Bruno Mars at Park MGM

Bruno Mars at Park MGM is a concert residency held at the Park Theater, Park MGM in Las Vegas and The Theater at MGM National Harbor, Oxon Hill in Maryland by American singer and songwriter Bruno Mars. Both venues are located in the United States. The setlist, which featured songs from Doo-Wops & Hooligans (2010), Unorthodox Jukebox (2012), 24K Magic (2016) and various covers, was performed by Mars, backed by his eight-piece band, The Hooligans. The concert residency was promoted by Live Nation and MGM Resorts, lasted four years and grossed $29 million. It attracted a wide-ranging audience of all age groups. The April 2020 dates were cancelled due to the pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Bruno Mars at Park MGM

Residency by Bruno Mars
Location	Park Theater, Park MGM Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. The Theater at MGM National Harbor Oxon Hill, Maryland, U.S.
Start date	December 27, 2016 (2016-12-27)
Legs	8
No. of shows	34
Attendance	121,857
Box office	$29 million
Bruno Mars concert chronology

Background and development

On October 10, 2016, Entertainment Tonight announced that Mars signed a two-year deal with MGM Resorts International to perform at the Park Theater at Monte Carlo, in Las Vegas and The Theater at MGM National Harbor, in Maryland.[1] This was Mars second concert residency, after performing at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan with the last show being 2015 New Year's Eve.[2] The president of MGM Resorts International, Bill Hornbuckle, said "There is no stronger launching pad for a new venue than for Mars to be among the first to grace its stage".[1] The singer was among first to perform at the MGM National Harbor, as well as the first to perform at the new Park Theater, which features 5,300 seats, as well as brand new audio and visual technology.[3][4] The concert residency was promoted by Live Nation and occasionally by MGM Resorts.[5][6][7]

Shows cancellation

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Mars avoid contact the fans on his shows on March 6 and 7, 2020, at the Park Theater, as a response to the Coronavirus disease 2019.[8] Moreover, MGM Resorts announced the cancellation of the dates at the Park Theater on April 20, 24, and 25 due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).[9]

Synopsis and reception

The concert, which had a runtime of 90 to 95 minutes, opened either with "24K Magic" or "Finesse".[10][11] It enabled Mars to capture the audience attention from start to finish.[11] During the show, Mars split the fans in half "to see who was loudest". During the concert "Runaway Baby" was interluded with The Isley Brothers' "Shout", and as Mars sung "A little bit softer now..." he and his band fell to the ground, only to rise up again closing the track. There was also a mash-up of Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)" and Travie McCoy's featuring Mars "Billionaire". At one point he asked the crowd if they could not look at their phones for a while. He also covered "Pony" by Ginuwine and gave "Grenade" a guitar solo transforming it into a rock song.[10] Mars sung alone on the stage, along with the crowd, the ballad "When I Was Your Man".[11] Afterwards, his band came back to perform "Locked Out of Heaven" and "Just the Way You Are" with him. The show closed with the an encore of "Uptown Funk".[11] The concert included fire cannons and a "giant sign spelling out" Bruno Mars.[10] During the New Year's Eve show as the performance of "Locked Out of Heaven" came to an end, "the power went out onstage".[10]

At these shows, Mars performed a medley of various covers that would vary according to dates and fan suggestions. During the New Year's Eve show, he sung portions of Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On", Queen's "We Will Rock You" and "Another One Bites the Dust", "Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani, the Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way", The Beatles' chorus "Hey Jude" from the Cirque du Soleil's Love tribute show at The Mirage in Las Vegas, and "Isn't She Lovely" by Stevie Wonder.[12] In another show, on February 19, 2018, Mars performed covers of songs by Ginuwine, Janet Jackson, Bobby Brown, Soul for Real's "Candy Rain", as well as portions of "My Cherie Amour" by Steve Wonder, Lauryn Hill's "Doo Wop (That Thing)" and a full version of Prince's "Let's Go Crazy".[11]

The residency received positive reviews from critics. Mike Weatherford from Las Vegas Review-Journal, while reviewing Mars' 2017 New Years concert, noticed the wide range of people's age and stated "If the casinos could genetically engineer the perfect entertainment machine, Mars is it." Weatherford gave the show an A rating.[10] Writing for the same publication, John Katsilometes dubbed the performance as "extraordinary" and "classic".[12] Las Vegas Weekly's Brock Radke also noticed the wide range of people's age and added, "the modern age of Vegas entertainment hasn't had a hotter, more relevant regular than Bruno Mars".[11]

Shows

List of concerts, showing date, city, venue, tickets sold, amount of available tickets and gross revenue

