Beyonce epilogue: The hotel is still under her spell

By John Katsilometes

Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009 | 11:57 a.m.

Beyonce uses this “Sasha Fierce” character as an alter-ego, but she seems fairly fierce by nature. Maybe Sasha Demure would be a more fitting alter-ego, as she, or they, showed over the weekend at Encore Theater. Beyonce is drop-your-schoolbooks gorgeous, but she’ll also rip your face off if you lie to her. I believe those are the lyrics to one of her songs, actually.

Beyonce was as convincing a performer as I’ve seen in Las Vegas. You can write thousands of words about this woman, but when you get chills during a performance, that’s enough verification that it was a great show. It’s possible she hypnotized the audience. There were moments when I would have crawled on my lips to Pahrump for this woman if she’d asked.

She was 40 minutes late Sunday, but so what? I blamed her video crew for that, which recorded the show for an upcoming DVD to be titled “An Intimate Night With Beyonce.” But she was late for her other Encore appearances, too. Beyonce’s late for her engagements, but again, so what? About a minute into the show, about the amount of time it took for her to stride down the aisle whence she entered to the teeming-with-female-musicians stage, I thought this is the type of performer who could ring the bell regularly at a larger venue. The Colosseum, for instance. The people there don’t care to discuss specifically who might grace The Colosseum’s stage, other than those already booked, but that would be a pairing worth celebrating.

As it was, Beyonce threw an electric charge into the Wynn/Encore operation at a badly needed moment. Each show was an announced sellout at the 1,500-seat showroom (which, in a jarring contrast in genres, recently hosted a one-night stand by Larry King in June), with ticket packages and prices ranging from $250 to $1,000. As Wynn spokeswoman Jennifer Dunne said in a statement, “Beyonce's exclusive engagement at Wynn Las Vegas' Encore Theater was a resounding success this past weekend! The superstar created an intimate spectacle for fans, VIPs and celebrities that had the entire resort buzzing for days. Beyonce's incredible talent was showcased with superb staging created specifically for the intimate venue. … The engagement proved an incredible success for Wynn and Encore. With sold-out shows, both gaming and non-gaming revenues exceeded all expectations.”

Seems like I’m not the only one under Beyonce’s spell. One quibble I do have is that, during the autobiographical stretch, the 27-year-old, one-woman conglomerate spoke of all she has been through to reach this level of success. As a friend noted afterward, we’re not exactly looking at a Johnny Cash-like resurrection from the depths of hell here. Losing in the first round of “Star Search” can’t be fun, but Beyonce is on the kind of hot streak only legends enjoy. We need more of her type around here.

Those in geisha garb

Two women at Sunday’s show, seated about 10 rows in front of me, were impossible to miss. They wore what seemed to be a fusion of geisha and nightclub attire and were among the first to stand and groove when the tempo quickened. I caught them in the lobby after the performance. They were Masae Isoda and Mayumi Kawasaki of Osaka, Japan, who paid $1,000 apiece for tickets to Sunday’s show. They said their pink-splashed dresses were not traditional in the traditional sense, but indeed a geisha-inspired design they packed just for the show. They also had their nails done professionally. Masae is a homemaker and Mayumi works at a rental car business. They said they first learned of the shows in Vegas when Beyonce mentioned them on a YouTube clip. “She said the crowds in Japan were not so good,” Mayumi said. “But we love her! We wish (the show) was longer. We will see her world tour when it comes to Japan.”

No if, ands or …

A friend e-mailed with the following praise for Beyonce: "I really do have to give her and Kim Kardashian credit for bringing back the bubble butt."

Without being aware of any trends regarding the bubble butt, it’s worth noting that when Forbes named Beyonce No. 3 on its list of Top 100 celebrities in June, “bubble butt promotion” was not one of the criteria. Butt whatever works, eh?