Lady Gaga reviving ‘Jazz + Piano’ on the Strip this summer

Luck will be a lady once again at Dolby Live.

Lady Gaga’s “Jazz + Piano” show will be back in June and into July at Dolby Live at Park MGM, we confidently report. The plan is for at least eight shows in that series.

Sources with knowledge of the production indicate Gaga will follow Bruno Mars’ June dates in the theater. Mars’ added performances, announced this week, include June 7, 8, 12, 14 and 15. “J + P” would haul in after.

The superstar showed her cards this past September, calling from the stage, “We’re gonna make a contract. Everybody on this stage will be here forever. We’ll do it. I’m not kidding. I make a lot of jokes on this stage. This is not one of them.”

As the jazz production is extended, there are no dates on the books for Gaga’s “Enigma” pop show. That production originally toggled dates with “Jazz + Piano” when it opened on New Year’s Eve weekend 2018.

The two shows have combined for nearly $100 million in revenue at Dolby Live. But Gaga has not performed “Enigma” since New Year’s Eve weekend 2019.

Gaga has most recently performed “Jazz + Piano” in a three-show run Oct. 1-5. (She also led a version of the show at Mark Davis’ “The Dinner Show” at Fontainebleau during Super Bowl weekend.) The production has been backed by a 30-piece big band featuring the horns of Santa Fe & The Fat City Horns.

Acclaimed keyboardist Michael Bearden conducts the orchestra. Trumpet great Brian Newman has assembled the horn section and plays the show with his own backing band. Both are Gaga’s longtime friends and artistic collaborators.

“J + P” is a classic throwback production. Set on a vintage Vegas showroom staircase, Gaga passionately and powerfully performs revamped arrangements of Great American Songbook classics.

Gaga unspools the above-referenced “Luck Be a Lady” and “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra, “Cheek to Cheek” and “The Lady is a Tramp” by Tony Bennett, Ira Gershwin’s “Someone to Watch Over Me” and Dinah Washington’s “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes.” Her own “Paparazzi” is given the big-band treatment, and from the grand piano, Gaga also stitches “Poker Face” and “Born This Way” into the production.

Gaga had initially negotiated “J + P” into her residency partnership with MGM Resorts International. She has said during performances that she convinced officials to take on the jazz production, along with “Enigma,” and has called from the stage, “The jazz shows sold out faster!”

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.