Music

Adele’s entire Las Vegas residency is canceled–and there’s behind-the-scenes drama. (UPDATING AS THINGS DEVELOP)

I can’t imagine the insurance implications and box office headaches this causes. And those fans who spend thousands to get to Las Vegas, not to mention the cost of tickets.

Adele’s entire 24-show residency at Caesars Palace is off. The cause? Apparently, half her crew has COVID and there were supply chain issues when it came to the staging of the show.

“Half my team has COVID, and it’s been impossible to finish the show,” she said. “We’re going to reschedule all the dates; we’re on it right now. And I’m going to finish my show. I want to get it to where it’s supposed to be [but] we’ve been up against so much, and it just ain’t ready,”

Backstage dramas are starting to emerge. One has Adele fighting with her set designer. The word is that there were “explosive backstage fights.” And something about a swimming pool? And crying jags over the phone to her boyfriend?

This is from The Sun:

But our sources say the production had long been in jeopardy thanks to behind-the-scenes clashes, including with acclaimed set designer Esmeralda Devlin.

Brit Esmeralda, known as Es, previously worked with Adele on her world tour in 2016.

But it is understood she and the Hello singer argued in the run-up to the opening night of her latest concerts.

One source told us: “In spite of the set costing millions to put together, Adele was unhappy with the result, and she made her feelings very clear to Es.

Because things weren’t to Adele’s specifications, she started to panic. A 60-person choir? And Adele has some well-documented anxiety issues. Some suggest that a case of stage fight was involved.

Or friction with her management team, led by Jonathan Dickins, who signed her as a teenager. (Adele’s boyfriend, Rich Paul, works as a sports agent, so hmm.) Or maybe even a contractual dispute with Caesars Palace which may or may not have something to do with Adele allegedly wanting to replace the house PA along with the video system. If that’s the case, it does explain why there were supply issues. Who could possibly find, ship, and install such a complex set-up in such a short period of time?

It keeps going.

A second source told how the row came after the production had already been thrown into chaos by “endless changes” to the running order.

They revealed: “There was no real clarity around what Adele wanted for the show because of the endless changes being made to the production.

“It seemed that while she has always preferred a stripped-back performance, she was under some pressure to come up with a huge extravaganza.

“So there was a constant ricochet between those two versions of what the show should be, and it did cause some quite explosive arguments.

Adele vows that everything will be rescheduled. But tell that to all the fans who forked out thousands to be there. And given that she’s apparently got a busy calendar, any rescheduled dates may have to wait until next year.

Many fans are having none of these COVID excuses. And the British tabloids are all over the story. See? This is a PR disaster for Adele. Meanwhile, as her set and gear move out of the theatre, Keith Urban is moving in. He’ll take over some of those open dates.

Expect a lot more gossip on this one, especially since so much money is involved.

UPDATE: And here’s some of that gossip: Sources at Caesars Palace claim that COVID had nothing to do with the cancellations. They maintain that Adele pulled the plug because the production “was not good enough.”

UPDATE: Will Adele ever place Las Vegas? Don’t bet on it.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 38992 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

15 thoughts on “Adele’s entire Las Vegas residency is canceled–and there’s behind-the-scenes drama. (UPDATING AS THINGS DEVELOP)

  • I have a pioneer with with 100 watts per channel, I guess mine would blow yours away

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  • She’s extremely overrated anyway ! What fools to pay that kind of money to see her ! She’s not worth it and now they’re paying for it. She should quit touring and just put out her annoying albums !

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  • I don’t know the author of this article, but I do know one thing for sure is that Alan Cross is not anyone I could trust. And I know that with 1000% confidence due to the last line of the article where he states “and fans are having none of these Covid excuses either”.

    That’s quite literally the biggest lie I’ve ever seen in print. I read the many articles from many different sources that covered the story when Adele released her apology and her cancellation announcement. Each article had thousands of comments and every single one of them were fans who were telling her it was ‘going to be okay’, told her ‘not to worry’, told her that ‘true fans never leave’, and reassured her that people were dealing with constant life changes due to covid every day and they couldn’t imagine what she must be dealing with trying to put together such a large scale concert series.

    In all, there were tens of thousands of comments from fans and every single one of them were beyond supportive.

    I’d also like to add in that if Adele were actually fighting with the production person because she didn’t like the result, then that’s Adele’s prerogative. It’s her show and it has to reflect her personality. And if the designer failed to do that, then how is that Adele’s problem? I regret wasting my time reading this article. But since I did, I felt obliged to at least correct the faults gossip being spread by this author.

