Why Barry Manilow’s Thursday show at Westgate was canceled

Barry Manilow’s return to his record-setting run at the Westgate was disrupted by an errant button-push.

The pop superstar, who turns 80 on June 17, was scheduled to return to International Theater on Thursday night. But his show was called off about an hour before its 7 p.m. showtime. According to Manilow’s manager/husband Garry Kief, a stage hand pressed the wrong button on the video wall, causing the piece to drop to the stage onto risers and instruments. No injuries or serious damage was reported.

Connections between stage’s motors and cables were checked, and re-certified as safe for performance, but not until Friday morning.

Manilow is back on schedule to perform at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday. He continues Thursday, then June 16-17 in his quest to overtake Elvis’ record of 636 performances in the International venue.

Manilow most recently missed a show at Westgate on Dec. 1, after falling ill and being admitted into ER. He performed an unscheduled matinee of his Christmas show the following day.

Manilow had just finished a five-show series at Radio City Music Hall in his native New York. He posted Wednesday on Twitter, “After 5 sold out shows at Radio City, Manilow is back home at the Westgate Las Vegas this Thursday – Sat. Come see what everyone has been raving about!”

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.