Adele: After Las Vegas, ‘I want a big break’

Reports of Adele’s stage fright are a topic of the past, left to the days of the iPhone 4s.

The superstar told Rolling Stone more than a decade ago, “One show in Amsterdam, I was so nervous I escaped out the fire exit. I’ve thrown up a couple of times.”

But the 36-year-old headliner has overcome the urge to flee and retch to perform what will be a 100-show “Weekends With Adele” series at the Colosseum ending in November. She’s breaking for a 10-show run at the custom-built, 80,000-seat, outdoor Messe München arena in Munich from Aug. 2-Aug. 31.

That’s two shows a week at that massive scale, with the most extensive set list in her career.

What’s planned for Adele after she closes at Caesars? She says she’s breaking, from Las Vegas and live performance generally. She’s even anticipating singing around the house.

“I want a big break after all this and I think I want to do other creative things just for a little while,” the Grammy-winning superstar told German broadcaster ZDF this week. “You know, I don’t even sing at home at all. How strange is that?”

She’d sell tickets at a premium for the home show. But Adele says her tank is “quite empty,” and has no plans for new music.

‘Weekends” is expected to gross more than $220 million when it goes dark, which will place it in the top five of Las Vegas residency productions, ever. The show was brilliantly conceived, the headliner providing some sort of unexpected highlight every weekend (such as the time she described the chaffing caused by her underwear).

She filled the house, and proved to her critics she could meet the moment. I was one who was ready not to like Adele, weary from sifting through the drama of her original canceled show. But her opening-night was wonderful, setting the stage for a soaring 100-show run. She won the night, and won us over.

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 X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.