It was all handshakes and hugs at London’s The TwentyTwo Hotel that sealed the deal on Post Malone opening Fontainebleau Las Vegas‘ BleauLive Theater on Dec. 30 and 31.
Fontainebleau Development president Brett Mufson and creative director Peter Arnell were on a design trip to London for the new $3.7 billion resort when they had a chance encounter with Malone and his manager Electric Feel CEO Austin Rosen.
“We had been talking about getting with Post because Rosen is family to us,” Mufson says. [Rosen’s father Andrew is friends with Fontainebleau CEO Jeff Soffer.] “It was serendipitous. We were staying at The TwentyTwo and [Rosen] called and said he was there as well. ‘Where are you?’ ‘Downstairs? Rosen said ‘come to the back room’ and he was sitting there with Post.”
“I asked, ‘Are we going to do this deal or what?’ And we shook hands,” Mufson says. “Austin, Peter and I cut the deal and Post [who went outside to smoke] came back in and we all hugged.”
Malone will perform two consecutive history-making nights at the resort’s 3,800-seat BleauLive Theater — its debut on-sale event. This booking transports the 70-year-old icon’s long entertainment legacy from Miami Beach to the Las Vegas Strip. Over the years, the original location has hosted everyone from the Rat Pack and Elvis to Usher, Mariah Carey and Bad Bunny.
New Year’s Eve is iconic in this city and I’m excited to ring in 2024 as the first headliner at Fontainebleau Las Vegas,” says Malone, whose fifth album Austin debuted in August at No. 1 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart. In June, the 10-time GRAMMY nominee received the Songwriters Hall of Fame “Hal Davis Starlight Award.”
“The brand is rooted in nostalgia around our entertainment history. But how do we look at that with a contemporary point of view?” Mufson says. “Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. — who are those performers of this era? Post is one of them; he’s a modern-day music genius.”
Don’t expect big-name multi-year residencies at BleauLive like its neighbor Resorts World (with Katy Perry, Luke Bryan and Carrie Underwood). “We will do two to six shows or two to eight shows,” Mufson says of the limited-engagement strategy. “That’s the right thing to dip our toe in.” He shares they are close to signing more than a half-dozen acts that will be announced soon.
Fedor Banuchi, Fontainebleau senior vp of entertainment and special events, characterizes the talent lineup as “genre agnostic” running the gamut from country and latin to pop, comedy and legends
Located on the second-floor above the casino, the 90,000 square-foot three-level multipurpose BleauLive serves as the entertainment hub of the new resort, hosting concerts and fights on the weekends, and meetings and car shows midweek. The Live Nation-backed theater has a capacity of 3,800 with a GA floor. VIP sections have lounge seating with couches and bottle service. Top tiers can be closed to shrink capacity to 1,500. The stage is festival size, featuring a 65′ x 18′ center video wall, dual 16′ x 9′ side walls and Elation Lighting.
