The institution
A residency is Las Vegas's native art form: one performer, one room, years of nights. The senior citizen is Wayne Newton — Mr. Las Vegas himself, turning 84 in 2026 — reviewed in March 2026 at Bugsy's Cabaret at the Flamingo: a smaller storytelling show ('Up Close and Personal'), Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays at 7 p.m. as filmed, with breaks in the run. Living history, the reviewer calls it. At the other end of the Strip's timeline, the Colosseum model has changed: where Celine and Adele sat for years, Caesars now rotates residencies through the room — the March 2026 review of Jennifer Lopez's run explains the rotation (Def Leppard, Alanis Morissette and Blake Shelton among recent runs) while judging her hits show a fan's yes.
The long-runners
Penn & Teller at the Rio (buyer's guide, January 2025): 50 years performing together, in the theater built around them. Mat Franco at the LINQ, interviewed by Vegas PBS in his tenth year: AGT's first magician winner built a residency on close-up, audience-driven magic — the opposite of the big-box illusion show. Blue Man Group's 25-years-on-the-Strip backstage feature (2025) has the performers describe the formula themselves: 'we play a lot of music, we make a mess, we create works of art.' Carrot Top's May 2025 buyer's guide covers the Luxor prop-comedy run at the 20-year mark (he has since taken a health break and returned — his page has the return films). And Shin Lim's 2019 opening-night vlog documents a residency being born at the Mirage — the show has since moved to The Palazzo Theatre, and the Mirage itself closed in 2024.
The new palace
Sphere has created the concert residency's new tier: a fan's review of Metallica's run (second weekend, $5,000 seats, stated plainly) raves about haptic seats and visuals built for songs like 'Call of Ktulu' while staying candid that the price shapes the verdict. The December 2023 Sphere film is the era's time capsule — U2's opening season, 'Postcard from Earth' brand new — kept as a record of the debut, not a guide to today's lineup. That's the residency story in one page: cabaret storytellers, decade-long rooms, and a spherical new palace, all running at once.
Sources: the nine videos on this page — buyer's guides and reviews (2025–2026), PBS and backstage interviews, a performer's own vlog, a Sphere concert review and an opening-era time capsule — summarized from their entries in our catalog.