Bennett, Gaga’s chemistry runs deeper than novelty of their pairing

Yes it was the ultimate in Las Vegas New Year’s symbolism. But people don’t pay up to $300 a ticket for symbolism.

So Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga also brought the chemistry. They play on the novelty of their pairing but also make it something valid in its own right, not an awkward shotgun marriage but a real one-of-a-kind celebration you couldn’t get from either of them separately.

“This man is the oldest living legend in the world,” Gaga proclaimed in Tuesday’s show in The Cosmopolitan’s Chelsea theater, where the two were to sing again Wednesday to ring in the new year.

“I’m just starting out,” he replied.

At 88, Bennett is indeed the oldest authentic link to the golden era of Vegas that younger folks associate with class and manly charm. (Yes, Don Rickles is also 88, and if some casino were to pair him with Amy Schumer I would want to see that, too. But somehow I don’t think it would work as well.)

At 28, Lady Gaga is at least the modern casino executive’s idea of the ideal Celine-era headliner: a pop diva dunked in sequins who can front a gay-camp production referencing old-school Vegas in its visuals, if not its sound. (Note the Jennifer Lopez New Year’s Eve show for a private audience at Caesars Palace, widely perceived to be a shakedown cruise for a residency in the new year.)

At worst, this could have been the separate-but-equal pairing suggested by the layout of the stage: a grand piano anchoring each side, letting the stars work with their own musical directors and sidemen for their solo songs.

But the two have performed just enough shows together — including one filmed for PBS — to have an authentic chemistry that’s not as apparent in their voices alone on their “Cheek to Cheek” album. Yet they haven’t done so many that working together seems like old hat, and this show smartly doles out the combined numbers for maximum impact.

Gaga fans quickly realized she was playing on Bennett’s field and making it all about him: “Mr. Bennett … has opened my mind with his wisdom.”

Her fashion parade of sequined capes and Cleopatra drapes were all within ’70s-Cher parameters. And her solo moments stuck to the Great American Songbook without reworking any of her own hits to sound like jazz standards, as cool as that might have been. “If you don’t know Cole Porter you should know Cole Porter” she told the younger element.

(As for them teaming up on any of her songs? “People ask me why I sing old songs,” Bennett said to the audience at one point. “I like ’em better than the new ones.”)

The patented Gaga showmanship was all to celebrate Bennett on this night: “C’mon Tony, let’s dance!” Stooped he may be, but dance he did. Any nods to her own fan base were subtle: “Don’t get jealous ladies. Or gentlemen.”

Bennett looks old, no way around that. The eyes don’t lie in their gauzy soft focus. But that smoky voice sounds as good as it did at Caesars Palace two years ago or the Las Vegas Hilton two years before that. He even does a little vocal showboating at the end of “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?” and “For Once In My Life” just to prove he can.

But most of it was about the quiet moments. The big-band horn section mostly sat and watched from center stage as Bennett and his quartet reminded you his magic lies in the way he gets you to hone in and listen to a lyric.

If he glides, Gaga strides, with the belting delivery of modern pop singers. But what separates the former Stefani Germanatta from the “American Idol” pack is her theatricality and that certain “it factor” that makes you just have to watch her.

Where does this art meet the saloon singers? In the saloon, of course. Gaga’s solo rendition of “Lush Life” echoed Frank Sinatra’s latter-years setup of “One for My Baby,” as she pondered a bourbon glass at the piano and wondered if “Maybe I can see my future in this neat whiskey.”

The song ended with her down in a crouch “to feel that jazzy pain,” and if you thought she had finally claimed an equal share of the evening, it was short-lived. The next song was just Bennett and a piano. “Sophisticated Lady.”

Yes, you wish these two had thought of all this a couple of years ago and made it a tradition to last at least a few more New Year’s. But maybe some things are only meant to happen once.

But who knows? As the Lady said, again in reference to the master and mentor onstage, “Life is all about how you keep going.”

Contact reporter MIke Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.