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Obviously, I shed a small tear when I saw the news.
You know why, readers:
"Celine Dion, She Went On and On" by MELENA RYZIK
LAS VEGAS — For the final performance of “A New Day,” Celine Dion’s show at Caesars Palace here last weekend, M J Wylie, 49, a health-care consultant from Denver, decided to go formal. She wore a floor-length black gown and a sparkly white shawl; around her neck was a silver pendant in the shape of the show’s first logo, an elongated figure of a woman. Inside her $3,400 Judith Leiber clutch, bought at the gift shop adjacent to the theater and also bedazzled with the logo, were several autographed photos of Ms. Dion with Ms. Wylie. It was an undeniably elegant ensemble; the only problem, Ms. Wylie said, was that her dress hid her commemorative “New Day” tattoo.
It was her 62nd time at the show.
On Saturday night about 4,000 fans bid farewell to “A New Day,” which has been running in the custom-built Colosseum theater at Caesars since March 25, 2003. Over 717 performances, nearly three million people have seen the show, an elaborate hybrid of a concert and a Cirque du Soleil-style spectacle with a cast of 50 dancers and musicians.
“I’m trying to elongate the evening,” Ms. Dion said in the two-hour final show, during which she went through seven costume changes and several speeches about her career and family. Despite early negative reviews and her desire to stay home with her young son, Ms. Dion said she was glad she stuck it out. “It’s quite hard to believe that we’ve come to an end,” she said to the crowd. “I think you understand our emotions tonight.” Almost every number was punctuated by ovations; Ms. Dion said she was “extremely in shock that, night after night, week after week, year after year, you came, you were here.”
Ms. Wylie said, “It’s been my escape for the last five years.” She likened her fervor to a drug addiction — except, she said, “it’s legal, it’s wholesome.” But it’s also pricey: She estimated she had easily spent $15,000 to $20,000 on her Dion habit. Over the years fans like her, flocking to Las Vegas from all corners of the globe, have helped pull in $400 million in sales, the show’s producers said.
And between the hundreds of dancers, musicians, makeup artists, costumers, prop masters, and other technicians and staff members the production employs, and the gift shop hawking everything from branded golf balls to “Always Belong” perfume, a kind of Celine Dion cottage industry has sprung up around Caesars. On Saturday night the store did a brisk business in baseball hats, T-shirts, shot glasses and books — though, since it was the last night of the show, much was 50 percent off.
Gary Selesner, the president of Caesars Palace, credited Ms. Dion with revitalizing the fortunes of the hotel itself.
When Ms. Dion first came up with the idea of a residency in Las Vegas around 2000, that kind of success was far from assured, as she recounted in a behind-the-scenes documentary on the show’s DVD (released on Tuesday and already selling out). For starters there was nowhere to house her; Caesars built a 4,100-seat theater for her at a cost of $95 million. Inspired by a performance of Cirque du Soleil’s “O,” Ms. Dion hired its director, Franco Dragone. He brought in many signature high-tech and surrealist elements, like an enormous LED screen backdrop (cue the flying doves and celestial imagery), floating lampposts and trapezes. The choreography, by the pop mainstay Mia Michaels (“So You Think You Can Dance?”), was acrobatic. A white-clad dancer-mime was on the edge of nearly every scene.
But at the center of the production was Ms. Dion, the French-Canadian Grammy-winning, platinum-selling artist whose ballads, like “My Heart Will Go On” will be familiar to anyone who has ever been in a karaoke bar. Her nearly $100 million Las Vegas contract was considered one of the most lucrative — and risky — in the touring industry, but despite three-figure tickets, the show routinely sold out. The success helped spur a revival in artist residencies, a trend that last flourished during the Rat Pack era. Elton John is already performing at Caesars. In February Bette Midler will move into Ms. Dion’s theater, and Ms. Dion will begin a worldwide tour for her new album, “Taking Chances.”
In an interview outside the gift shop, Luc Plamondon, a Paris-based songwriter who has worked with Ms. Dion, said that many in the music industry initially questioned her decision to do a residency. “Nobody understood,” he said. “It was like she was sacrificing her career to do a revue in Vegas. But it was a great choice because instead of always fighting to be a pop singer” — in other words, fighting to have the latest big hit — “she put aside her pop career and she made a transition to a kind of diva career.”
Moments later, Mr. Plamondon was swarmed by people seeking autographs and photos.
The ferocity of Ms. Dion’s fan base (at least one person came to see the show more than 100 times, and a mother and son from Quebec admitted to having a Dion shrine in their home) may be surprising in this fractured musical age.
“She sings about what every woman wants — love,” said Dana DiMatteo, from Orlando, Fla., who was taken to the show as an anniversary present. Her husband, Tony, said, “She’d be great if she weren’t so schmaltzy and cheesy.” (His musical taste runs more toward System of a Down.)
But Ms. Dion’s audience, which congregates online at celinedionforum.com, was not only after romance. Estevam Peric, 28, a financial analyst from São Paolo, Brazil, has amassed a collection of 450 Celine recordings of various kinds and had seen “A New Day” 25 times. Why? “For me, Celine is like an angel,” he said. “The energy and the strength that she brings is unbelievable.”
At the show fans posed for photos with a wax figurine of Ms. Dion. Their devotion was matched only by the performers’. By consensus Las Vegas’s tightly knit show-business community considered Ms. Dion’s show a good one to work on; many dancers and staff members stayed on for the full five-year run, a rarity in the industry, especially considering the grueling set-up. (The stage is raked at a punishing 5.7-degree angle, and injuries are common. Ms. Dion’s advice to Ms. Midler: “Tell them to fix the stage.”)
The longevity made the final performance bittersweet. “I didn’t sleep at all last night — I don’t think many of us did,” Trevelynn Henuset, the staff chiropractor for the duration of the run, said on Saturday. A few hours before curtain, the cast held an open mic to share their feelings, and their tears. “This is probably one of the greatest shows ever assembled in the world, as far as I’m concerned,” added Dr. Henuset, a well-known figure among Vegas dancers.
For Ms. Dion, a dedicated entertainer who performed — through tears — on the day her father died, the final show was a testament to her resolve over a process that sometimes felt, she said, “like the Titanic was going to sink again.”
In a post-show news conference in the theater, she said: “Tonight I was emotionally invaded. It was very important for me to pace myself, and try not to cry.” Showered by red rose petals from the ceiling, and joined by her husband and manager, René Angélil, and her 7-year-old son, René-Charles — whose appearance drew constant awws — she remained composed at the final curtain call. A standing ovation lasted nearly 10 minutes.
For fans who could not make it to Vegas to see the final spectacle, there is some solace: 200 movie theaters across the country will screen the show today (fathomevents.com has details). Of course, for mega-fans like Ms. Wylie and Mr. Peric, the show will go on; between them they already have tickets to Ms. Dion’s tour from Amsterdam to Denver."
Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On (Titanic):
"Every night in my dreams
I see you. I feel you.
That is how I know you go on.
Far across the distance
And spaces between us
You have come to show you go on.
Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
Once more you open the door
And you're here in my heart
And my heart will go on and on
Love can touch us one time
And last for a lifetime
And never go till we're one
Love was when I loved you
One true time I hold to
In my life we'll always go on
Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
Once more you open the door
And you're here in my heart
And my heart will go on and on
There is some love that will not
go away
You're here, there's nothing I fear,
And I know that my heart will go on
We'll stay forever this way
You are safe in my heart
And my heart will go on and on"
Getting a bit of a tear right now, readers!
