Jennifer Lopez has a lot to give, but the September dates of her Planet Hollywood Resort residency Jennifer Lopez: All I Have will be the last of that production. While the shows are coming to an end, it’s likely that Lopez’s career as a Vegas headliner is just beginning. For nearly three years, Lopez has presented a Vegas extravaganza on par with any top Vegas entertainer in their prime.
She’s perfectly capable of keeping up with her crack troupe of dancers for the duration of her show while delivering her greatest hits, and does it all in front of a contemporized, state-of-the-art version of classic Vegas production design.
In other words, she’s a natural as a modern Strip headliner. Performers have dazzled with Swarovski crystals since Liberace’s heyday, but only Lopez has been thrilling fans by descending a bedazzled staircase during her opening number, “If You Had My Love.” During her last slate of shows she followed with “Love Don’t Cost a Thing” before paying homage to her Vegas-headlining predecessor Ann-Margret with a cover of “A Lot of Livin’ to Do” from musical Bye Bye Birdie. By that time it’s apparent that, pound-for-pound, Lopez delivers the most energetically entertaining show in Las Vegas.
The show is thematically structured as a career retrospective, with Lopez segueing from Vegas glitz and glamour to her gritty beginnings as the stage transforms into a back-to-her-roots urban setting for “I’m Real,” “Feelin’ So Good” and “Jenny From the Block.” She makes the first of some half-dozen costume changes, each appropriate for the ballads, funk, Latin and club music sections, respectively.
Expect a bit more poignant introduction to her rendition of Aretha Franklin’s cover of Otis Redding’s “Respect,” which kicks off the funk set, in observance of the Queen of Soul’s passing this summer. Lopez, whose endurance has changed as little in 20 years as her beauty, kicks the kinetic excitement up several notches for a trio of Latin numbers before turning Zappos Theater into a giant nightclub for the dance music finale featuring “Waiting for Tonight” and finishing with “On the Floor.” The audience is left more breathless than Lopez herself.
Lopez has a lot on her plate these days. Aside from raising twins, overseeing a business empire and getting deeper into her relationship with Alex Rodriguez, she has completed work on comedy film Second Act, which is scheduled for release in November. She continues to star as Detective Harlee Santos on NBC crime drama Shades of Blue, and is both executive producer and a judge on the network’s World of Dance. With so much on her plate she’s had to delay a live production of Bye Bye Birdie for NBC several times. Consider the end of All I Have to be Lopez’s sabbatical from Las Vegas as she catches up with her other endeavors, and September is a good time to catch what is arguably one of the most spectacular shows ever to exist on the Strip.
It’s not a bad place to be for A-Rod sightings either.
Planet Hollywood Resort, 9 p.m. Sept. 2, 5, 7-8, 12, 14-16, 19, 21-22, 25-26 & 28-29, starting at $79 plus tax and fee. 800.745.3000 Ticketmaster
