Cheers erupt from the audience the moment she bursts into the opening lyrics of Someone Like You with a mezzo-soprano vocal range that also sounds hauntingly familiar. The hits keep coming – Easy On Me, Chasing Pavements, Rolling In The Deep and more – with most of the crowd on its feet demanding more by the end of her set. This may be Vegas but the star on stage is definitely not Adele and her audience is less than one-tenth the size of a full house at the 4,100-capacity Colosseum theatre in nearby Caesars Palace.
We are actually a one-and-a-half mile stroll down the famous Vegas Strip at the Tropicana casino resort’s compact Legends in Concert Theatre, which holds a mere 356.
Performing there six nights a week is 45-year-old New Yorker Janae Longo – an Adele impersonator who bears a striking resemblance to the Tottenham-born diva.
Last week, Janae’s bosses at the Tropicana offered free entry, to any of her shows, to frustrated fans of the real Adele. Some had blown small fortunes flying to Sin City to hear their superstar kick-off her first Vegas residency, only for her to cancel the day before opening night on January 20.
Scores have already taken advantage of the Tropicana deal. And only a handful have subsequently posted unkind comparisons between Adele and her doppelgänger, with one describing Janae as “not an impersonator but an imposter”.
But Longo admits she feared far worse, saying: “When I first got hired I was so honoured – but I worried that all the Adele fans were going to throw tomatoes at me just for not being her.
“But they have been so very gracious and it makes me feel proud to be able to salute her talent on stage.”
Meanwhile, the real Adele last week admitted her “regret” at the last-minute cancellation – over set problems and a Covid outbreak among crew.
She insisted it would have been a “half-a**ed show” if she had gone ahead.
The I Drink Wine singer, 33, also celebrated her triple win at the Brits last week by stripping down to her bra and pole dancing at a gay nightclub.
She then announced she wants to have a baby next year with her boyfriend, US sports agent Rich Paul, 40.
