‘We’re creating a luxury experience’ at The Park Theater at Monte Carlo

It’s so huge and visually stunning that Lance Burton, who was one of the last performers in the old theater there before the transformation, wouldn’t believe what he was looking at and would think that MGM Resorts International pulled off the ultimate hat trick.

Cher’s return to performing is set for select dates from Feb. 8-25 and May 3-20, with additional dates to be announced in the New Year. Dan Bernbach, The Park’s executive director and general manager, gave me a hard-hat construction preview tour:

“The reaction from celebrities who’ve seen the renderings and the plans — they love it. Normally when you are in the booking business, you have to do a lot of outbound calls. You have to go out there and do a lot of hunting. We’re getting so much inbound traffic.

“Stars want to perform here; they’re hearing about it in the industry. Our booking team did a presentation to agents and managers in L.A. They are salivating over their chance to get their acts in here because their stars are going to love performing here.

“They want to perform here even before they see it opened. MGM Resorts has done a great job hosting A-list talent. They know that when they come to an MGM Resorts’ venue, they’re going to get great service from our hotels.

“This venue in particular has the intimacy. A lot of artists want to do something other than arenas. They want to do something that’s different for their fans who have seen them perform all over the world.

“Las Vegas is a travel destination, and fans when they come here want to see something else: a unique show built for Las Vegas built for this theater. Another reason is the technology: The projection mapping, the LED wall. Mounting arena tours today means spending of serious cash.

“The fact that we have all the technology permanently installed is something that artists are going to absolutely love, the fact that it’s all built in. No 27 trucks to travel the country. It’s all here. It’s plug and play.

“We’ve announced Bruno Mars. We’ve announced Cher, and we have lots of great talent along the same lines as them to announce soon. We’ll have a wide variety of genres. We’ll have UFC, boxing. We’ll have more contemporary singers, we’ll have country in there. We’ll have just about every genre represented.

NEW CONTENT L.V. HAS NEVER SEEN BEFORE

“Our calendar is filling up very quickly. We’ve got the four Bruno Mars shows locked down. We’ve got the first 18 dates for Cher all set. There’ll be more shows to come. Some of the acts who we’re talking to now are acts who have not done residencies of this type. We’re not calling it residencies. We’re calling it extended engagements with stars who have not done shows like this in this market before or anywhere. You’ll see a lot of new content that the city has not seen.

“We’re adding a new venue to the entertainment landscape of Las Vegas that’s unlike anything else. There are similarities, but the stars and their managers are seeing this venue as more than just a technical marvel. It’s also the intimacy of the venue, the incredible state-of-the-art sound system. Artists want to perform in this space.”

I asked Dan if we had a sufficient number of tourists and locals to fill all the seats we now have new in Las Vegas. “There are always people who are willing to see shows,” he told me. “At MGM Resorts, we anticipated with the launch of T-Mobile Arena that there’d be a little bit of cannibalization, but we haven’t seen that.

“Our mix will be a little bit of acts too small for T-Mobile and not quite big enough for MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay Events Center. We’ll get up-and-coming acts, acts who are big now that weren’t five years ago, and others we’ll be announcing shortly who could perform in arenas but want to do something different.”

The main seating configuration is for 5,300 guests, but another configuration will allow a total of 6,400, plus when there’s a general-admission section, that can swell by another 2,900 on the floor. The seating is telescoped so that it tucks right underneath itself and into the back wall.

‘UNLIKE ANYTHING IN TOWN’

The stage is one of the largest in Las Vegas with a 140-foot proscenium opening that’s 40 feet tall and a stage that goes back 50 to 60 feet. The LED wall is onstage measuring 80 feet wide by 40 feet tall covering almost the entire rear stage wall with 5.2-mm pixel pitch.

From the second level, guests can see projection mapping with nine high-definition 4k projectors that will transmit content all over the theater. Designers are currently creating the content. “We’ve done one test run just to test the fabric, and it looks pretty awesome. It’s going to be unlike anything in town,” said Dan.

“We’re at least 800 seats bigger than the Caesars Palace Colosseum. The sight lines are better: Our farthest seat from the downstage edge is about 150 feet. You’re even closer to the artist with our additional VIP offerings. Our LED wall is state-of-the-art and brand-new this year, as well as our projection mapping. They don’t have the projection systems that we have in here.

“From a guest-service perspective, our lobby space has floor-to-ceiling glass windows, something that the modern Las Vegas customers are really searching for now. The technology we have is all new and those technological aspects are innovative for Las Vegas.

“We’re creating a luxury experience. It’s a lot more than a theater, and because of the versatility and the space, I think it’s like a luxury mini arena. We can do basically everything an arena can do except for hockey, and if we could find a way to put ice in here, I’d try it. But a basketball court fits in here, and we could potentially see a basketball game in here. We’ve been asked if a basketball court fit in here, and yes it does. We’ll be doing e-sports in here.

“Customers want immersive experiences now. People are constantly on their phones, people are consuming content just about everywhere, and we’ve created a venue that puts the fan, puts the guest into the show.

“We have a 250-foot-wide projection surface we can put content on. Whether it’s Bruno Mars performing and you have him close up performing onstage or whether he wants to transport you to the Bellagio Fountains like he did for his music video, we could put all that video onstage.

Dan told me that The Park Theater is designed so it could host movie premieres or sports event viewings such as The Super Bowl. “It’s not the largest in the world. I’m not 100 percent sure if it’s the largest in Las Vegas, but it’s definitely the highest resolution of this size in Las Vegas: 5.2-mm pixel pitch.

“There’s nothing like it permanently installed in a theatrical venue. Radio City Music Hall in New York has a similar wall, and Disney just installed a similar system in its California Adventure HD theater. Ours is bigger from what I’ve heard, so we are definitely right up there at the top.

“Neither of the theater’s former residents, Lance Burton and Blue Man Group, would recognize what we’ve done to this space. They had a 1,200-seat theater we’ve now blown up to be 5,300 seats. It’s become a behemoth.”