Las Vegas - Has Anyone Seen Celine's New Show?

Does Celine's new show merit a trip to Vegas?

I went to opening night last Tuesday (as did B Watson). It is a good show and a great stage. I enjoyed it even though I did not know anything about her music (I had to be told that the one of the songs she was singing was from Titanic). But if you hate Celine don't go. What else can I tell you?

J-

How are they going to fill 4,000 seats 4-5 nights a week?

That's what I want to know.

d

Does she sing ALL of her hits?

Dion descends on Caesars Palace with colossal excess
By Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY

LAS VEGAS — The Titanic has risen from the bottom of the ocean and landed in the desert with an enormous thud. How else to describe the proudly tacky, perversely fascinating spectacle that has descended, appropriately enough, on Caesars Palace?

By Joe Cavaretta, AP

Surely, no one expected Celine Dion's extravaganza A New Day ... , which opened Tuesday, to be a model of understatement. But the epic waste of money, talent and energy on display at the Colosseum, a Roman-style venue that Caesars built just for the singer, would have made even Elvis blush.

It's fitting that Dion chose to collaborate on Day with Cirque du Soleil maestro Franco Dragone, whose work typically emphasizes technical dazzle over substance or soul. The singer says she was inspired by Dragone's O, a popular Vegas attraction that uses water, fire and spectacularly athletic performers to create physical and elemental melodrama. (Related item: See photos from A New Day ....)

Music review

A New Day . . .
Celine Dion
( out of four)
Caesars Palace, Las Vegas






Dion may not juggle torches or do acrobatic dives, though she does at one point dangle from a high wire. But it's her aesthetically gorgeous yet glib singing that makes her the perfect muse for Dragone and his creative team, who have fashioned a tribute to the theory that nothing succeeds like excess.

There are times, admittedly, when that excess can be seductive. An exuberant version of Love Can Move Mountains becomes a canny vehicle for Mia Michaels' busy choreography, while a surprisingly playful cover of Stevie Wonder's I Wish allows Dion to reveal an endearing perkiness. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face is a natural showcase for the beauty and clarity of Dion's voice, and she delivers it with little affectation, despite being suspended in midair.

But other numbers find the diva competing awkwardly, and unsuccessfully, with the bombast surrounding her. Dragone and set designer Michel Crete lavish her with everything from flying musical instruments and vanishing trees to a chorus of writhing, scantily clad men. The theme from Titanic is set against a vast, starlit backdrop adorned by chandeliers and flying doves. One half-expects Leonardo DiCaprio to float across the stage in a winged white costume.

At certain points, Dion betrays an ostentatious streak independent of her colleagues. A medley of standards including Fever and I've Got the World on a String regrettably brings out her lounge-lizard instincts, and her patter is littered with gooey platitudes about peace, love and her 2-year-old son, Rene-Charles.

Not that any of this will deter the audience that A New Day ...caters to. In a city where subtlety is a cardinal sin and in a culture in which pop concerts and mainstream theater productions are increasingly interchangeable with circus and theme-park attractions, there's no reason to doubt its prospects.

So long as easy sentimentality and empty flash are virtues, Dion's show could well go on and on.


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Hunnybear and I thought it was quite enjoyable.

QL

QL-

Where are the LionTales??????????

Haven't written any in a while. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/smile.gif

QL

Be on the lookout for 50% off tickets. Go to the ticket resale store by the MGM/Showcase Mall. They have already started to get blocks of Celine tickets that are being sold at 50% off face value.

NOTE : These tickets are ONLY available for current day's show. No advance tickets can be purchased at this outlet.

hockeystl

[This message has been edited by hockeystl (edited 04-09-2003).]

When is the last day of the show?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by CT-UK:
When is the last day of the show?</font>

Sometime in 2006, assuming her voice doesn't give out before then.

[This message has been edited by skofarrell (edited 04-10-2003).]