,000. But it’s probably closer to 75,000 or 80,000 after casino, promoter and artist “holds” are considered. There is no question the hype for Adele’s shows is real. I can’t recall a residency show that has sparked so much attention or conversation since Celine Dion opened the Colosseum in 2003.
Not everyone gets to play, though. Adele is a case of supply and demand, artistic capitalism in action. With that, I’m playing “30,” great art at an affordable price.
Treviño tees off
Steve Treviño has expanded from the comedy clubs of Vegas, and elsewhere, to a headlining role at Mirage Theater. Treviño’s first show in the Aces of Comedy series is 10 p.m. Thursday. After performing about 250 road dates per year, Treviño reinvented his approach during the shutdown, building more than 714,000 followers on TikTok and more than 170 million social media views. He and his wife, Renae, co-host “Steve Treviño & Captain Evil: The Podcast,” and he’s starring in the “My Life In Quarantine,” comedy special on Amazon.
Treviño has since opened for Pitbull at Bert Ogden Arena in Edinburg, Texas, warming up a crowd of 20,000. He’s big, in short. He’s also a comparably rare comic of Mexican-American heritage cutting through as a theater headliner. “The list is short,” says Treviño, who is following Gabriel Iglesias and George Lopez as Latin headliners in the Aces series.
But he’s developed an act that is directed to a wide cultural audience.
“I am revolutionizing what it is to be a Latino stand-up comedian,”Treviño said in a recent phone chat. “I am doing stand-up comedy in a way that no other Latino stand-up comedy comic has ever done. What I mean by that is, being Latino is not my punch line. Being Latino is not my sales tool. I put everything on just being a great stand-up.”
But he comic does allow, “You find a lot of Mexican-Americans, Latinos in general, who go, ‘That’s our guy.’ The reason is being, as a Mexican-American comedian, we are not represented well. You look at the black community, and every aspect of being a black man or a black woman in America is represented among several great, famous black comedians, from Katt Williams all the way to Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, Dave Chappelle, Mike Epps and the list goes on on on.
“But for us, the list ends pretty quickly.”
With his Aces debut, Treviño can only add to that lineup.
Paging Dan Tanna
The Front Yard at Ellis Island is hosting a 1970s-themed party for New Year’s Eve. Dinner seatings are 5:30, 6, 8:30 and 9:30 p.m.. Guests need to turn their tables after three hours. But attendees still can stay for the party and show off their wrap dresses, leisure suits and (where applicable) Hai Karate. Hit the ellisislandcasino.com site for the specs.
Great Moments in Social Media
Harrah’s Showroom headliner and former “Masked Singer” finalist Donny Osmond, thanked fans for wishing him a happy birthday with an Instagram Reels post.
Osmond did so in his Wizard costume from his appearance in “Pantoland At The Palladium” in London. Osmond missed three shows because of an undisclosed injury Saturday, but was back onstage Tuesday. He turned 64 on Thursday.
Something in the air
On the topic of Osmonds, how about Marie Osmond at The Smith Center in 2022? There is movement in that direction. Osmond, frequently with “America’s Got Talent” finalist and Vegas vocalist Daniel Emmet as a guest star, has performed several performing-arts centers since the Donny & Marie show closed at Flamingo in November 2019.
And this
“Wayne Newton: Up Close & Personal” should be back onstage, at the Wayne Newton Theater at Bugsy’s Cabaret, in late January. Got the mitt ready for the next pitch, within the week. Newton plays Robins Theatre in Warren, Ohio, on Saturday, a gig booked a while ago near Cleveland, hometown of his wife, Kathleen, and sister-in-law, Tricia McCrone. It’s his first ticketed show in about 20 months.
Cool Hang Alert
Travis Cloer hosts “Christmas at My Place” Sunday at Italian American Club. Doors at 6 p.m., dinner at 6:30-7 p.m. and the show at 8. The former “Jersey Boys” cast member always delivers (meaning, his performance is a gift) in these holiday shows. Go to iacvegas.com for the info.
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.
