Ahead of tour opener, does Lady Gaga have bigger plans for Vegas?
Published in Entertainment News
LAS VEGAS — Lady Gaga is opening just across the street from the spot where she closed nearly a year ago to the day.
Her “Mayhem Ball” tour kicks off Wednesday at T-Mobile Arena. She bowed out of “Jazz + Piano” at Dolby Live at the adjacent Park MGM in July 2024.
This convergence of artistry, audacity and theatrics would be a fine moment to announce residency plans for Las Vegas. But it’s not happening. At least, not yet.
Lady Gaga’s production team has hauled into the MGM Grand Garden to rehearse for “Mayhem” (we now have two odd-fitting favorites, Gaga and Brad Garrett at his comedy club, performing just a few storefronts apart at the MGM). But those rehearsals are not a firm indication Gaga will be reteaming with MGM Resorts International for a new residency production.
MGM Resorts’ executive vice president of entertainment, Chris Baldizan, said last week: “We love Lady Gaga and plan to do everything in our power to have her as part of the MGM Resorts International family, for many years to come.”
When Gaga’s dates were announced in April, Baldizan noted: “It’s doubtful she will be back in 2025 at Dolby. We are thrilled to host her at T-Mobile in July and look forward to hopefully welcoming her back to Dolby in 2026.”
The “we” are MGM Resorts and AEG, who co-own T-Mobile Arena.
And we are not ruling out the possibility of a Lady Gaga Sphere production. This is simply because we understand that anyone who can fill the Bulbous Wonder with splendor and fans is a residency candidate. Gaga toggling with “The Wizard of Oz” would be some kind of righteous.
As mentioned in this space, Gaga told the crowd and her orchestra in her closing show at Dolby Live that she would return to Vegas. “When we come back, we hope you’ll come back. We’ll have a whole new show for you.”
Retrospectively, she might have meant the tour production. But those around that show felt it was forecasting a residency.
Whatever her long-term plans, Gaga has been going nonstop since that final-bow announcement at Dolby Live. She released “Die With a Smile” with Bruno Mars, a month after closing at Dolby Live, performed at the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics, released “Mayhem,” co-starred in “Joker: Folie à Deux” (generating a wince-inducing 31 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), and has assembled the about-to-launch world tour.
Also amid this career tableau, Gaga and her beau, the entrepreneur and businessman Michael Polansky, announced their engagement in July 2024. We were in the room and recorded the couple’s first public kiss on New Year’s Eve 2019, during Brian Newman’s wild “After Dark” performance at NoMad Library. Unknown to almost everyone in the Library that night, this gentleman has made his presence felt in the Gaga camp.
Polansky is not a benign, sideline-occupying partner. He has co-written several songs on “Mayhem,” among them “Disease,” “Vanish Into You,” “LoveDrug,” “How Bad Do U Want Me,” “The Beast” and “Blade of Grass” (a reference to Polansky’s proposal, in which he fashioned a ring from a blade of grass). The also collaborated on “All I Need Is Time,” specifically for the “Fire Aid” relief show in L.A. in January.
He seems all about the pop vibe, leaning more toward the spectacle of “Enigma” than the retrospectively orchestrated “Jazz + Piano.” Maybe “Mayhem” is a harbinger for the style of production that would play Vegas. I’d wager we won’t see a graduated version of “Jazz + Piano,” wherever Gaga performs. That is a hunch.
We’ll have our ears and phones and minds open for anything Gaga has to say at T-Mobile, or otherwise.
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