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New Edition
Monday, Feb. 26, 2024 | 2 a.m.
“The New Edition Story,” the three-part biographical miniseries airing on BET in January 2017, was nothing short of a cultural phenomenon that sparked peak interest in the R&B and pop vocal group that took off in the early 1980s. Incredibly, the movie made New Edition and its music more popular than ever, and it was no surprise that the group’s reunion and several tours followed — as did talk of a possible Las Vegas headlining residency.
That special engagement is finally here. Johnny Gill, the soulful singer who first replaced Bobby Brown in New Edition in 1987, said the process of lining up a Vegas residency was long and tedious — partially because of the COVID pandemic — and planning began well before the first reunion tour in 2021.
“We were trying to decide which [offer] we were going to do, and do we do Vegas at that time or go and get the major tour done first then come back around?” said Gill, who released a successful R&B solo album after his first experience with the group. “I’m glad we did what we did because there’s no better time than now for Vegas, especially with what Usher did. He sort of laid the blueprint with his [R&B residency] show.
“If people weren’t ready for us, they’re absolutely ready for it now, and you can see how Vegas has opened up since with so much more entertainment, especially on the urban [music] side of things.”
New Edition opens its residency at Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas on Wednesday, February 28 at 8 p.m. Future concerts are scheduled for March 1-2, 6, 8-9 and tickets are available at ticketmaster.com.
The complete six-member version of New Edition will be onstage at Encore Theater: Gill and Brown along with Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ronnie DeVoe and Ralph Tresvant. In addition to hits from different eras of the group’s long career — bubblegum pop tracks like “Cool It Now” and “Candy Girl” from their teenage days up through more modern R&B fare like “If It Isn’t Love,” “Can You Stand the Rain” and “I’m Still in Love With You” — the show will also feature solo smashes from Brown, Grill, Tresvant and the influential New Jack Swing project Bell Biv DeVoe from the other three members.
“We’ve got a lot of catalog,” Gill said. “We could never leave that part out, the individual [hits], because that’s what they want from us. It’s going to be a lot of fun and we’re looking forward to it.”
He’s also looking forward to performing in the luxurious theater at Wynn, a different kind of venue from the arenas visited during New Edition tours.
“We had offers for several different spots, including at Park MGM,” Gill said. “But we felt like this is a room where the fans can get what they want, and we can be a little more intimate with the show. It’s one of the more elegant rooms but we can still keep it on that bigger scale for our fans. It has the right kind of energy and vibe.”
A Las Vegas residency never seemed in the cards for New Edition until this recent resurgence and the establishment of the group as a treasured nostalgia act. And considering the group has had its ups and downs over the decades and had its story told well through the TV movie, this engagement at Wynn feels like it’s been a long time coming, and a bit surreal, Gill said.
“This is where we wish we could have been years ago,” he said. “But we are having fun. To be able to say you’re looking forward to coming to work and being around your brothers 40 years later, it’s a moment I don’t know how to explain. When we’re together, all you see is laughter, and we’re talking about this and that, saying ‘remember when.’ That’s the space we’re in now.”
