It’s official: Adele to reopen Strip residency

Having tearfully halted her Vegas production in January, Adele says she’ll sing out the year on a high note.

The pop superstar’s headlining series is reset for Nov. 18 at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. Her initial run extends into December, breaking for the Christmas and New Year’s holiday. She resumes Jan. 20 and closes on March 24.

Words can’t explain how ecstatic I am to finally be able to announce these rescheduled shows. I truly was heartbroken to have to cancel them. pic.twitter.com/PQLiaPVYgO

— Adele (@Adele) July 25, 2022

“Words can’t explain how ecstatic I am to finally be able to announce these rescheduled shows,” Adele said in social media Monday morning. “I truly was heartbroken to have to cancel them.”

Eight dates have been added to Adele’s original set of 24. Shows run 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Adele continued, in her social-media messages, “But after what feels like an eternity of figuring out logistics for the show that I really want to deliver, and knowing it can happen, I’m more excited than ever! Now I know for some of you it was a horrible decision on my part, and I will always be sorry for that.

but I promise you it was the right one. To be with you in such an intimate space every week has been what I’ve most been looking forward to and I’m going to give you the absolute best of me.

Thank you for your patience, I love you ♥️ Adele.”

A select number of tickets will be available across all 32 shows. According to a news release announcing the series, there will be two opportunities to purchase tickets for these shows. Access will be limited with priority given to fans who held tickets for the original show dates or had previously registered and been waitlisted for the “Weekends With Adele” Verified Fan Presale.

But after what feels like an eternity of figuring out logistics for the show that I really want to deliver, and knowing it can happen, I’m more excited than ever! Now I know for some of you it was a horrible decision on my part, and I will always be sorry for that,

— Adele (@Adele) July 25, 2022

Eligible fans will receive an email invitation from Ticketmaster on Aug. 3. General Verified Fan Presale is Aug. 11, available to those who registered and were waitlisted for the previous Adele Verified Fan Presale. For information, go to blog.ticketmaster.com/adele-vegas.

Ticket-holders who have booked through secondary market brokers are advised to contact those companies.

The series is presented by promoter Live Nation and Caesars Entertainment, which owns the Colosseum.

but I promise you it was the right one. To be with you in such an intimate space every week has been what I’ve most been looking forward to and I’m going to give you the absolute best of me.
Thank you for your patience, I love you ♥️ Adele.

More info on https://t.co/4ioLMlWlzv

— Adele (@Adele) July 25, 2022

On Jan. 20, a day before she was to premiere, the 34-year-old headliner announced her show wasn’t stage ready on Jan. 20. At the time, she said said operational obstacles crested by COVID cases inside her production team forced the pause. “I’m gutted,” she said. The vocalist said some of the set pieces would not have arrived until the day of the show.

Adele was especially displeased with a man-made lake being developed for the stage, at calling it a “baggy old pond.” She was to be elevated over that effect in a aerial harness, singing “Skyfall” with a 60-member choir buttressed by 20 musicians. Water trucks were brought into the Colosseum’s loading dock to fill out the set.

A storm effect was reportedly also planned, as was a vast staircase, new audio setup and video panels (though the Colosseum upgraded both systems three years ago), and risers for all those musicians.

One source familiar with the details of the design said the show was like “Cirque on steroids.” But as Adele told U.K. talk-show host Graham Norton, scaling back the entire show was not an option. There was one segment in the original production where she was to sing with just a piano accompaniment.

But as the star told the interviewer, simplifying the show was not an option. ““People will see straight through me up on the stage and know I didn’t want to be doing it. I’ve never done anything like that in my life and I’m not going to start now.”

The entire production was broken down and hauled away within a week. Adele then reportedly shed her entire Vegas creative team, firing acclaimed set designer Es Devlin, who had worked with her on her 2016-2017 world tour.

Adele brought in Kim Gavin and the production designers Stufish, behind the Rolling Stones’ 60th-anniversary tour. The Telegraph of London reported Gavin and Stufish reps will “look after and develop a new show as everything from the Es show has been scrapped.”

Adele is also said to be producing a documentary about the show’s delayed development, and her relationship with star sports agent Rich Paul. She has said she wants to start a family with Paul next year, presumably in the spring, after she has completed her Caesars run.

Amid the international speculation and even melodrama, fans and entertainment execs waited out the seven months as Adele decided when and how to return. Neither Caesars Entertainment nor Live Nation issued public statements about the series over the six months after Adele postponed.

Colosseum resident headliner Keith Urban was able to fill several dates left open by Adele’s pause. The country superstar spoke of taking a “panicked” call from Caesars execs in February to grab those dropped dates.

But the Colosseum currently has no shows booked until Rod Stewart’s return Sept. 23. As the venue fell dark, nearly a dozen members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 720 were told they would be furloughed for the summer. The layoff period started July 9, at the end of Morrissey’s “Viva Moz Vegas” show, and is to run through preparations for Rod Stewart’s return Sept. 23.

This month, prior to her two Hyde Park shows on July 2-3, Adele told BBC radio said she “definitely felt everyone’s disappointment” upon after postponing the series. The 34-year-old headliner described her feelings as “devastated.”

“I was frightened about letting them down and I thought I could pull it together and make it work, and I couldn’t,” she said. “I stand by that decision. I don’t think any other artist would have done what I did, and I think that is why it was such a massive, massive story.”

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.