As all of Christendom now knows, one Adele Atkins of Tottenham has been forced to cancel/reschedule 13 weeks of shows at Caesars Palace. When Adele signed for this gig, in early December, it was regarded as the showbiz coup of the year. Well, it’s still the biggest story going but not in a way that Caesars Entertainment intended. As the timeline makes obvious, Weekends with Adele was hurried into production, despite being envisioned on a scale (100 backup singers) for which the word ‘lavish’ seems inadequate. So the events of the last 72 hours should be a surprise to very few outside the Caesars C-suite. Maybe you can get away with this in Reno, but this is the big time now.
The spin-doctoring has already begun in earnest. Vital Vegas took the glass-half-full view, saying that Adele made the right call (agreed), that this is how things go in Vegas (not so sure about that one) and obliquely suggesting that Weekends with Adele was overproduced: “We’re rooting for you and you could get onto that stage and play a kazoo, we’re still going to give you a standing ovation …” We agree with Scott Roeben that “there are additional expectations when it comes to a Las Vegas residency, especially in the house that Celine built at Caesars Palace.” The crucial difference is that Celine Dion‘s two Colosseum residencies took place after long and careful creative gestation—and it showed. Whoever at Caesars thought that Adele could just run out there and harum-scarum start singing (although it would sell tickets) needs to be working someplace else.
Vital Vegas certainly had a more evenhanded take on l’affaire Adele than did the oleaginous Michael Shulman, author of the self-aggrandizing Shulman Says newsletter. (He’s the new Robin Leach and not in a good way.) We’re so flabbergasted by Shulman’s attitude toward disenfranchised and disgruntled ticket buyers that we’ll cut to the chase: “It’s certainly not Caesars Palace’s responsibility, beyond the accommodations. Nor is it incumbent on AEG Presents (Aretha) or Live Nation (Adele) to fall on their respective financial swords, in circumstances like these, beyond refunding the tickets. And good luck trying to explain to your airline why they should refund your airfare for a cancelled concert.” In other words, screw you and grab your ankles when Weekends with Adele finally debuts.
Speaking of which … the one person who displayed any class in this imbroglio is Adele. She’s the one who made the tough call and who accepted all the responsibility that goes with it. Clearly she knows, if the Shulmans of this world don’t, that Vegas never forgets nor forgives a botched opening. (Just ask Criss Angel.) She’s also risking an even higher level of expectation when Weekends with Adele bows—hopefully–in April. All Caesars needed to do was deliver Adele with a big band and some video razzle-dazzle, as they did with Elton John, and they’d have been in clover. But by trying to outrace Celine back to the Strip, they’re raised the stakes and Adele’s the one who has to come through for them. If Caesars CEO Tom Reeg were trying to make us nostalgic for Gary Loveman, he can congratulate himself on a mission accomplished. Not every Colosseum show of the Loveman era was an artistic success (two words: Mariah Carey) but there was never an implosion like this. You can take the executive out of Eldorado Resorts but you can’t take the Eldorado out of the executive.
But if there’s a villain in this scenario it’s the ticket-scalping industry, which has reminded us that greed and shortsightedness are opposite sides of the same counterfeit coin. With Caesars’ complaisance, every last ticket was instantaneously vacuumed up and usuriously repriced. Such was the eagerness to make As Much Money As Possible ASAP that even media were to be dunned for admission to the show. The free market meted out some rough justice, as Weekends with Adele was on the verge of playing to blocks of unsold seats. Simply put, Joan Q. Public only had so much tolerance for these shenanigans. Of course, the scalpers will get revenge. StubHub is already reneging on refunds, citing the technicality that shows were postponed, not cancelled outright. And if you can’t rejigger your schedule to make the re-slated dates, tough shit. The best you can do will be to put your tickets on eBay or suchlike.
Showbiz411 asks a lot of questions we can’t answer: “What ‘deliveries’ couldn’t be made? Why couldn’t COVID infected or exposed musicians be replaced by well ones? Las Vegas is teeming with perfectly good musicians ready to work at a moment’s notice.” Indeed, all Cirque du Soleil shows are up and running without any extraneous drama, and every Strip headliner we can think is back in business. If there’s anything good to come out of this, it’s that Resorts World Las Vegas is looking even better by comparison. Genting Group may be Strip newbies too but property President Scott Sibella and his team have their entertainment program (Dion excepted) firing on all cylinders. Weekends with Adele was going to be Reeg & Co.’s calling card, their moment to say, “We’ll show them.” They sure did. And they blew it. Adele’s reputation? It’s just ‘collateral damage.’ What an injustice.