Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Can King of Pop become King of the Strip?

Michael Jackson raises plenty of questions: When is he going to have another hit? Are kids safe around him? Does Bubbles ever write?

But in Las Vegas, the question is: Can he hold it together?

If he can, if he can put on a reliable and professional show with a minimum of fuss, he could be big. Very big.

That's the kind of show the King of Pop is rumored to be pursuing in his new hometown. There are "proposals which he has not solicited, but were presented to him," if you believe his press agent.

And this town loves a comeback. Take Prince. Or the King of Rock 'n' Roll.

Yes, Elvis! The '69 run at the International (now the Las Vegas Hilton) made his crown shine again.

Still, Elvis was just in a slump. But Jackson's career?

After the child molestation charges, after the allegations of racism he hurled at his record label, after the footage of him dangling a baby off a hotel balcony, after still more child molestation charges - Jackson's career seems to be a smoking, mile-wide crater. The first local concert venue that springs to mind isn't the Hilton or Caesars, it's Yucca Mountain.

Of course, the infamy alone could give the show a big start. Remember how many people showed up just to sit outside a courthouse in Santa Maria, Calif.?

Plus, Jackson's in the demographic sweet spot. The 15-year-olds who bought "Thriller" are now 40, the prime Vegas spending age. And there are more than 100 million of them worldwide.

Foreign tourists are key, says Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar, which tracks concert ticket sales. After 1989 Jackson performed only three major concerts in the U.S., but he performed 150 abroad.

But, Bongiovanni says, Jackson hasn't toured in a decade.

"He's kept such a low profile that he hasn't really tested his viability in the last couple of years," Bongiovanni says. "Who knows?"

(Only in music business terms could the last 10 years of Jackson's life be considered low profile.)

When he was touring, Jackson's concerts were giant moneymaking spectacles that featured dancers, pyrotechnics, massive sets, gaudy costumes and little acted-out entries, like him appearing onstage as some kind of gold-plated space warrior, only to strip off his armor and sing. Made to order for Vegas.

Not only that, he used to pack up his show, move it, unpack it and do it four days later in Moscow. That's the kind of stamina you need in Las Vegas.

But that was 10 years ago.

Most people in the business agree he's still got the star power, but it's his stability they wonder about.

Performers can't miss shows in Las Vegas, where customers who are leaving town the next day demand refunds over rain checks.

"People are only forgiving if you are 10 or 15 minutes, but if you are an hour late, you have to make a lot of apologies and give their money back," says Laura Ishum, entertainment director at the Flamingo, where Toni Braxton is the headliner.

Putting on a successful, long-running show in Las Vegas requires a certain kind of performer, says John Meglen, president and co-chief executive of AEG Live/Concerts West. His company manages the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, where Celine Dion, Elton John and Jerry Seinfeld are the big draws.

So the question is, can Jackson dedicate and pace himself enough to put on 60, 100 or 160 shows a year? Shows that are like hourlong sprints?

Can Jackson, in other words, be Celine Dion?

"Celine is at the top. It takes a performer who respects their own career and what it takes to stay at the top," Meglen says. "You need to be somewhat pragmatic."

Pragmatic is not a word often associated with Jackson since his public image skidded off of the road of "eccentric," crashed through the "weird" barriers and plummeted flaming into "bizarro" or worse.

And what if there's some incident, some allegation involving Jackson on casino property? Can anything protect the casino from liability? It's a question that makes lawyers and show promoters shake their heads and say, "No comment."

On the other hand, if you brought Jackson in, you could, barring aforementioned calamity, get all of your problems out of the way at the start. Everyone might expect a disaster, so if the show works and you win, you win big.

It could be just the kind of risk for a gambler such as Steve Wynn, someone who has bet big on his entertainment, not always successfully. It's as good a reason as any to explain why most Jackson sightings have been at Wynn Las Vegas, sometimes eating with producers, sometimes with Wynn.

At the moment no one will say exactly what proposals Jackson is floating (or having presented to him), although it's clear that there's at least some level of interest. (There is even a rumor that Jackson's family is pushing him to forget Las Vegas and do a reunion tour, adding sister Janet to the act.)

Could it be worth it for a casino to take on a performer who, however he's done it, has kept himself in the public eye for more than 30 years?

"Any press is good press?" Meglen says. "I don't know if I agree with that."

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