Getting Jazzy With It
She set the Strip on fire with the New Year’s Eve weekend debut of Enigma, a brand-new concert spectacular offering all her biggest hits in glamorous, futuristic fashion.
Then Lady Gaga fulfilled a different kind of destiny earlier this month when she won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for “Shallow,” the emotional ballad she performs with director and co-star Bradley Cooper in A Star Is Born. Now Gaga displays yet another dimension with this week’s Jazz & Piano premiere at Park Theater, the second style of show she’s performing as part of her Vegas residency.
Expect stripped-down versions of some of those hits as well as other personal favorites and classics performed from the piano, with the same emotional resonance that earned this unique artist acclaim for her film performance.
Must-See: Santana
The modern-day Las Vegas concert residency is a phenomenon because you get to see and listen to iconic artists performing classic material in a variety of luxurious, cozy theater environments. But none of these wildly popular shows can compare to the experience of An Intimate Evening with Santana: Greatest Hits Live at the House of Blues, which at times transports you to a San Francisco rock club in the 1960s for a Latin/blues/psychedelic shake up. Nobody else jams like this. Now in his seventh year performing on the Strip, Carlos Santana’s musically limitless show is more spontaneous and fluid than ever and it’s back at Mandalay Bay Jan. 23-Feb. 2.
Around the Strip
Ant-Man star Paul Rudd partied at off-Strip hot spot the Golden Tiki recently along with buddies Ken Marino, Kerri Kenney, A.D. Miles and Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Joe Lo Truglio. The gathering was a belated birthday party for Marino, who wrote the screenplays for Rudd’s movies Wanderlust and Role Models, and the Hollywood hot shots had so much fun that some of them returned to the rum-soaked tropical wonderland the next night.
Among the many celebs and stars attending the grand opening of Hong Kong’s Mott 32 restaurant at The Venetian were This is Us actor Justin Hartley, actress Jamie Chung, designer Christian Siriano, The Talk host Carrie Ann Inaba and Venetian headliners Human Nature.
There’s a brand-new show coming to Las Vegas in february. Celestia makes its debut in the latter part of the month in a 200,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art tent right on the north tip of the Strip at the Stratosphere. Described as “an otherworldly story of love and sacrifice through elite acrobatics and dance, aerial feats, live music and sophisticated illusion,” this immersive experience promises to bring fresh excitement to the Boulevard.
John Michael Higgins, the actor and comedian who hosts America Says on the Game Show Network but might be best known for his hilarious turn as an announcer in the Pitch Perfect films, took his family to the Blue Man Group show at Luxor. It’s unclear whether he coaxed an unprecedented a capella performance out of the three Blue Men during a post-show meet-and-greet.
Brock Radke is an award-winning entertainment reporter who has been covering the city since 2000, and interviews key movers and shakers on his All The Vegas podcast, available at allthevegas.com
