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. This was Mars second concert residency, after performing at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan with the last show being 2015 New Year's Eve. 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". 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. The concert residency was promoted by Live Nation and occasionally by MGM Resorts.
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. 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.
Synopsis and reception
The concert, which had a runtime of 90 to 95 minutes, opened either with "24K Magic" or "Finesse". It enabled Mars to capture the audience attention from start to finish. 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 " 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. Mars sung alone on the stage, along with the crowd, the ballad "When I Was Your Man". 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". The concert included fire cannons and a "giant sign spelling out" Bruno Mars. During the New Year's Eve show as the performance of "Locked Out of Heaven" came to an end, "the power went out onstage". 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. 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 " and a full version of Prince's "Let's Go Crazy". 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. Writing for the same publication, John Katsilometes dubbed the performance as "extraordinary" and "classic". Las Vegas Weeklys 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".
