When you’re an eight-time Grammy Award-winning superstar with a musical legacy spanning 20-plus years and a sold-out Las Vegas Strip residency, you don’t need much to keep people engaged. But with Ushh: Backstory Pass, Usher woos his fans like never before.
Backstory takes guests on a theatrical, choose-your-own-adventure as they’re led through the backstage area of the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, greeted by improv characters and granted the freedom to explore six themed rooms, all connected to what most inspires Usher, who opened his residency show here in July.
“Usher is a huge fan of immersive theater,” says Troy Heard, Backstory creative producer and founder of Majestic Repertory Theater and Table 8 Immersive. “He’s been to [New York City production] Sleep No More many times. When he came to Vegas, instead of doing a traditional meet-and-greet, he wanted to create his own immersive experience.”
Heard says this is the first time anything like this has been done on the Strip—essentially a companion performance piece to the artist’s marquee production in the Colosseum. “It’s a heightened reality,” Heard explains. “You’re really stepping into Usher’s imagination.”
My experience begins at Club Ushh, a 1920s jazz den inspired by the Parisian staple Le Duc. A bow-tied bartender accepts the only money that’s good here—my wooden Ushh coin—and mixes me a strong Rémy Martin sidecar. I tuck into a corner and watch a woman in an emerald green dress and her suspenders-clad partner swing it out on the dance floor. A live band anchored by local singer Skye Dee Miles scores the moment.
As I listen, hints of the modern world shine through, like a strange alternate reality blending multiple eras. I’m bobbing my head to a jazzy rendition of a Kanye West and Jay-Z collaboration. I’m blown away by the seamlessness of it all, even more so when I hear some of Usher’s hits remixed through this roaring ’20s lens.
Backstory spared no expense with its all-star cast of break dancers and former and current Cirque du Soleil and Spiegelworld performers, and they’re all local. “Usher requested it,” Heard says. “He wanted to make it very locally based, especially coming out of the year we’ve had where performers have been out of work.”
Usher also invites these performers to play a part in his main show upstairs.
“It meant a great deal, especially as an artist of color,” says Jillian Austin, who plays a fortune-reading character named the Feminine Divine. “It meant a lot to have Usher and his team come here and trust our local art scene.”
The superstar isn’t just a bystander to his backstory either. He’s been known to walk the scene.
That’s how I find myself locking eyes with him at Ushh City, a reimagining of Atlanta’s famous strip club Magic City. Well, I think I’m locking eyes with him, that is until I spot an elderly woman being escorted past me—directly to Usher. Dollars, err, Ushhbucks, fly out from every direction. But the R&B star is busy paying extra attention to this devoted fan.
“I’m sitting there appreciating what he’s done for his fans, to court them for [almost] 30 years,” says Jason Nious, a seasoned Cirque performer and member of Backstory. “There’s no manipulation. There’s just a constant, I’m going to be who I am. I’m going to stay open with you guys, with my people who are following my story and my music, with my fans who’ve stuck with me.”
USHH: BACKSTORY PASS December 23-24, 28, 29, 31 & January 1, 8 p.m., $206. The Colosseum, 866-227-5938.
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