Las Vegas Weekly

February 6, 2013 · 6 PM

In criss-crossing Britney Spears reports, don’t rule out Planet Hollywood

By John Katsilometes

Britney Spears performs during her Femme Fatale Tour at the MGM Grand Garden Arena Saturday, June 25, 2011.

Photo: Justin M. Bowen

If you have a Google alert for “Britney Spears” and “Las Vegas,” your inbox has been bubbling over for weeks.

Let us try to rake through what’s happening here. First, the conflicting reports about Britney Spears possibly performing a headlining residency in Las Vegas can be traced to confusion about what is and is not “Caesars.” To follow the arc of this story, it was originally reported that Spears was in talks with Caesars Entertainment about a possible residency in Las Vegas.

Across the country, that was often taken to mean the resort Caesars Palace — not the umbrella corporation that owns all of Caesars Entertainment hotels. The focus then turned to the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, and officials with Caesars Entertainment quickly reminded the public that the Colosseum is jammed through the end of 2014 with Celine, Elton, Rod Stewart, Shania and its rotation of single-weekend artists.

When that statement was issued, “Caesars” fell out of play — at least according to the reporting of a few celebrity websites. But from a companywide position, Caesars Entertainment has remained involved in talks with Spears — as her manager, Larry Rudolph, continues to contend — for her to perform at one of its Strip hotels. Rudolph also has reportedly noted a second hotel that is not a Caesars property, but for the moment let’s take a look at what has been the chief (and, thus far, only specified) suitor for Spears.

Among the most prominent Caesars Entertainment venues, Paris Theater is jamming with “Jersey Boys.” At Flamingo, Donny & Marie are committed to play the showroom through the end of 2014. Harrah’s just opened “Million Dollar Quartet.” Over at Bally’s, “Jubilee!” remains in place in its fourth decade. The Linq Showroom — formerly the Imperial Palace and later Human Nature Theater — doesn’t at all look like the place for a Spears spectacle.

Linq’s other planned entertainment venue is Brooklyn Bowl, which is to feature a concert venue with a capacity of 2,500. Such names as Kid Rock, Bob Dylan, John Fogerty and Green Day have been tossed around as potential headliners there. But it is unlikely that venue’s stage would be vast enough to handle the type of theatrics for which Spears is famous. Unless she were to perform an acoustic set (cough).

Easily the most intriguing of the Caesars venues is PH Live at Planet Hollywood, which is the closest in scope to the Colosseum and is the venue with the sort of staging apparatus to handle an arena-scope production. As Spears-to-Vegas reports percolated last month, the hypnotist Marshall Sylver was fast to note that he does have a deal with BASE Entertainment — which books shows at PH Live — to hold his own production at the 7,000-seat venue beginning March 19.

But the way Sylver’s schedule is set up, large-scale shows can be moved into the theater even as he is in residence in what amounts to a four-wall rental deal with BASE. Sylver is scheduled to be onstage Sundays through Thursdays (though tickets are not yet on sale, and no information about the show is yet posted on the PH website or on Sylver’s official website).

That leaves weekends open, and even large-scale productions can move in for a two-night stay.

In this freewheeling scenario, such a turnover — and Spears playing Planet Hollywood — is not impossible.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.

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