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Dec. 15, 2007
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

CLOCK TICKS DOWN ON 'A NEW DAY ...'

Tonight's performance ends landmark venture

By MIKE WEATHERFORD
REVIEW-JOURNAL
RELATED STORY
Act sold more than $400 million in tickets


Celine Dion waves to the crowd after her 500th performance of "A New Day ..." at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on May 7, 2006. The benefit raised $1 million for Las Vegas charities.
Photo by Isaac Brekken/Review-Journal

"Do you think that's helping?"

An emotional Celine Dion asks this in response to the sustained and thunderous greeting on Wednesday, show No. 714, or four in the countdown ticking inevitably to 717.

The final performance of "A New Day ...," scheduled tonight at Caesars Palace, is the show that online ticket hawkers have posted for more than $5,000. The one Dion once wished would come sooner. The one that now, she tells Wednesday's crowd, she is sad to see finally arrive.

"We kind of knew that one day we were going to put an end to this. But what we did not know is that we were going to be a family," she says of the 60-member cast of dancers and musicians. "And that is not stoppable. That will not be breakable," she declares to more roaring applause.

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    • After the show, nibbling at pickles from a small picnic cooler, the 39-year-old Canadian superstar reflects on the end of a landmark venture in Las Vegas entertainment. Back in 2002, the show that put big names back into play on the Strip and has been seen by nearly 3 million people was, well, the least objectionable option at the time.

    "When I gave birth to my son (Rene-Charles, in 2001) I was not ready to come back into show business," she says. Her priorities had changed from an artist's point of view to a mother's.

    But Las Vegas offered the singer and her husband-manager, Rene Angelil, just about everything possible to keep her in both worlds: a commute from Henderson to a new, $95 million theater for a show that was no mere headliner showcase, but a spectacle helmed by Cirque du Soleil director Franco Dragone.

    It wasn't born easily. "A New Day ..." opened the same week the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003. The star was visibly uncomfortable with some of Dragone's grand ideas, such as descending 44 feet to the stage as an angel in a flying harness. Her shoes disappeared from a quick-change room on opening night, and many critics felt the star herself was lost amid the dancers and high-definition visuals.

    "I think the first year for me was pretty overwhelming," she says. "And the second year, I was exhausted because of the first year. And the third year, that was the hardest for me. I didn't see the end of it. I was very tired, I had to cancel a few shows.

    "You know how when you start, you're really ready for it, then you give it all, then you go like this?" Her hand draws a dip in the air. "You're exhausted. ... It was very hard for me."

    But Dion stuck it out, and the show benefited from near-constant tinkering that continued right up to this week, when she decided to include "The Christmas Song" (The surrealistic bicyclist who floats across the stage now wears a Santa outfit).

    "I needed to give myself time for that show to be mine as well (as Dragone's)," she says. Her husband would coax: "Do your thing. Don't be shy, be natural." But she considered the venture a 50-50 partnership with Dragone. "Am I allowed to do so? Should I do that?" she wondered.

    Over time, she says, "the stage becomes your living space. It's not only a platform. You know exactly where it dips down, where it's slippery, where it's not. Once you start being comfortable in your environment, then I think the best of you comes out."

    And the tough times were smoothed over by her original maternal instinct and reinforcement that the long residency was the right decision. She could sing without feeling the guilt of leaving her son every day, and with him understanding "Mommy was not going very far and always coming back home."

    Next year, the family won't be home much. A world tour promoting Dion's new album, "Taking Chances," begins in South Africa on Valentine's Day and ends in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Jan. 30, 2009.

    Rene-Charles is 7, and "for us the road now is no longer scary," she says. "I don't have to bring the baby food. His immune system is stronger to whatever allergies. At this age they want to explore, they need to learn. And they can learn through traveling."

    But home, or at least one of them, will be the house in the Lake Las Vegas development.

    "We're keeping our home," she says. "It's my son's house. This is his memory as a child. He learned how to swim, how to walk. There's no way we can stop the show here and move our stuff out of the dressing room and then" -- her voice tilts up to incredulity -- "move from our home? No. Too much."

    Today is going to be hard enough. "I'm trying to really stay calm -- and strong."

    Dion is noncommittal about when, where and to what degree she would perform again on the Strip. These probably are better questions for her husband, and he has a long tour to worry about.

    "But I can say I would love that," she says of someday returning. Las Vegas is now "a little bit my hometown and I'll tell you why: I've never lived in another place for five years. Even Florida, I don't even know if I lived there that long," she says.

