A new day Review

December 13, 2005 at 05:14 PM

Category: Production Show

Location: Caesars Palace

Address: 3570 Las Vegas Blvd. S, South Strip

Tickets: 877-CELINE-4

Price: $87.50 to $200.00, plus tax

Showtimes: Wed-Sun 8:30pm

V4V Grade: B+

Website: CelineDion.com

Celine Dion: Full Review
Note: since this review was written, the show has been changing with some numbers removed and others added.
The important thing you need to know about “A New Day” is this: it’s a glorified Celine Dion concert. Now normally when I assign the adjective “glorified” to something it’s meant as an insult but not this time. In this case I mean that the show is visually stunning, evocatively staged, brilliantly choreographed, and at times, yes, glorious.

But it’s still a Celine Dion concert.

I mention this because it seems that even though the French-Canadian songstress has been almost omnipresent lately, the show itself has been billed more as a “stage spectacular” first and a Celine Dion show second. However, unlike the recently closed “EFX” or an ongoing Broadway hit that rotates the stars, this show will not fit with whichever power-ballad belter they decide to put in there. Even the Cirque du Soleil style production elements created by Franco Dragone, the guy largely responsible for “O” and “Mystere,” are presented as background – props, if you will, for the star to stand in front of.

Not that the background isn’t interesting. The massive, steeply raked stage is empty save for a couple of stairways to nowhere, all fronting what has been billed as the world’s largest LED screen. This serves as animated scenery, broadcasting everything from computer enhanced graphics to filmed pieces and even repeating images of what’s happening on stage in front of it. The screen, the dancers, and the various set pieces that float in and out are meant to evoke the moods of the songs Celine is singing and for the most part they do it successfully.

The singer’s hit “It’s All Coming Back To Me” is staged with a lone pair of dancers in a dramatic pas de deux in front of the screen showing a foreboding gothic veranda and a turbulent sky. Both are perfect compliments to the yearning, lovesick bombast of the song. This segues nicely into “Because You Loved Me,” with the same staging set-up only the sky above the veranda clears to a sunrise – a simple change but effective in this case.

“I’m Alive,” a spunky mid-tempo rouser is given a dose of adrenaline with the Time Square style scenery rushing by on the LED and the dozens of dancers in an impressive ballet that perfectly evokes the headlong rush of city sidewalk mayhem.

Dragone’s reputation as a visual provocateur is evident throughout, but my personal favorite segment was the powerful backdrop to Celine singing “If I Could.” The LED shows a slowly blooming tree while another pops up from the stage. Two men move a piano across the stage ten feet in the air. A woman walking a dog is greeted by a man whose head turns into a bouquet of flowers. It’s typical Cirque stuff that sounds odd on paper but when you see it live it’s very effective.

Unfortunately there isn’t enough of it going on throughout the show to remove the impression that this is a Celine show featuring Cirque du Soleil style staging rather than the other way around.

Along with Celine’s catalogue of songs like “Love Can Move Mountains,” “Power of Love,” “I Drove All Night,” and of course that “Titanic” hit “My Heart Will Go On,” she also dabbles in other artist’s material. Etta James’ “At Last,” Sinatra’s “I’ve Got the World on a String,” and Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish” are a few examples, the latter of which allows us cynics to giggle a little as someone who may very well be the whitest woman in the known universe sings “Looking back on when I was a little nappy headed boy.” But only for a second because she actually acquits herself quite well on the song, even doing a little bit of hoofing with her dancers.

If there is a showstopper it comes about midway through with another cover tune, Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.” It begins simply with Celine in a gauzy dress downstage while the LED shows a repeat of the stage in a giant picture frame – an image repeated within itself to great hall-of-mirrors affect. But then the dancers enter, floating above the stage suspended by wires, performing a simple but visually arresting ballet in the air. And even though you should’ve been expecting it, it still comes as a bit of surprise when Celine herself begins to float, entering the ballet with the presumed object of her affections. The fact that they never touch may have been a technical limitation but it adds an almost heartbreaking element to an already heartbreaking song, one that if absolutely nothing else you have to give the woman props for singing expertly while hovering twenty feet in the air.

And that’s not the only time when she sounds terrific. Much noise has been made about how much singing she’d be doing and how much of it would actually be live. Rest assured that she’s on stage for 95% of the show, singing for 90%, and if she was lip-synching any of it she deserves an award for being way too good at it for anyone to tell.

There’s also been a lot of brouhaha about the massive 4,000-seat theater, with many critics carping that it’s too big. Okay, yeah that’s a lot of seats to fill and I still have my doubts that she’s going to be able to do it for three years running, but on the Thursday night I attended there were only a handful of empty chairs.

And in case you care, the $100 million Colosseum replica is quite nice, with comfy rocking seats, cupholders, and decent views even from the back row where I was seated. If the real Colosseum had looked like this the Christians might not have minded the lions so much. (save your letters, it's just a joke)

I actually kind of liked being that far back because it gave me a chance to see the entire stage and really appreciate the Dragone staging, the LED, and especially the choreography by Mia Michaels. Although there are a few too many times where the talented dancers are simply walking in slow motion across the stage you easily forget about that when they are actually dancing. There’s a stunning non-Celine interlude that features the dancers in a tender ballet, unique and evocative for its dramatic gender-reversal as the women support the men.

But as mentioned, all of this is mostly scenery behind Celine, who I’m referring to by first name on purpose. Like her or loathe her, she has an accessibility that is endearing, allowing her to wear her clichéd earnestness proudly without a hint of irony. That’s a fancy way of saying that she seems nice, even when she’s being sappy.

What it all boils down to though is this: if you want to see a Celine Dion concert, you’ll never see a better one that this. If you don’t want to see a Celine Dion concert, go see “Mystere.”

http://www.vegas4visitors.com/shows/descrip/cdionsho.htm

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Updated 8/18/03

December 13, 2005 at 07:19 PM

I really like this review, even if it is 2 years old. I saw the opening night and I found it to be great, even if I was in my living room at the time. Thanks for the review.