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    • And if you kept reading those articles, you’ll have run across comments from/coverage plenty of fans who are most pissed off, especially those who spent thousands on tickets and airfare.

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  • Sorry to go off on a tangent on this M2 “person,” ​but “That’s quite literally the biggest lie I’ve ever seen in print?” Really? That’s the biggest lie you’ve ever seen?

    Consequently… “In all, there were tens of thousands of comments from fans and every single one of them were beyond supportive.”

    Now THAT’S a bit of a whopper. That’s literally NOT how the internet works. If there’s a comment section open anywhere nothing is 100% positive OR negative, and half the comments would be about Biden sucking, and Birds not being real, or some shit.

    Super fans (Stans) have really become the worst. The world’s a big place, I can enjoy a lot of things casually and be critical of them from time to time. You don’t have to police the internet and assert fan dominance when you perceive the object of your affection, your precious, “needs you.” Adele don’t need you to go to bat for her.

    OH! And back to MY point. I blame Vegas! All this residency needed was a 90-minute set list, her band, a stool, a microphone, and 3 fabulous dresses for her to change into. Done and done. Everybody involved would have been cashing really big checks!

    Do you know why this didn’t work? Because the powers that be believe Adele fans don’t really like music. Take Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds. Two guys play music and an audience that loves music eats that shit up!

    I get the whole “putting on a show” mentality, but at the end of the day the star of this show is Adele’s voice and some really gripping songs. What more do you need? A choir of 60? Dancers? Tons of visual bullshit? 20 costume changes? An orchestra? New arrangements to tried and true hits? Why? Because the average Adele fan with disposable income has ADHD? Take a look at M2 up there. What else could it be?

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  • Multiple thousands of people who didn’t purchase the exorbitant tickets, pay for flights, hotel rooms, etc could easily comment to her that everything is okay. They aren’t out the money, time, effort etc. The author apparently understands the importance of stating the opinions of those who will actually have a real impact on her public relations. Those people who are angry most likely won’t purchase her tickets and stuff anymore. Not to mention how many of them will influence their friends by their unexpected loss of money etc.

    About the covid excuse: I have watched covid and its varients rage through companies, small and large, that didn’t have the luxury of shutting down and they all had to come up with plans on how to maintain functional during this pandemic. I don’t understand why a production expecting to perform during a pandemic didn’t plan accordingly just like the other companies did. I also don’t understand why the production’s foolish decisions get a pass and yet the author here gets called untrustworthy.

    Yes, I fully agree that it is Adele’s show and she is allowed to want it however she wants it but it is not professional nor smart to plan and act as if covid isn’t a reality and the cry to everyone the day before the concert and say covid is to blame when in truth, her poor planning is.

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  • She’s an overated singer. Her Fans are a bunch of Fools who deserve losing money for being dumb!! I have zero sympathy for these idiots

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  • Wow…your all in the attic with your toy’s

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  • I guess Alan doesn’t understand how deadly covid can be. The wording in his article implies he agrees with the fans who don’t buy into the Covid “excuses”.

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    • You’re reading it wrong. I’m completely onboard with any COVID mitigation measures. All of them.

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  • This is not an isolated issue. This is happening, and has been happening due to covid scares and sickness. A slew of bands and performers cancelled their never missed NYE shows; some bands being forced to cancel 3 & 4 day runs… I know my NYE seemed/seems a bit slighted. We had tickets for Widespread Panic 30-31 at The Fabulous Fox in Atlanta, GA.
    I don’t know what this virus wants, but it’s time for it to go home.

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  • Everyone knows the risks of Covid. They still bought show and plane tickets. Half of the staff has Covid. Under the new guidelines you are back to work after 5 days if you no longer have symptoms and vaccinated. Covid should not be an excuse at this point.

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  • She’s not the best out there . Vegas just needs to hype up someone who can replace celine . Your local corner musician can be made a high end singer with the right hype. She a product of hype not talent .

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  • If she really cared about her fans she should have went on stage and sang. She didn’t need a fancy setup or back up singers, her voice says it all. But now we are left wondering if rumours of her being a diva are true.

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  • Oh, Please stop with the “Diva” crap. That’s a words which gives a rich elite “Bitch” a pass on acting like she above all. And I don’t care how good you are, Nobody deserves a paycheck so big that the average person/Fan should spend a months wages to go see a whole 1 1/2 hour set from a performer. This woman was set to make between 1M-2M per show. I for 1 can’t contribute to paying someone more money for 1.5 hours work than I’ll have at retirement

    Reply

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