True to the vision: Team behind ‘A New Day …’ weathering mixed reviews

Tuesday, April 22, 2003 | 9:18 a.m.

It's a new month.

Almost 30 days have passed since the debut of Franco Dragone's extravaganza, "A New Day...," featuring the world's best-selling female recording artist, Celine Dion.

The initial pandemonium surrounding the production in The Colosseum, Caesars Palace's $95-million, 4,000-seat showroom, has calmed down.

Whether a gamble by Park Place Entertainment to guarantee Dion $100 million for 600 performances over the next three years is a wise business decision will not be known for some time.

Executives with the corporation are betting that Dion, immersed in a production created by the man responsible for the immensely popular "O" and "Mystere," will draw millions of customers to the venue.

Michael Coldwell, public relations director for Park Place, said last week that even though the numbers aren't in yet, "A New Day ..." seems to be a boon for business.

That, despite less-than-kind reviews by a few critics, including Bruce Weber of The New York Times.

"...there is no real accounting for taste, which is one reason Las Vegas thrives," Weber wrote in his review on March 27, perhaps revealing a predisposition to be negative about anything that happens in Las Vegas.

Los Angeles Times critic Robert Hilburn wrote: "The show gives us Dion at what may be her best as a performer, but it doesn't offer much of the magic expected from her collaborator, Franco Dragone, the wizard behind many Cirque du Soleil productions."

Criticism may sting initially and smart for a while, but as far as Dragone is concerned it is not a fatal blow.

"Nobody is happy with criticism," said Dragone, who spoke with the Sun last week at Caesars before leaving for Belgium. "But there is an expression in French, translated it means, 'In the country of blind people, the man with one eye is king.' "

He is not immune to the critics' sharp words, however.

"Of course, critics touch me," Dragone said. "But I think they should not write about preconceived ideas. It is strange, but all the French Canadian (critics), and maybe because Celine is French Canadian, were very good critics. They liked the show."

He noted that, overall, the majority of the critics in this country liked "A New Day..."

Dragone is developing a production for Steve Wynn that will debut at Wynn's resort, Le Reve, when it opens in early 2005.

"That is a very short time," Dragone said. "It goes very fast, for a major project like this."

Dragone said the production for Wynn will be "intimate."

"It will be a 2,000-seat theater in the round," he said. "The seats are very close, only 13 or 14 rows from the last to the action. It will be a show that goes into the audience, not to the front of the audience."

Dragone would say little about the show under development, whether it would be greatly different from things he did for Cirque du Soleil or his own company, Dragone Productions. But whatever evolves from the mind of the creative genius will be controversial.

"I cannot change myself," he said. "What I try to do is completely different things. To put a show on the Strip, if you are not different, people won't come. The competition is more and more important on the Strip."

Dragone's Las Vegas

Dragone has a vision of the future of Las Vegas.

"I believe it could become an important entertainment destination, like New York," he said. "But it would be for unique Las Vegas shows, not like those you see on Broadway or in London or Tokyo or Berlin."

Dragone says he hopes "A New Day..." will be an important part of the overall Las Vegas entertainment mix.

"It is a wish that shows like Celine Dion's will help the other shows, to upgrade the destination," Dragone said.

He says shows like "A New Day..." and "O" could not succeed anywhere but in Las Vegas because of the nature of Vegas audiences.

"It is an audience you can have nowhere else," Dragone said. "It is totally a melting pot of people, not like Broadway, where you can typecast audiences."

Universal audiences may drive future productions.

"This could be a unique destination with unique shows," Dragone said.

It was this drive for uniqueness that drove him when he was creating the show for Dion.

"For me it was to try and create a unique world behind every song that she sings," Dragone said. "That is not an easy job to find a world behind every song, and not to be literal. I did not want to be literal. When you are literal, it quickly becomes tacky. I try to combine her song with theater, with dance, with image. It is a fusion of multimedia."

He compared "O," the show he created for the Bellagio, and "A New Day ..."

"In 'O' I have put a lot of things," Dragone said. "Every second something is happening. But here, the substance is Celine. We could not avoid Celine. We had to serve her. I could not put Celine on the side. She is the show, the one that asked me to do the show. We didn't want to lose her to the production. We did not want to upstage her, or lose her to my world.

"I needed to be at service to her, not at the service of my own craziness."

Some critics did not appreciate Dragone's vision. Some considered the show to be too dark.

"Dark?" he said. "No, my purpose was not to be dark. We try to keep this fragile balance between every aspect of the show."

Dragone says a few changes have been made in the production, although nothing dramatic -- and none in response to criticism.

"We are not blind," he said. "We see the weak things. We are working on the show. We are not happy with everything. For example, we have changed the ending slightly."

One of the criticisms was that the show ended on a low point with the low-keyed, slow-paced, "What a Wonderful World."

Now the show ends two songs earlier with, "I Drove All Night."

However, the final two songs have not been deleted. They are the encore numbers.

"We want to keep the songs that we have because it is something we want to share with the audience," he said.

Dragone says the show will always be in evolution.

"The premiere was just a step in the process," he said. "Since then we have kept working on the show. Maybe it needs to grow up, to do little changes.

"To keep it alive, we need to change things, to evolve. We have some songs not ready yet that we will put onstage maybe in a few weeks, or a few months, to keep the show and the spirit of the people alive."

Dragone says he respects critics, but he can't be guided by their vision.

"It is their opinion, their point of view," he said. "Sometimes, I think they are unfair. Maybe ... they wanted to see Cirque du Soleil or something. So some critics were very heavy on Celine. They, maybe, did not like Celine anyway.

"Celine's fans, of course, love the show. Some have seen it six times already."

Criticism nothing new

Rene Angelil, Dion's husband and manager, says Celine has been criticized by some reviewers since she began singing professionally at age 12.

"You cannot please everyone," Angelil said during an interview last week. "Celine has always been criticized. Every show she did there were people that loved her, gave her incredible reviews. And at the same show, there were bad reviews. People saw the same show, some wrote incredible reviews, some bad reviews.

"I told Franco before the show opened this would happen. Celine's style is not for everyone. It's normal that a reviewer comes in, and if it's not his cup of tea he won't see the show with same eye of other people, which is normal."

Angelil says he reads reviews, but shrugs them off.

"I don't get stressed about it," he said. "I don't get upset about it because, really, I have been in show business almost 43 years, since 1961, touring all over the world with a group for 12 years.

"I know about this business. I've seen a lot of shows. I am the worst critic, by the way. I criticize every show, when something is not perfect."

Angelil says he expresses his opinions to Dragone, but Dragone is in charge.

"I will give my opinion on the songs, on the pacing of the show," he said, "but Franco is the one that has the last word. It's his show, his vision. We wanted to be part of his vision."

Angelil says he is pleased with the production.

"Maybe costuming will change eventually," he said. "The whole show will change. It won't be the same show for three years. But right now, we are very, very happy, because the reactions are incredible. Every night 200 to 300 people have to be turned down."

Angelil noted that the show is like nothing else around.

"It's very creative," he said. "It's not a musical, not a concert. It's something different."

Before leaving for Belgium, Dragone met with his cast and crew, with whom he has worked closely for many months and developed a strong bond.

He stood onstage and his people sat in the auditorium chairs, taking in every word spoken by their mentor.

"This is the first time this kind of show is done," Dragone said. "We are not perfect, but you are a great show. You have the show in your hands now. Everything will go well.

"The show, it is not changing. We are evolving. I want to say, you must be proud because we have a beautiful show."

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