Britney Spears – January 20th – Planet Hollywood – the Axis Theatre – Las Vegas
While I’m a life-long flag bearer of Rock N Roll & Heavy Metal (see above) I also love pop music especially when it’s well done & it’s almost impossible I’ve found to not find Britney Spears endlessly fascinating. I also was out for something else too. In all my years of coming to this crazy city, I realized I had never been to one of the big shows at one of the big casinos.
No Elton, no Wayne, no Celine, not even the Beatles revue (though I did try once).
I was out to change that most importantly & second I thought of the big shows, this would be the one I wanted to see as I love alot of her songs & thought it would be the most fun.
The whole experience of this show at times feels like a commercial – when you get there, they take your picture against a branded wall (only to attempt to sell it to you for FIFTY DOLLARS at show’s end. It’s designed to make you feel like a star and it succeeds until you find out what it cost.
After your own paparazzi moment, the main lobby has artifacts from famous video shoots & other parts of her career enshrined like a museum.
I get to my seat which is ample (shout out to Amy at Will Call) while an unseen DJ is playing free jams while everyone gets seated.
Soon the curtain rises after a countdown & the show begins.
Her show is broken down into seven mini-sets, with different sets, outfits & features racy choreography and elaborate props & at one point straddles a giant guitar
Britney began her Planet Hollywood residency in 2013, was last year named Best Singer/Musician in the Las Vegas Review &
what sums up why its working so well is its not so much something you watch as something you share with your friends.
Between the lip-syncing and the scarcity of live video close-ups, the performer doesn’t resonate, but the songs do & here it’s more like a celebration of the songs, with Britney as head cheerleader & she looks amazing.
At 34, Spears has been around for the entire music-listening life of fans her age and younger. Las Vegas is always fretting about what comes after the baby boomers, and these promoters figured it out; especially when it comes to the lucrative gay male demographic in need of a new Cher.
The show’s detached quality is oddly a plus. The audience is encouraged to get up and dance from the get-go, and no one dances much harder than Britney herself.
That comes after she floats on angel wings amid pink video blossoms and real confetti snow for “Everytime.” And before the luscious green jungle projections frame a physical tree prop, one that lets Spears step out to the edge of a branch and do a bungee Tarzan glide down to the stage for “Toxic.”
Director Baz Halpin keeps the massive space filled with 14 sexy dancers, who take the spotlight for an athletic workout of Missy Elliott hits. But size doesn’t sacrifice detail. For that “Breathe on Me” moment when Britney borrows Lauren Bacall’s line “Just put your lips together and blow,” she cups her hands and blows a cloud of glitter sparkle into the air. But think of her more as a dancer who sings (at least in the studio).
Fun show!
Setlist –
Act 1 –
Work Bitch
Womanizer
Break the Ice / Piece of Me
Act II
Radar (Interlude)
Me Against the Music
I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll (The Arrows cover)
Gimme More
Act III
Everytime
Baby One More Time / Oops!… I Did It Again
Act IV
Boys
Do You Wanna Come Over?
Work It / Get Ur Freak On / WTF (Where They From)
(Missy Elliott Break Dance)
Act V
Get Naked (I Got a Plan)
I’m a Slave 4 U
Make Me…
Freakshow
Do Somethin’
Act VI
Circus
If U Seek Amy
Breathe on Me
Slumber Party
Touch of My Hand
Act VII
Toxic
Stronger
(You Drive Me) Crazy
Till the World Ends
Sheena Easton – January 22nd – Suncoast Showroom at the Suncoast Hotel & Casino – Las Vegas
This might seem random given all that you’ve read in this post as if I’d just really go to any show (& you’d be right) but I was so excited to add to this motley crew of diversity & to spend my last night in Vegas wrapping up this whole adventure with Sheena Easton. I knew nothing of the show until I happened to be randomly reading that week’s travel guide while in bed at my hotel. I LOVE her & was so excited to finally see her live.
However sadly, the fun pretty much stopped there but not in time to keep me from going.
I hauled ass in the rain out to Henderson about 10 miles outside of Vegas proper to the saddest, most geriatric of casinos.
I don’t say that to be mean, just accurate. When I arrive my ticket is not a Will Call & a nice man with debilitating Parkinson’s Disease took pity on me & said he had an extra ticket & invited me to join him.
While I was grateful & enjoyed his company very much, actually meeting him was the best part of the experience as when you hear the stereotype about Vegas residencies, they usually aren’t meant as still high-profile affairs like Miss Spears above, but as a punchline as to where no longer relevant performers “end up” if they want to keep getting paid to perform as a last resort. Even in those instances can remain a dignified later chapter to their career. Then you have the “it is what it is” thing that is dinner theater for centenarians & that’s exactly what this was.
I was easily the youngest person here by 30 years or more & it never occurred to me that Easton was now close to 60 & then I thought “How is she gonna sing the lyrics to Sugar Walls at this age to this crowd?” I was deflated & it was my own naive fault.
To Sheena’s credit, she’s very humble & self-effacing about the whole experience & still looks great.
She stayed in the safest of territories doing mostly well known (at least by this crowd) covers of staples including starting off with the Beatles’ Got to Get You into My Life – There were some certainly advised omissions of lyrics to some of the racier material she wrote with Prince & while I was glad to hear them, it still felt like I was watching a cover band…..at Luby’s.
Thankfully it’s still not her only option as this was the last performance for awhile as she was off to London for a year-long stint in a revival of 42nd Street at the Theatre Royale Drury Lane, the next day.
Setlist –
Got to Get You Into My Life (The Beatles cover)
Strut
Almost Over You
You’re No Good (Linda Ronstadt cover)
How Deep Is the Ocean
How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You) (Marvin Gaye cover)
I Wouldn’t Beg for Water
U Got The Look / Sugar Walls ( with The Glamorous Life snippet)
We’ve Got Tonight (Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band cover)
The Lover in Me
When He Shines
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher (Jackie Wilson cover)
You’re All I Need To Get By / Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing (Motown covers medley)
Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair)
Morning Train (Nine to Five)
Anyway (Martina McBride cover)
For Your Eyes Only
Photos –
Roy Turner
Denise Truscello
