Diva in the Desert

“It changed my life and my entire way of thinking about performances on stage.” Celine Dion, whisking along last week in a limousine en route to the Grammy Awards, was not talking about the recent birth of her first child or the career rocket of the “Titanic” soundtrack in 1999. Instead, the epiphany arrived two years ago as she sat in a Las Vegas casino.

And, it turns out, the moment may also reshape the life of the evolving entertainment scene in the high-rolling desert city.

Dion, who stepped away from the public concert stage on New Year’s Eve 1999 to begin the role of new mother, has agreed to an unprecedented pact that will see her perform five nights a week for 40 weeks a year over three years at Caesars Palace. The deal is worth a reported $100 million and will also see the casino resort build a $95-million, 4,000-seat theater to house the production. The shows, scheduled to begin next March, will mix the singer’s music and an elaborate theatrical production on a vast, 22,000-square-foot stage.

Dion becomes the only contemporary superstar at the heights of pop to make such a lengthy commitment to any venue. For Las Vegas, it may lead to an era of pop stars in residence, the way country singers have become house acts in Branson, Mo.

The path to this unlikely commitment and destination began when Dion and Rene Angelil, her husband and manager, sat captivated in the audience of “O” at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino. “O” is the production that channels 1.5 million gallons of water and six dozen performers into the trademark surrealism and acrobatics of Cirque du Soleil, the French Canadian theater company. Fellow Canadian Dion saw in the show a way to create a backdrop to match her own often epic music.

“I knew I wanted to perform and have a visual show like this and have, like, 60 performers on stage with me and make every song look like a visual experience,” she said during a cell phone interview from the car. “It’s kind of impossible to travel with a show like this; the effects and the decor and the whole thing makes it technically impossible. We would have to have a base. And we found that in Las Vegas.”

For Dion, there is some gamble in the Las Vegas enterprise: She will not be able to tour or do extensive promotion on the road to help drive album sales and all-important radio airplay. Artistically, there may be some risk that even her large voice might be lost in the massive, vibrant swirl of a Cirque du Soleil-style show.

Her husband, though, chuckles at those notions. With soft-spoken confidence he says that Las Vegas is becoming an epicenter of live entertainment. “Why go to the fans if they will come to you and be able to see something truly special?”

The eye-opening deal and show plans are another signpost for Las Vegas and its unique journey as a show-business oasis.

After building a reputation in the ‘50s and ‘60s as the glittery clubhouse of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, the casinos’ showrooms featured an expanded superstar roster in the ‘70s with fixtures such as Elvis Presley and Tom Jones. But it also became viewed by younger, edgier artists as a place where an extended stay meant you were a sellout or in semiretirement.

In more recent years, the bookings of music superstars gave way somewhat to the special effects and huge cast productions that resort leaders saw as more defining centerpieces to draw tourists. In the late ‘90s, as more money, massive development and the local population surged, the Strip became a bankable spot for more big-name pop and rock music, and once unlikely names such as the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan began to appear on casino marquees. These stars didn’t park in one casino for weeks at a time the way Sinatra did, but they didn’t dodge the town anymore either, says Gary Bongiovanni, editor in chief of Pollstar, a concert business trade publication.

“In terms of contemporary music acts, it used to be you lost all your credibility if you were over there playing lounges or showrooms,” Bongiovanni says. “That’s not the case anymore. The very hippest acts can play there now with no stigma at all.”

Bongiovanni says Dion’s plan to set up shop in one spot for a multiyear run may inspire other artists. He points to the success of the country music scene in Branson as a template: Acts of all levels of commercial viability can escape the overhead and rigors of traveling and enjoy a steady stream of fans.

“It can be the best of all worlds for the artist,” he said. “In a way, Celine Dion may be pioneering that in the pop world. And what better place than Vegas?”

Clearly, the Dion deal raises the stakes of the Vegas music scene, says Tom Gallagher, president and CEO of Park Place Entertainment, the gaming industry titan that runs Caesars, Bally’s, the Flamingo and more than two dozen other casino operations in five countries.

“This one,” Gallagher says, “really breaks the mold for everything that has gone on in this town in the past. And that is what we’re trying to do in entertainment over here.... Artists are looking to get off the road and do something that’s more interesting for the audience and themselves.”

Gladys Knight has also just agreed to perform 50 weeks at the Flamingo (although in a more traditional concert format), suggesting Gallagher and his company will be looking for more long-term deals with pop world names.

The Nevada destination may need the help. Business has suffered from the weak economy, and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 set in motion a powerful undertow in the city’s convention industry. “They have been getting clobbered,” as Bongiovanni puts it.

The deal’s announcement also marks the amping up of Dion’s return to the music scene. She taped a performance Sunday night at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood for a CBS television special to air next month, and her first studio album since 1997, “A New Day Has Come,” will be released March 26.

Her son, Rene-Charles Angelil, celebrated his first birthday in January, and the upcoming commitment to Caesars Palace will allow the singer to perform for hundreds of thousands of fans without shuttling her toddler between airports and hotel rooms. The family is building a new home in the Las Vegas area. Dion, perhaps feeling confined by the media portrayals of her during her hiatus, says a positive family situation is a pleasant side effect but not the driving force of the endeavor.

“When we decided to go to Vegas I was not even pregnant, so don’t get me wrong here,” she says. “The first idea of going to Vegas is to give my fans a No. 1 show.... Of course, if you want to talk about the family issue, yes it’s an incredible thing. It’s just wonderful that mommy can stay home and spend the whole day with the baby and then go to Caesars for a spectacular show.”

The show will be created by Franco Dragone, the guiding hand behind the dreamy, vibrant Cirque du Soleil productions that have been successful as touring shows and as two standing attractions in Las Vegas, “O” and “Mystere” at Treasure Island. After Dion visited the cast of “O” backstage to express her delight, Dragone followed up with an admiring note. In short order, Dragone visited the singer’s home in Jupiter, Fla., and the seed was planted for the Caesars production.

Dion’s show will be 90 minutes long, but the specifics of its content are, like Dragone’s acrobats, very much up in the air.

“We’re not even there yet,” Dion says of a story line. “We’re trying to build every song, and the thread is not completely all together yet. We’re still working on the effects and the beautiful magic things.”