Caesars Palace crew surprises Adele in emotional Colosseum sendoff

“Gutted” at the start and grateful at the close, Adele was surprised by teary Caesars Palace employees before her finale Saturday night.

The crew got together at 2:30 p.m. on the show’s last day for an unbilled appearance with the “Skyfall” superstar.

“She was doing her warm-up, and the crew walked into the Colosseum with all of these balloons saying ‘100th show,’” Caesars Entertainment Caesars Entertainment regional president Sean McBurney said in a phone chat Monday afternoon. “She’s a very emotional person, and when the crew walked in she got very emotional. It was a really beautiful moment to see.”

Having reached the 100 mark, the superstar and theater are now connected for all time.

“When you 100 shows with someone, you become a family. Her crew becomes a family with our crew, her leadership team becomes a family with ours,” McBurney said. “It’s very likely that she will never play another venue in the world more than she’s played the Colosseum.”

Adele famously canceled her opening production in January 2022, sobbing through a social-media post that COVID quarantines had depleted her show’s operations team. She opened the following November.

Adele returned to the show’s rocky postponement when talking to the staff at Caesars.

“There was a lot of gratitude, because the show came and an important part of her life, and she was so proud of it,” McBurney said. “She talked through, obviously, the hard start, and what a big challenge that was for her to make that decision. She firmly believes that was the right decision and best decision she has made.”

Adele detested the water effect, “a pond,” she called it, planned for the original show. Her chosen aquatic spectacle was a torrent of water as the piano burned in “Set Fire to the Rain,” a nightly crowd-pleaser.

The production was a financial boon to the headliner, resort company and booking partner Live Nation Las Vegas.

Ticket sales over the past two weekends on the secondary market commanded $1,000 for upper-level seats, up to $10,000 in the lower bowl. The first 24 shows grossed a reported $52.8 million; or an estimated $212 million for the entire run.

That figure would place “Weekends” fourth overall, all-time, among Las Vegas residency productions, following Celine Dion’s “A New Day …” from 2003-2007 ($358.1 million, 2.8 million tickets, 714 shows), Dion’s “Celine” from 2011-2019 ($296.2 million, 1.7 million tickets, 427 shows), and “U2 UV: Achtung Baby” at Sphere from 2023-2024 ($244.5 million, 663,000 tickets, 40 shows).

Adele told her audience Saturday that pausing the show led to its long and successful run. “Had I done that show that I canceled, I wouldn’t be standing here tonight.”

McBurney emphasized the 36-year-old superstar performed the entire run while at her commercial peak, following the album “30.”

Adele made it clear she is not planning to perform again anytime soon. But she will be back on stage eventually.

“I will miss it terribly, I will miss you terribly. I don’t know when I next want to perform again,” the singer said. “Of course I’ll be back, the only thing I’m good at is singing.”

The Colosseum and its crew will be ready for a sequel.

“What we ended up with is something that will live forever in the history books as one of the greatest Las Vegas residencies of all time,” McBurney said. “The only thing I can say is we will always have the door wide open for Adele. This is her home.”

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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.