Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Colosseum opts for real country in Reba and Brooks & Dunn booking

Reba McEntire, Brooks & Dunn at Caesars Palace

Steve Marcus

Ronnie Dunn, Reba McEntire and Kix Brooks respond to questions during a news conference in the Colosseum on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014, at Caesars Palace. The new residency “Reba and Brooks & Dunn: Together in Vegas” is scheduled to begin next June.

Reba McEntire, Brooks & Dunn at Caesars

Ronnie Dunn, Reba McEntire and Kix Brooks respond to questions during a news conference in the Colosseum on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014, at Caesars Palace. The new residency Launch slideshow »

Caesars Headliners Reba McEntire, Brooks & Dunn

Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn announce their show Launch slideshow »

You hear of these “sightings” all the time in VegasVille, where superstars are spotted at locales that make sense and those that do not.

A few months ago, I got a text message that Brooks & Dunn were hanging out at Rush Lounge in Golden Nugget.

Doubtful? Of course.

These gentlemen were not Brooks & Dunn, but rather a reasonable facsimile. A pair of tribute artists, as it turned out, who turned a lot of heads that night.

At hearing this tale, the real Ronnie Dunn laughed and said, “Seriously?”

Seriously.

But announced this morning is the real deal is playing the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, sharing the bill and the performance with a similarly famous country music superstar, Reba McEntire. The show is titled “Reba and Brooks & Dunn: Together in Vegas.”

The news is now, but the dates are far off: June 24 and 26-27 and July 1-2 and 3. The trio returns Dec. 2, 4, 6, 9 and 11-12 of 2015. Tickets are $205, $155, $105, $85 and $59.95 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Thursday at websites axs.com and thecolosseum.com and by calling (866) 320-9763.

The conversation among the trio of superstars about playing dates in Las Vegas started several months ago. They agree on the environment, which was just before a concert at MGM Grand Garden Arena, but not exactly when it was or who they were going to see.

“It was The Eagles, I think, when we started talking about this,” Kix Brooks said during a one-on-one session after the formal news conference on the Colosseum stage. “We were getting 12 to 13 people together, we were going to a concert — can’t remember which one. Eagles? That right, Reba?

“But we’re talking about having fun and touring around together, and somebody around the table brought up, ‘Why don’t you just go out together?’ ”

“Or was it McCartney?” Ronnie Dunn asked. “It was one of those shows.”

Likely it was one of The Eagles shows this year, either in February or even October, given the velocity with which this deal was made.

“But there was talk around the table about this,” Reba interjected. “And the idea came up from someone — not one of us — that it would be fun to get together and perform again.”

Dunn chuckled and said, “But we can’t say if there were some clandestine discussions going on that we didn’t know about it. That probably did happen.”

Officials who negotiated the deal put the time frame at two months from start to finish. The pairing of superstars does match information culled earlier that this residency would be a match of superstar country acts.

The Reba-Brooks & Dunn residency is the first of two such bookings by AEG Live, which signs acts to the Colosseum, to fill dates left vacant by Celine Dion’s health and family concerns. Celine has been spending time with her husband, Rene Angelil, as he receives treatments for throat cancer. She also is tending to her own voice concerns, and officials are hopeful for her return to the stage sometime in 2015.

But until that timeline can be established, dates are being filled with stars who can sell tickets at the Colosseum. Another announcement is expected within the month, and don’t expect it to be another country artist.

Caesars has the country culture covered, for now.

Both of these acts are enormously popular in country music. Brooks & Dunn are returning to the stage for the first time after they closed their 2008 “Last Rodeo Tour” and have not released an album in more than six years. McEntire is one of the queens of country music, having sold 56 million records (or, if you will, units) and amassed 35 No. 1 singles on the Billboard country charts.

Reba’s history in Las Vegas dates to opening for Roy Clark in the mid-1980s, and for a brief time in 2006 Brooks & Dunn and she were headliners at the Las Vegas Hilton, though Reba’s run ended in August before Brooks & Dunn took over in December. The trio also toured together in 1997 and today share a new record label, Nash Icon.

The structure of the show and its setlist are still to be determined.

“We have a gig,” Dunn said. “And now we need a show.” A confab at Rao’s on Tuesday night only magnified the challenges of establishing a song order and sensible pace to the show. Nothing has yet been agreed upon.

Nonetheless, there is confidence among the suits at Caesars Entertainment and AEG Live that this show will sell tickets.

“I honestly believe the country music fans in this market have been underserved,” AEG Live President John Meglen said. “We’ve had Shania here, and that was a wonderful success, and we would have her back if she wants to be back. But, otherwise, the people who live between Los Angeles and New York — and I count Orange County as being between those cities — have been underserved.”

Meglen added, “We have a lot of Cirque shows, which have reached the saturation point, and a lot of nightclubs in Las Vegas. What we have are shows and performers who are not for the people who go to Hakkasan, and there are a lot of those people out there.”

Brooks & Dunn have previously sold out the Colosseum very quickly in March 2009. The energy, image and hits from McEntire only add to the appeal. 
But the stars are not particularly concerned with how to move tickets. They are locked in on bringing a superior show to Caesars’ crown jewel venue.

“I feel confident that they would not have stepped up to the line and said, ‘We want to do this,’ if they did not feel they could do it,” Brooks said.

“But that’s outside of what we do,” Reba added. “We’re the artists. We have our attention on the show now.”

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy