Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/607470
photography by ana Carballosa (performanCe), peter Kramer/nbC (ShadeS of Blue) "I want [the show] to be a high-energy, Bronx kind of block party," Jennifer Lopez says. "The most exciting shows make you dance, and scream, and jump up and down." below: Lopez on the set of Shades of Blue with fellow actor Dayo Okeniyi. bottom: Lopez with castmates Sarah Jeffery, Ray Liotta, and Lolita Davidovich. for a then-record fee of $350,000, only to suffer an attack of "Vegas Throat" on night one; she didn't sing a note for the rest of the week. "I've run into that trouble in Vegas before," Lopez says, wryly. "It's super dry, so you have to take care of your- self and have tons of humidifers." (Maybe Celine Dion will let her borrow the $2 million system she apparently bought to help protect her voice against the same problem.) Lopez promises to perform t he songs fans expect, though she's planning to keep the set list f luid, adding fa n-favor ite a lbum cut s or songs she's long loved herself. "I want the show to be always changing, so it's a unique experi- ence every time—one night a Selena song, and another maybe something by Diana Ross." She plans to take inspirat ion, too, from whatever she's humming in the kitchen at home; right now, that's ballads by Sam Smith: "That song Lay Me Down? I really, really love it." Nowhere can Lopez more indulge her inner showgirl than with the costumes for All I Have— after all, this is a woman who has an entire drawer at home devoted to yellow diamonds and who relishes fipping through fashion magazines and marking up the pages that have outfts she wants to try, calling it "my favorite thing to do." And she's working with her longtime secret weapon, styling team Rob Zangardi and Mariel Haenn, on a Vegas-worthy wardrobe. To that end, she's calling on the same roster of designers that has kept her red carpet-ready over the past few years: Balmain, Zuhair Murad and, of course, Versace. It was Donatella Versace who gave Lopez her frst global pop-culture moment: the unforget- table slash-fronted, green palm-print dress the performer wore to the 2000 Grammys as the date of her then-boyfriend, Diddy. Lopez still has that dress at home, but she says it won't make an appear- ance during her Vegas shows. "Oh, I still have it, but we're going to do all kinds of new stuff—I redid the Versace dress for my Bronx homecoming show [in 2014], so I don't think I'll repeat myself." Planning her new costumes, though, is clearly one of her favor ite pa r t s of prepping for t he Vegas residency. "It's like a fantasy," she coos. "When you think of Diana Ross, Cher, or Barbra Streisand, it's their costumes that became their sig nature." Indeed, Lopez has cited Streisand as an icon before, calling her "classic, timeless" and acknowledging that she would gladly model her career on the Oscar winner's. Will she chan- nel Babs in Vegas—maybe a head wrap, or two? She takes a deep breath, then exhales: "Oh, I'm just looking to do the best Jennifer Lopez show anyone has ever seen." She also continues to multitask, remaining on TV while her residency continues, including judg- ing the fnal season of American Idol, her job on and off for fve seasons. Calling herself "a great fan" of Idol's sister show, So You Think You Can Dance, Lopez will welcome the most recent winner of that Fox series, 19-year old Gaby Diaz, to her Vegas troupe for a few shows. Would a 19-year old Lopez have auditioned for either show? "I don't know, American Idol, maybe," she says. That long-run- ning singing competition clearly resonates with her, though, as she recalls her favorite moment of each season: the finale. "When the winner is announced, and you see that person's dream come true, it's such a human thing," she says. "I still remember [season 11 winner] Phillip Phillips' face. But I have mixed feelings about it ending—it's a big celebration, but it's melancholy at the same time. But something else will come up." For Lopez, that something is another TV show, Shades of Blue, a crime drama for NBC, and her frst gig headlining a network series. Produced by Idol host Ryan Seacrest, and costarring Ray Liotta (Goodfellas) and Drea de Matteo (The Sopranos), Shades of Blue is scheduled for midseason 2016. In it, Lopez plays a single mom who works as an FBI agent in New York City and struggles with the morals of her job. "It's set in the world of cops," she says, "but it's really about human nature—how we're always riding a line of what's right and what's wrong, that slippery slope." Once she finishes shooting in a few weeks, she'll dedicate herself to prepping for All I Have. Lopez will, doubtlessly, be scoping out the compe- tition—though she's already seen "Britney, Shania [Twain], Celine, and all the Cirque [du Soleil] shows," and she'll relish the chance to indulge at Vegas's luxury boutiques. Lopez doesn't drink, and has said she has long left behind the late-night partying for which she was known in her Diddy-and-Versace era. Gambling isn't a passion, either, though her Vegas stint will be especially appealing to one member of the family, her retired-schoolteacher mother, Guadalupe, who indulges in the slots in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Since Mom's such a fan of gam- bling, she'll be one of the frst to come here to check out the new show, right, Jen? "Even if she weren't, she would still come and see me," Lopez says, laughing, before pausing and adding, "Well, I like to think." The rest of us will be right beside Guadalupe. For tickets, visit caesars.com. V vegasmagazine.com 101