    "It's been an amazing success, this whole thing. When I'm back in the area, it's going to be like singing to my hometown."

    Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0288.

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    George W. Bush wrote on December 15, 2007 11:44 PM: Actually, this is from David Tracy:

    Negative article, negative photo, negative comments. With a near monopoly in the Valley, I expect more objectivity from the RJ. More, the comments here are mean.

    If Ms. Dion can make a ton of money from all the people who pay for her show night after night, for a long, long run, that brings our attention to all of the bad-mouthers' here projecting their own character defects upon her and her husband. Don't like her? Don't attend the show. Simple. But meanness isn't simple. I feel better and more "up," when I put somebody else "down."

    Gambling problem? This town was BUILT on peoples' gambling problems. Without them the hotels would only be half as tall.


    Bev wrote on December 15, 2007 09:02 PM: I never seen her show. I perfer to see shows that are less expensive. Wynn's Spamalot, Greek Isles Rat Pack, Hilton's Menopause as an example.
    The entertainment in LV will price to what we are willing to pay, the same as the restaurants.
    I refuse to spend the $$$$ for BIG name shows. If the casino wants to comp me that's great but no folding money is coming out of my pocket to see the high priced shows.


    Robert wrote on December 15, 2007 03:07 PM: Casino actually has a point. Celine did not really involve herself in the community as much as other performers but that appears part of her persona. Her show was not personal, intimate or local. It was grand, over-the-top Cirque style theatrics with a brazen star at its center. A star who decided to reside 25 miles away, isolated at Lake Las Vegas.

    For example, tell me which star has contributed more to the Las Vegas community and makes it home: Barry Manilow or Celine? Manilow lives in Palm Springs and flies in. Would you know any different of Celine? She has a house near Las Vegas; very difficult to claim that she ever made it home.


    casino dealer wrote on December 15, 2007 01:47 PM: As a singer she's not my cup of tea and her show im sure was good -although i heard a lot of mix reviews. The only thing is, if she really thinks of Vegas as "her home", i never saw her giving back to the community, like Rita Rudner or Andre Agassi. Seems to me that Ms Dion like the benefits of her show but not much about the city that gave her all that money... because, perhaps locals didnt make most of her audience, but the city draw the people that want to see her perform. No love baby, no love...


    Manny Cuaresma wrote on December 15, 2007 12:47 PM: What a show as long as it lasted. Celine's show was good for Las Vegas. Like any show, it has to end. But with the success of her show, she would be welcome anytime she wants to come back. I was fortunate to see her show several times and I would see her show again in the future whenever she decides to come back. God Bless Celine !


    Bette Midler wrote on December 15, 2007 12:35 PM: I hope I don't get any of those loser Canadians at my show. GOD Bless America and all that it stands for!!!


    Harry Reid wrote on December 15, 2007 12:31 PM: To Brad's defender and the rest of the gays --- "your" air???

    I guess gays take propriety right over everything they touch or defile here in Las Vegas. Why couldn't they keep Hairspray, Avenue Q, or the Producers from closing up shop???

    Just read Norms column today -- "Tom Cruise and Oprah will see the show this weekend".. a gay and a fat woman!!


    To God- wrote on December 15, 2007 11:26 AM: "God"- Why don't you crawl back under whatever rock you came out from? You're breathing my air. What a waste.

    But you're right, all Canadians hate America. Genius, you've figured it all out. Yet another example of what brad was referring to.


    GOD wrote on December 15, 2007 11:17 AM: I went to the show myself. I'd give it a C- grade. It's gays like Brad and fat women that kept the show alive in the first place. She coasts through the show and goes through the motions --- but there's no EMOTION to her show.

    She doesn't care about Vegas --- that's a fact! She a bulimic singer who eats oranges and pickles. She's married to a compulsive gambler who was a pedophile when he met and eventually married her. She has a couple good songs but she doesn't have the voice she once had... and yes, she's fugly.

    Plus, she hates America (she is a Canadian eh), yet loves the spoils and riches it provides her.

    I'LL TAKE MACARONI MIDLER OVER CELINE ANY DAY OF THE WEEK!!!


    joe wrote on December 15, 2007 11:16 AM: What a surprise, a talented performer has an article in the newspaper and a few no-talent, envious scum crawl out from the sewer to spew hateful comments. She does more, sees more, and experiences more in one month than you will your entire lives. Use your energy positively instead of wasting it on bitter, ignorant comments. In other words, grow up.


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