Take A Trip Inside Katy Perry’s New Las Vegas Residency “Play”
Pack your bags and grab your boarding pass because soon you will be “Waking Up In Vegas” with only photos from your camera roll to back your telling story. A show with a compelling narrative, rainbow glamour, hilarity, and did we mention the giant toilet?
Welcome to “Perry’s Playland” where “Happiness is forever!”
Presented by AEG Presents and Resorts World Theatre in Las Vegas this 95-minute show gives KatyCats five acts of “charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent” as RuPaul would say. Being the second superstar behind Carrie Underwood to break in the new theatre, Katy didn’t come to just “Roar” she came to let you know that it’s “Not The End of The World” with her first-ever residency.
“Play” immediately lures you into another dimension with a giant screen of what looks to be a store before discovering a world full of hidden surprises. The intro is very similar to real-life Las Vegas attraction, Meow Wolf, where you enter through a grocery storefront only to be submerged into an interactive multi-sensory universe. The hilarious bubbly internet sensation, Ricky T, preps us on how to build our very own “Perry Playland” with iconic collectibles featuring: Left Shark, King Purry, Roaring Tiger, Lickable Lips, and coming in hot, Katy Doll. True KatyCats know these are symbols of iconic moments throughout Katy’s career.
Let’s dive into nostalgia, phantasmagoria, and straight-up singalong.
Act 1: Henry The Horror
We meet Henry, a young boy who wins a Katy Doll from the mischievous crane game. We start to learn about his roller coaster of emotions keeping the doll attached to his hip through many unbecoming behaviors. Katy opens the night on her space-themed track “E.T.” where a giant bed, chair, and serpent-like electrical cord move around the room. Trying to stay alive amongst the chaos, we watch Katy make herself a home amongst his toys favoriting a rocking horse. Riding the back of the child’s toy like a surfboard, Katy sings her heart out to “Dark Horse.”
Act 2: Flushed
We learn many of Henry’s mannerisms which include farting and messy teeth brushing. Katy starts out with, “Well welcome to the show. I don’t know what day of the week it is… I think it’s a Friyay and I think it’s the beginning of the year.” She graces us with her 2010 classic, “California Gurls” where backup dancers dressed in floaties and blue swimsuits pop out of a red oversized toilet but the best part is her introduction to Mr. Poo. Mr. Poo is just what he sounds like – an enormous bowel movement. Are you watching your bristol stool chart in 2022? Katy describes how healthy he looks saying, “You didn’t know it was going to get this real, early in the night right?”
Act 3: Eat Me
Henry is on his own agenda and hasn’t been taught how much it hurts when you discard someone else’s feelings. His Katy Doll ends up outside running for her life from the family dog. She ends up in a mushroom patch where she bites the forbidden fungi causing her delusions and reality to come together. Katy comes out on stage on a massive snail singing “Bon Appetit.” And it’s true what they say… don’t do drugs kids. Katy Doll, feeling the side effects of the mushroom, falls victim to the family dog dragging her through the mud. Henry retrieve the doll, realizing she’s no longer perfect he discards her into the trash.
Act 4: Trashun
Now that Henry is gone, Katy Doll lies in the trash making friends amongst the discarded. Fellow KatyCats meet a huge disposable mask with a personality all of his own. Katy and the mask banter back and forth on COVID-19 and the mask mandate. “Nobody thought anything of the mask… Right?! I’d only see you on my dentist’s face, or my doctors, or my… botox clinic.” The crowd laughs. “That’s right I’m 37, and I know it,” says Katy. The crowd cheers even louder. The “Wide Awake” singer is wearing a dress made from two giant cans and soda tabs. An iconic moment happens where she pours herself a drink out of the top of the dress. It was one of those, you had to be there moments. We cheer, “to finally knowing how bad our breath really is – you should floss,” says Katy. She then sings “Lost.” Only true KatyCats know that this song was written before her career took off. Katy felt lost in life and didn’t know where or when her career would take off. Katy also played her newest track “When I’m Gone” featuring Alesso which was released on December 29, 2021.
Act 5: Perry Playland
This isn’t the end to Katy Doll just yet. She has been rescued from the trash by Henry’s neighbor who gives Katy Doll a much-needed cleaning and rebirth. Katy Perry comes out in a dazzling orange and yellow dress through a keyhole silhouette of a colossal pink door. The number starts slow as the pink door “opens” Katy breaks into full production of “Teenage Dream” with fireworks, a giant stairway, and performers wearing headdresses and intricate outfits. Katy pays homage in act five to her grandmother and aunt who used to work at the Stardust Resort and Casino in the ’50s and ’60s. Here’s a little Vegas history lesson for you… Resorts World Las Vegas currently sits where the former Stardust Resort and Casino used to be.
We can’t forget the encore because Katy wouldn’t leave her fans hanging. She ends the night with a bang singing “Firework” in a pastel pink skin-tight dress with a rainbow neckpiece that would blind anyone a mile away. Fans sang in harmony as a pink sign popped up ending the night saying “Bye B****” in true superstar fashion.
Black-haired Katy Perry will always be a quintessential era in the early to mid-2010’s pop music scene – and that’s not for debate!
Now get outside and “Play.”
Check out her upcoming January and March shows HERE
Take “This Moment” to prep yourself on one of the best setlists:
- “E.T.”
- “Chained to the Rhythm”
- “Dark Horse”
- “Not The End of The World”
- “California Gurls”
- “Hot N Cold” / “Last Friday Night”
- “Waking Up in Vegas”
- “Bon Appetit”
- “Daisies”
- “I Kissed A Girl”
- “Lost” / “Part of Me” / “Wide Awake”
- “Swish Swish”
- “When I’m Gone” / “Walking On Air”
- “Never Really Over”
- “Teenage Dream”
- “Smile”
- “Roar”
- “Greatest Love Of All” – Whitney Houston cover
- “Firework”
