Better Midler in The Showgirl Must Go On

She’s a tiny woman with a big voice and an even bigger stage presence.

Bette Midler has no problem at all commanding the audience in the 4,296-seat Colosseum at Caesars Palace. In The Showgirl Must Go On, she works the 7,000 square feet of performance space with all her usual charisma — so much so that even she admits there are times when “the showgirl must sit down.”

Midler’s prolific career spans more than 40 years, with numerous appearances on stage and in film, including the Broadway musical “Gypsy” in the early 1990s and the movies “The Rose” (1979) and “Beaches” (1988). Her albums “Bette of Rose” (1995) and “Bathhouse Betty” (1998) both went gold, while “Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook” was nominated for a Grammy.

“The Showgirl Must Go On” is different from other Vegas shows. As the Divine Miss M will tell you, her show doesn’t use any French-Canadian circus performers like Cirque du Soleil. Instead there are backup singers, the Staggering Harlots (Jordan Ballard, Kyra DaCosta and Kamilah Marshall) and 20 showgirls, the Caesars Salad girls.

The stage is decorated simply, with a mountain skyline and a drop screen projecting various images set upstage behind Midler’s 13-piece band. Hanging strands resembling beaded curtains mechanically move and shift into various shapes and configurations throughout the show, creating very simple but elegant scenery such as a forest of trees.

Designers Carol Dodds and Michael Levine conjure up some lovely visuals, aided by a massive video screen. For example, Midler sings the touching “Hello In There” amidst multi-layered scrim projections of vintage New York engulfed by fog. The gold coin curtains also become a character in the show, forming objects such as trees, clouds, and rain for several numbers. Costume designer Constance Hoffman has crafted some eye-popping outfits, including reversible clothing that gives the illusion that Midler’s back-up singers — here dubbed the Caesar Salad — clad in black have instantly exploded into bright floral colors.

As Soph, the oldest living showgirl in the world with a pink feather headdress “half the size of Tennessee,” she rattles off a series of scandalous jokes, dirty enough to make even a drunken sailor blush.

But beneath all the showgirl glitz and glamour, the strongest moments in the show come when it is just Midler alone on the stage. Her rendition of “When a Man Loves a Woman” is so powerful it drives the entire audience to its feet. It’s when singing her hits like “The Rose,” “From a Distance” and “Wind Beneath My Wings” that this diva is truly divine.

Show Dates:

Nov. 25 – 26, 28 – 30, 2008
Dec. 2 – 3, 5 – 7, 9 – 10, 30 – 31, 2008
Jan. 2 – 4, 6 – 7, 9 – 11, 13 – 14, 16 – 18, 20 – 21, 23 – 25, 27 – 28, 2009

Cher Plans Artistic Rebirth

The indestructible diva, who retired from touring in 2005, will star in a song-and-dance spectacle starting May 6 at the 4,100-seat Colosseum in Caesars Palace. She’ll perform four shows weekly for one month, then return mid-August through early October, leapfrogging stints with Bette Midler. Her pact with promoter AEG Live extends three years.

Cher, 61, promises a “visually unbelievable” hit parade that entails elaborate choreography, complex staging, eye-popping costumes, 14 dancers and four aerialists.

“Creatively, we’re doing something that’s never been done with sets,” she says. “Getting the whole thing in book form, in pictures, has taken months. Our set moves down from the ceiling, in from the sides, up from the floor. We have screens in the foreground, the center and the back. We can change a city into a forest in two seconds. You’ll see a different stage for every song.”

The music will access all chapters of Cher’s career, from her Sonny & Cher start to her recent dance-pop phase, and she’s plotting updates of both old and new hits.

Cher’s extravagant 2002-05 Farewell Tour rang up $192.5 million from 273 shows, the ninth-highest-grossing tour in history, according to Billboard Boxscore.

“Cher definitely achieved elite status as a live performer on her Farewell Tour, which was a remarkable endurance test and a hugely popular draw,” says Billboard touring editor Ray Waddell. “With her elaborate costumes, long list of hits and over-the-top presentation, I can’t think of another artist more suited to Vegas. A Cher concert is just a really good time.”

Cher insists her Vegas splash won’t recycle Farewell’s motifs: “I’d like to be challenged.”

She hasn’t seen Colosseum concerts by previous residents Celine Dion or Elton John, nor the venue itself (“I saw a picture of it”). She’s furiously working out to gear up for rehearsals, and she likes the idea of bouncing between her home in Malibu and a steady gig in Vegas.

Show Dates (2009):

Feb.: 21 – 22, 24 – 25, 28

March.: 1, 3 – 4, 7 – 8, 10 – 11, 14 – 15, 17, 20 – 21

April.: 25 – 26, 28 – 29

May: 2 – 3, 5 – 6, 9 – 10, 12 – 13, 16 – 17, 19 – 20, 23 – 24

Elton John in Concert at Caesar’s Palace: The Red Piano

He has survived the ups and downs of musical stardom for over 30 years. Commercially, creatively, on stage and on record, Elton John is a legendary artist — one who is still as relevant as ever.

Elton John’s finely honed stage presence, a winning factor in targeting his tunes straight into the heart of America, is excess incarnate. In The Red Piano, the showy costumes are replaced by incredible video imagery and stage props, yet the end result is unmistakably classic Elton John.

Gregarious, show-stopping, outlandish and unforgettable. Words that could be Elton John as much as they are Vegas. Together with photographer David LaChapelle, Elton John has created The Red Piano — a career overview performance you won’t soon forget.

The Red Piano takes the audience inside Elton John’s world. LaChapelle creates a dreamscape dripping with rich imagery of Hollywood and Las Vegas icons — each moment created to give the viewer a new, three dimensional interpretation of Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s most memorable recordings.

Don’t miss your last chance to see this cultural and musical icon as he closes out his spectacular five-year run at Caesars Palace. Only three engagements remain at The Colosseum in the show that USA TODAY called “the future of Las Vegas entertainment.”

Please note that The Red Piano is designed with a Vegas theme and mature audiences in mind. The video imagery that accompanies the music may at times be considered risqué, and includes montage style scenes that include brief frontal nudity. The Video content is designed within the context of the songs and overall theme of the show.

Show Dates: Feb. 3 – 4, 6 – 8, 10 – 11, 13 – 15, 2009