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The idea for A New Day came to Dion in 2000 when she saw O, Cirque du Soleil's bizarrely beautiful mime-gymnastics-diving show, at the Bellagio hotel. "The second it started," she says, "I was breathtaken. At the end I turned to Rene and said, 'If ever I do a concert again, this is what I want.'" Angelil, who loves his wife only slightly more than his personalized blackjack betting system, said it would be logistically impossible to mount such a complicated show profitably--unless, of course, she was willing to do it in Las Vegas permanently. "Sure enough," says Angelil, smiling, "she said, 'I could live here.'"
After meeting with Dragone, O's director, and negotiating with three casinos and various producers, Angelil put together a deal at Caesars Palace. Then he and Dion stood back and let Dragone try to create a show out of Dion's songbook. "At first I did not know at all the repertoire of Celine," says Dragone. "I do not listen to this music. It's very pop-ish, so it is not so easy to find a tableau behind the songs. There is not a theme, except love of course."
Dragone, 50, is a Belgian with the soul of a Frenchman. In conversation his jagged English lurches between profound existential lows ("Sometimes I do not know if the show will work--I do not know how it could") and exuberant, absurdist highs ("That character, he is the moon!"). "There's no light at the end of the tunnel with Franco," says Mia Michaels, A New Day's choreographer. "Most directors I work for say, 'This is what I want--this is how we'll get it.' He's just like 'Whatever you want to do, do it. Create what you feel, and we'll find magic in that.' He has no goal, no end product in mind."
For five months, Dragone, Dion, Michaels and 54 dancers holed up in La Louviere, Dragone's Belgian hometown, seeking inspiration. When they arrived in Las Vegas in December, only a few details of the show were decided. A New Day would feature a mix of 18 Dion songs and covers, among them such classic Vegas numbers as Fever and I've Got the World on a String. All the backdrops--including Times Square, a train station and a Florentine campo--would be broadcast on a giant $6 million LED screen. There would be a wordless Romeo and Juliet interlude, a tree that would bloom onstage and a flying orchestra. And, yes, there would be a moon character dressed entirely in white. "He illustrates the emotions of the audience," says Dragone. "He is also a baby who has never seen anything."
The nearly complete version of A New Day that TIME saw in late February is narrative free. The show opens with Dion singing Nat King Cole's Nature Boy in a solitary spot, then segues into a series of increasingly colorful, abstract production numbers. Dion is at center stage for some songs and hovers at the edges during others while an usher character provides comic relief. The dancers--with moves veering from Flashdance to Fonteyn--are electric. The LED screen provides crisp and dynamic scenery. Dion's voice sounds fantastic.