With Céline Dion sidelined, Shania Twain takes center stage

 

For several days since returning to Las Vegas, superstar singer Celine Dion has been fighting laryngitis. I was reliably told that she has been under doctors’ orders and followed all treatments to rest her vocal chords. She was ready to restart her Colosseum at Caesars Palace engagement with Wednesday night’s sold-out concert, but just two hours before curtain up, she became ill again
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Celine was promptly ordered by her doctors not to perform and to rest to ensure a full recovery so that she can resume performances Saturday. It was the first show she has canceled in four years.

Country superstar Shania Twain, who had flown in from her Bahamas home to start pre-production for her Colosseum headliner show starting Dec. 1, was scheduled to watch both stars. Instead, AEG/Concerts West producers used the suddenly empty theater last night for Shania to “walk, dance and sing onstage.”
“That was really cool. We were there until 11 p.m. last night,” I was told. “She wanted to get the feel of the building. She wanted to know where her band and the crew would be hanging out when she comes to town. She saw the dressing rooms and checked the sound system. She’s really excited, and everybody already knows she’s on the right track as the new family is being built around her.”


Shania, who confirmed her residency to me in an exclusive interview last June, is said to be in great shape and played tennis for two hours with her husband, Frederic Thiebaud, right after their six-hour flight here from the Bahamas. The couple left Las Vegas this morning after seeing the early performance of “O” in the Bellagio on Wednesday night instead of Celine.

 Celine’s schedule didn’t call for shows tonight and Friday, and now everybody is hoping the break will get her back to full health to resume the schedule Saturday. Fans -- several in tears -- who received full refunds learned of Celine’s illness as they were filing into the Colosseum.

A reliable source, who revealed the backstage medical drama to me as it was happening, told me: “Celine was brokenhearted and disappointed beyond words. She wanted to disobey the medics and go onstage, but they warned her it could cause far more serious problems if she went against their orders. It’s better that she missed just one night rather than create a worse, ongoing problem of several nights by pushing it before she’s well again.”