The next big thing

Jerry Fink, Las Vegas Sun

Monday, June 25, 2007 | 7:19 a.m.

Forget about being the Entertainment Capital of the World, Las Vegas seems to be aiming to become the Entertainment Capital of the Universe.

Caesars Palace raised the bar with the $100 million, 4,000-seat Colosseum, home of Celine Dion and Elton John. That bar was cleared by the MGM Grand and Cirque du Soleil's $130 million Ka Theatre, which is almost a show in itself.

Expect the same kind of energy from two giant projects.

The $7.4 billion CityCenter by MGM Mirage will have a 2,000-seat theater with plans for a Cirque tribute to Elvis, in the vein of the Beatles tribute "Love" at the Mirage.

Boyd Gaming broke ground last week on the $4 billion Echelon Las Vegas on the razed Stardust site. It will include two theaters - one with 4,000 seats and one with 1,500.

AEG Live, which produces the entertainment at the Colosseum, will be responsible for the entertainment at Echelon's two theaters. AEG President John Meglen discussed plans for entertainment at the new facility.

"We're taking everything we didn't get to do at the Colosseum and what we've learned through the last five- or six-year process and applying that," Meglen said. "So we will be newer, bigger and better."

Expect big-name headliners along the lines of Dion and John in the larger theater.

"We are fans of the headliner concept, so that's probably the right way for us to go," he said. "But it's also about finding unique and tremendous creative people to marry together with that artist so that we can create a unique production and create something that can only be seen at this particular place."

Meglen wouldn't bite on saying who the headliner will be in the big room, although it will probably be someone who has sold 100 million records, or someone whose career has exploded.

"I hate to throw out names," Meglen said, "but we're not trying to create concerts. What we're trying to create is a headline production experience like Celine and like Elton - and hopefully we will take it to another level."

He said the artist chosen as the headliner must fit the demographics and the style of the resort.

"I think we can probably look for a slightly younger audience here than we have at Caesars Palace," Meglen said. "There's a lot of artists out there today that appeal to that Boomer generation."

Meglen isn't afraid of the competition with the Colosseum.

"You've got demographic differences between the two," he said. "People are definitely coming here for entertainment today and the more great shows we create, the more it's going to feed the marketplace. I'm a fan of everybody's shows and hopefully they're fans of ours."

Meglen said the 1,500-seat theater is more flexible.

"We can take it down to 750 or up to almost 2,000 seats," he said. "At times I call the room a studio. That's what's unique about it. It can be an intimate room and it can be a great rock 'n' roll hall."

The room can adapt for use as a comedy room or a concert hall for rock 'n' roll bands, and for banquets, TV production, game shows and much more.

"We're really having a lot of fun right now putting together that list of what we can create in that room ," Meglen said.