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Las Vegas starring
Wayne Newton
The music icon describes
the enjoyment of giving his crew
a chance to shine in the spotlight he’s
dominated since the 1950s
LAS VEGAS » Meeting Wayne Newton is like meeting Las Vegas personified. He truly earns the title of Mr. Las Vegas.
Onstage at the Stardust Hotel and Casino, Newton seems just like the man we've seen in films and TV series, most times appearing as himself -- it's just not Las Vegas without Newton guest-starring.
Wayne Newton livePlace: Wayne Newton Theater, Stardust Resort Hotel & Casino, 3000 S. Las Vegas Blvd.When: 8 p.m. Saturdays to Thursdays, dark Fridays through Oct. 13, and Oct. 23 through Nov. 14; 2005 dates to be announced. Cost: $54.95. Call: For reservations, 866-88-VEGAS or 866-525-2077
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"I like our show to be as much of a showcase for some of the other talents that would never have the opportunity to do it that way," Newton said. "They don't have to carry the load, they have a full orchestra behind them and they can be all they want to be. Luckily for me, they appreciate it and I appreciate their talents. I kind of feed off of talented people."
At the show's end, he sings a patriotic tune and salutes the U.S. military while red, white and blue lights flash around him. Newton's finale fits his role as chairman of the USO Celebrity Circle beginning three years ago, a position that once belonged to the great Bob Hope.
"Mr. Hope was a good friend of mine, practically all my life," said Newton, who never had the opportunity to perform with Hope on a tour. "They'd always send me to places that maybe the big shows couldn't go to. There were times where I'd just take the guitar and go out and do a show."
Newton is proud of the USO's commitment to armed forces members, and recent participants include Ben Affleck, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kid Rock and Jessica Simpson.
Newton said he sits all of the performers down and sets the rules for the tour. "I let them know there are just certain things that will not be tolerated. This is not a political move. We are not here for political reasons. We're here to support our men and women in uniform and to bring them home. I've not had one problem anywhere we've gone."
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BACKSTAGE IN NEWTON'S sizable Vegas dressing room, which features a minibar and a leather couch, Newton is larger than life, literally. At well over 6 feet tall, the 62-year-old entertainer is intimidating -- especially for those accustomed to seeing him at television scale -- until he flashes the cheeky, youthful Newton grin.
Newton performs two shows, six nights a week, which he compares to falling off a log in light of other schedules he has kept. "There was one stretch I did, when I was working for Mr. (Howard) Hughes, that we did 36 weeks without a day off, two shows a night, seven nights a week," he said.
In spite of the rigorous schedule, he makes it a point to spend his one day off at home at his 52-acre ranch with his family: wife Kathleen and their 2-year-old daughter, Lauren Ashley. The ranch, Casa de Shenandoah, is also home to an arkful of animals and has been featured on the Travel Channel and VH-1.
"We have penguins, wallabies, which are miniature kangaroos," listed Newton. "We have all kinds of birds, waterfowl, swans, ducks, parrots, African crown crane, horses, cats, dogs, you name it.
"I'm an animal lover. As a kid and going to school, I always found that I had more in common with animals than I had with people, simply because there was a trust factor there. Animals aren't quite as devious as people can be."
In addition to his Vegas surroundings, Newton owns a 250-acre property on the Big Island, near Hilo. He calls Hawaii his second home and has strong ties to the islands. His first wife was a local girl, and their daughter, Erin, got married on Oahu this year.
Bronchial asthma, however, keeps him from straying from the dry Vegas climate for more than three weeks, according to Newton, who says beyond three weeks, "my resistance just goes."
"I fight it for two or three months. It's a killer," he said. "But doing what I do, and having to do that as part of what you do for a living, you sing around it, you sing over it, you sing under it. Somehow you get through it. We're a lot more critical of ourselves than, luckily, other people are of us."
NEWTON SAID HE feels fortunate to have become a performer in the late '50s. "When I was coming up, it was kind of the end of an era with Bobby Darrin, Frank Sinatra, Dean and Sammy and all those kind of people.
"And television was truly becoming what it's become. Unfortunately, there aren't enough people in the creative end of our industry that care enough anymore.
"They don't want to do it. They don't want to think about 'OK, do I spend the amount of time, energy and money to develop this talent, or do I just take the best of what this talent can give me?'
"I'd shudder to think if I had to start over again, at the same age that I started, what would be open to me, because I was a total anachronism," reflected Newton, who hit the stage running at 15 years old. "My generation was the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, but my love was for big-band music, country music and the simplicity of music."
He said he feels for "American Idol" contestants and the pressure to produce.
"The thing that really became obvious to me is even the people who are critiquing these young talents are not doing a credible job for them. All it seems that these people are doing is they're not giving these talents a) the benefit of the doubt for having talent, and b) they're not saying to them, 'Look, if tonight is Motown night, there are just some singers that Motown material just does not fit.' So I think in some ways these people are not doing right by them. Unfortunately, so much of what they think of themselves becomes 'What do these three people think of me?'
"That's got to be the worst nightmare, because a dream is a fragile thing, and when they really nail them, I cringe. They're not just killing a talent, they're killing a dream."