Date	City	Venue	Attendance	Revenue
Leg 1[5]
December 27, 2016	National Harbor	The Theater at MGM National Harbor	2,646 /2,746	$582,275
December 30, 2016	Las Vegas	The Park Theater	10,157 / 11,000	$2,547,397
December 31, 2016
Leg 2[6]
March 11, 2017	Las Vegas	The Park Theater	10,466 / 10,466	$2,158,850
March 12, 2017
Leg 3[13]
September 2, 2017	Las Vegas	The Park Theater	10,505 / 10,505	$2,153,264
September 3, 2017
Leg 4[7]
December 20, 2017	National Harbor	The Theater at MGM National Harbor	5,498 / 5,498	$1,354,000
December 21, 2017
December 30, 2017	Las Vegas	The Park Theater	10,292 / 10,292	$2,737,700
December 31, 2017
Leg 5[14][15]
February 14, 2018	Las Vegas	The Park Theater	20,509 / 20,592	$4,354,719
February 16, 2018
February 17, 2018
February 19, 2018
Leg 6[16]
July 25, 2018	Las Vegas	The Park Theater	15,154 / 15,450	$3,413,843
July 27, 2018
July 28, 2018
Leg 7[17][18]
April 29, 2019	Las Vegas	The Park Theater	N/A	N/A
April 30, 2019
May 3, 2019
May 4, 2019
September 3, 2019			36,630 / 36,630	$9,787,031
September 4, 2019
September 7, 2019
September 9, 2019
September 10, 2019
September 13, 2019
September 14, 2019
Leg 8[19]
March 6, 2020	Las Vegas	The Park Theater	TBA	TBA
March 7, 2020
Total			121,857 / 123,179	$29,089,079

Canceled shows

List of canceled concerts, showing date, city, country, venue and reason for cancellation

Date	City	Venue	Reason
April 20, 2020	Las Vegas	The Park Theater	COVID-19 pandemic[9]
April 24, 2020
April 25, 2020

References

1. McRady, Rachel (October 10, 2016). "Exclusive: Bruno Mars Partners With MGM Resorts International for the Next Two Years". Entertainment Tonight. Retrieved February 26, 2020.
2. Frankenberg, Eric (January 24, 2019). "Bruno Mars & Maroon 5 Leave Las Vegas With Their Biggest New Year's Eve Jackpots Yet". Billbord. Archived from the original on January 25, 2019.
3. Freed, Benjamin (October 10, 2016). "Bruno Mars to Open Theater in MGM Casino at National Harbor". Washingtonian. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
4. "Bruno Mars performing in Las Vegas for New Year's Eve". KTNV-TV. October 10, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
5. "Billboard Boxscore :: Current Scores". Billboard. Archived from the original on March 15, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
6. "Billboard Boxscore :: Current Scores". Billboard. Archived from the original on April 7, 2019. Retrieved September 13, 2017.
7. "Billboard Boxscore :: Current Scores". Billboard. Archived from the original on January 31, 2018. Retrieved January 31, 2018.
8. Katsilometes, John (March 11, 2020). "Cirque du Soleil halts touring shows in coronavirus response". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
9. Katsilometes, John (March 26, 2020). "Bruno Mars cuts $1M check to MGM Resorts assistance fund". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
10. Weatherford, Mike (January 1, 2017). "Bruno Mars keeps the party from getting too predictable". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved March 16, 2020.
11. Radke, Brock (February 20, 2018). "Bruno Mars Can Have Begas Whenever He Wants". Las Vegas Weekly. Retrieved March 16, 2020.
12. Katsilometes, John (July 28, 2018). "Phones locked up during Bruno Mars concert on Las Vegas Strip". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved March 16, 2020.
13. "Billboard Boxscore :: Current Scores". Billboard. Archived from the original on September 14, 2017. Retrieved September 13, 2017.
14. "Billboard Boxscore :: Current Scores". Billboard. Archived from the original on February 28, 2018. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
15. "Billboard Boxscore :: Current Scores". Billboard. Archived from the original on March 24, 2018. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
16. "Billboard Boxscore :: Current Scores". Billboard. Archived from the original on August 21, 2018. Retrieved August 21, 2018.
17. Seeman, Matthew (February 4, 2019). "Bruno Mars announces 11 shows at Park MGM in Las Vegas". KSNV. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
18. "Billboard Boxscore :: Current Scores". Billboard. Archived from the original on October 5, 2019. Retrieved January 29, 2020.
19. Young, Alex (November 19, 2019). "Bruno Mars announces 2020 Las Vegas residency". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved November 23, 2019.