Inside Adele’s First Las Vegas Residency Concert: Jitters, Apologies and a Shout-Out to ‘The Walking Dead’ - Hollywood Reporter

Tears, apologies, screaming fans, a Céline Dion shout-out and 30-plus minutes of banter punctuated the long-awaited two-hour opening performance of “Weekends With Adele” at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace?

Even before she took the stage of The Colosseum at exactly 8:15 p.m.

on Friday night, it had been a monumental week for Adele, who received seven Grammy nominations.

I’ve been obsessed with The Walking Dead for over a decade and on Sunday it is all coming to an end … and obviously it’s opening night and the Grammys and the World Cup.”.

As the crowd of 4,000-plus entered The Colosseum, they saw a single white piano on stage within an illuminated A-frame.

With a strict policy that no one would be seated while she was singing, Adele came out right on time with her piano player Eric, in a black gown with a constellation-like design detail, by the looks of it a custom-made Schiaparelli.

Her first words to the crowd were, “I’m shitting myself.” As the thunderous chorus struck, 180-degree floor-to-ceiling screens switched on and the room became surrounded by four enormous projected images of Adele, giving the crowd an up-close look at the singer.

You look amazing, and it looks just like what I imagined it would look like.

I don’t get to go off stage for about 50 minutes so I’m going to have a shitty face of streamed makeup for the whole first part of the show.” .

Paying homage to the goddess who “built” The Colosseum, she giddily shared, “I’m not going to lie, I feel like Céline Dion … was the only reason why I wanted to sing in here.

I want to make it feel like for you what it’s like in the studio for me.

What I do when I first start writing a song is I go and I sit at a piano and I just fuck around until something feels good.

At one point even showing off that she wasn’t wearing shoes, just some athletic socks, she said, “Do you like my posh socks?” The crowd seemed to eat up these relatable moments

As she took sips from a cup in between songs, Adele explained, “It looks like I am drinking wine, but I am drinking hot honey

By “Water Under the Bridge,” about 30 minutes in, Adele loosened up, revealing that last week she was “sick as a dog” and quarantined herself to the top row of the theater

Presumably taking a break to touch up that makeup, Adele was offstage during a pre-recorded presentation of her song “Cry Your Heart Out” which included vaporous-like video images of her singing

While Adele sang “Set Fire to the Rain,” the stage seemed to fill with cascading drops even as her piano and the stage partly lit up in flames, while during “Hold On,” the venue felt like a lantern festival as synchronistically programmed lighted orbs danced above the audience

On the latter song, the piano temporarily levitated and appeared to break apart, while a dense confetti storm rained down, minimizing visibility of the stage

With a line stretching across the casino, guests waited to snap up items such as a $250 Adele varsity jacket with her album titles 19, 21, 25 and 30 on the sleeve or a $45 Adele Saturn T-shirt — as well as nameplate necklaces with the words “Married,” “Divorced” or “Hello.” Gowns she’d previously appeared in were also on display, including the Schiaparelli from her 2021 Adele One Night Only television special plus lots of merch with song title “I Drink Wine,” and a Dear Adele postcard station complete with a red mailbox to drop a line