Name: BarryNet Articles & Reviews
Date/Time: 2/15/2020 10:10 PM
Subject: Barry Manilow’s Valentine’s Day present: 900 CDs

"Barry Manilow’s Valentine’s Day present: 900 CDs" by John Katsilometes
Las Vegas Review-Journal, 15 February 2020

There’s more than one way to give away a bunch of CDs in a Las Vegas residency show. On Valentine’s Day, Barry Manilow went for the bulk method, delivering 900 CDs, all at once. Fans who attended Manilow’s return to International Theater at Westgate Las Vegas were given copies of “Night Songs II,” Manilow’s follow-up to “Night Songs” and his first album release in more than three years. The groundswell of love among Barry Manilow’s “Fanilows” stretched to the entrance of the theater’s gift shop. It was a one-night-only event.

This strategy differs from that of, say, Donny Osmond, who handed out a single CD during every Donny & Marie performance at Flamingo Las Vegas. That nightly tradition covered a span of 1,700 shows over 11 years.

Manilow is back at International Theater on Thursday, Friday and next Saturday. He continues his Thursdays-through-Saturdays schedule through November. There is already talk around the property that he will be back for more in 2021. The deal is informal: As General Manager Cami Christensen says, “Barry is part of our family, and the Westgate is his home.”