Friday, July 20, 2001 | 9:46 a.m.
The Wayner crooning "Red Roses for a Blue Lady" wearing blue face paint? Nah.
Tom Jones declaring that "It's Not Unusual" to perform as ethereal imps prance, dance and dive into a pool behind him? Pshaw.
Paul Anka inviting you to "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" as jugglers juggle, showgirls strut and explosives, well, explode? Hmmm. Let's chew on this one.
"I have felt for years, after living in (Las Vegas), that there's somewhat of a stagnant atmosphere in terms of the implementation of entertainment, with all due respect to content," Anka says. "I think theres an ever-changing revolution when you have the big shows like 'O' and 'Mystere.' These are the types of shows people frequent and support, which tells you something. This could be the new form and the new injection that the town needs for the stand-up performer, which I think is a dying breed."
Jugglers, showgirls and pyrotechnics may be more than Anka, 59, needs to back his bouncy ode to his ex-baby sitter, "Diana." But the possibility of some kind of hybrid creation production-show eye candy crossed with headliners' hits, of the sort Celine Dion will attempt at Caesars Palace in 2003 has the respected singer-songwriter revved up to chart a new course in his old stomping grounds.
"I've been approached by producers on Broadway for the last five years for the rights to my music to build a show around my music," says Anka, who launches a two-week MGM Grand gig on Thursday. "I've turned them down because I'm not really into the Broadway scenario in terms of taking the risk and taking a year off to do it and getting shot down in one day by a couple of (critics). I respect their work, but it's somewhat of a treacherous terrain.
"But Vegas is a different animal," adds Anka, who has been woven into the Vegas tapestry since 1959 and now performs at both the MGM Grand and Mirage.
"The Celine Dion venture is the kind that I've been talking about for the last few years to the point where I've got $20 million from some people on Wall Street who are fans and want to support this idea. And I'm talking to creative people and that's always the key. I'll spend about a half-million dollars on a storyboard and then find out where to put it. If Celine makes it -- and I know there's been talk about filling the 4,000 seats (at Caesars' planned Colosseum-style theater) and what-if? and what-if? -- it will be a new benchmark for our city."
The man eager to plunge into the future is an old-school entertainer at heart. He doesn't shoehorn old hits into new formats to lure younger fans -- can you imagine rock remixes of "Puppy Love" or electronica versions of "You Are My Destiny" or hip-hop takes on "Having My Baby"? -- and is a card-carrying member of the tuxedoed crooner crowd epitomized by the late Frank Sinatra (for whom Anka penned "My Way"). In other words: a stand-up performer.
But he's also regarded as one of the music industry's savviest, most pragmatic businessmen. And the pragmatic equation, Anka notes, is that stand-up performing no longer equals standout profits.
"(Robert) Goulet, what has he done over there (at the Venetian)?" Anka says bluntly. "I hear they're giving the tickets away. That doesn't work. It works for me, it works for Wayne Newton, he has his crowd, but I'm looking to do something different. When the fans come in, they'll not only hear their favorite songs, but there's stuff around it. That's what people are accustomed to now, looking at an event, a spectacle. They're conditioned already, they don't want to go see these stand-up people."
The concept is more evolutionary than revolutionary, allowing the star and the show to meet in the middle.
"EFX" (now "EFX Alive") was constructed around a succession of headliner types (Michael Crawford, David Cassidy, Tommy Tune and now Rick Springfield, each tailoring the perpetually-in-motion production to fit their styles). But the effects-laden extravaganza -- with its fire-breathing dragon, colorfully-clad characters and mystical plot points -- has always been the true star and primary draw.
Conversely, in the now-closed "At the Copa," Cassidy and Sheena Easton provided the marquee punch as their hits were loosely tied together by a '40s-style storyline -- but minus the visual razzle-dazzle.
Anka's model, at least as a starting point, may be the Cirque du Soleil successes.
"When you look at the numbers Steve (Wynn) has had with 'O' and 'Mystere,' they're walking away with 50 percent of those profits every year. That comes out to $15 million or $20 million a year, their share. It's an entertainment-driven situation and it spills over into every sector of the hotel. You make it in your coffeeshop, your restaurant, while people are standing around. Traffic is the key."
And the marriage of star and spectacle, Anka adds, amounts to long-range planning for hot acts destined to cool down in a mercurial, flavor-of-the-moment culture.
"I'm very close to the record companies and I look at the numbers," Anka explains. "Britney Spears and a lot of acts that go out, their whole criteria is to top the act before them. Janet Jackson, Madonna, they earn a million dollars a night, then spend a million and a half. The record companies subsidize them and they're scratching their heads because they're wondering if they'll ever get it back. But they have to support them because they're selling records.
"One day those people will settle down -- possibly -- and say, 'Look, I can go to a Vegas hotel where I can get all the production I want, make $25 million a year and it's not going to cost me like it does running around the country, thinking, "How long is this going to last?" '
"The 82 percent who come to Vegas who have never been there before are a captive audience. They will come to them."
This is still a wait-and-see scenario for Anka. But the man who has entertained Vegas since the mid-20th century -- and still employs that era's art of stand-up performing -- has his eye on 21st-century reinvention.
"If Celine's works, if I get mine up in time, I think you'll see top-end performers with a show like Broadway," he says.
"If it works there, why shouldn't it work here?"
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