The tightly integrated crowd at ‘Bob Marley Hope Road’ at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas (Photo: Digital Music News)
Will this take the Marley legacy to a new level? ‘Bob Marley Hope Road’ is now off-and-running in Las Vegas, with participants blended into a multi-stage, always-moving musical performance.
After roughly five years of preparation, Primary Wave, FiveCurrents, and the Marley family splashed their production of ‘Bob Marley Hope Road‘ at Mandalay Bay this past weekend. So what’s it like — and where will this take the Marley legend and catalog?
This was clearly a big swing of the bat, and everyone involved in this production was on deck to kick things off. That included members of the Marley family and a deep roster of Primary Wave Music execs, including CEO/founder Larry Mestel. Also on deck was the CEO of production company FiveCurrents, Scott Givens (Givens and Mestel are executive producers alongside Cedella and Ziggy Marley).
To start, this is the farthest thing from a sit-down performance.
Instead, you will be interacting, dancing, drinking, laughing, and (maybe) crying as you shuttle from room to room. This is a small crowd performance, with few barriers between the performers and audience members.
That means you’ll see backflips performed right in front of you, performers singing and dancing while calling your name, and — of course — Marley’s iconic catalog played throughout the show. If you’re into Bob Marley — or even if you’re not — prepare for an emotional and involved experience, complete with dazzling visuals and some serious, Cirque du Soleil-level acrobatics.
Yes, this is the ‘immersive’ concept that is suddenly catching fire within the music industry. And it’s supremely engaging for those in the crowd.
You might laugh, you might cry during ‘Bob Marley Hope Road’— but this isn’t a march through history or a lengthy biopic approach.
There’s little in the way of overt Marley history or messaging, even though the multi-room staging is peppered with concert bills, historical photos, magazine covers, and footage of the reggae legend. Instead, the creators behind ‘Bob Marley Hope Road’ smartly targeted this towards an audience that probably has a good working knowledge of Bob Marley and mostly wants to celebrate his legacy without visiting a museum.
The experience also intensifies as you proceed through the interconnected stages, with celebrations eventually transitioning into a ‘dark period’ that plunges attendees into a challenging time for Marley — with more fog than an 80s rock concert. Then, a spectacular finale bedazzles with 3D spatial video visuals that require special Marley shades.
Also worth noting: this is a very phone-friendly experience, with filming and photo-snapping encouraged.
Some artists detest the sea of phones and non-stop filming at their shows. But the ‘go with the flow’ approach is probably the best path for productions these days, and Bob Marley Hope Road strategically leans in. After all, more photos and filming mean more sharing and excitement — and this isn’t the New York Phil.
At the tail end, someone was even handing out special 3D phone filters for filming — which actually seemed to work alongside the Marley 3D shades.
This is better in person with 3D glasses, though a 3D photo lens filter helped (Photo: Digital Music News)
The entrance of Bob Marley Hope Road is peppered with historical pictures, concert bills, and videos of the legend (Photo: Digital Music News)
The crowd at Bob Marley Hope Road is integrated through the entire experience (Photo: Digital Music News)
For Primary Wave founder Larry Mestel, this is part of a far broader push into immersive and non-conventional experiences involving storied artists and their IP.
During a brief conversation after the show, Mestel outlined an ambitious vision for expanding artist legacies through non-traditional productions and concepts. Case in point: just steps from where we were chatting on the Mandalay Bay floor was a freshly-installed Whitney Houston slot machine.
That outlandish idea has been a resounding success for the Houston catalog, with Mestel pointing to hundreds of slot machines peppering casinos in Vegas and beyond. It’s all part of an aggressive approach that puts ‘buy and hold’ catalog strategies to shame, including those that include more conventional sync licensing and playlist-boosting components.
It’s not that Mestel & Co. are opposed to a good sync placement. But IP and legacy expansion plays are now moving far beyond the bounds of Netflix and advertising.
As for Hope Road, the producers told DMN that it took roughly five years to move from concept to opening night.
“Part of that was the pandemic,” Mestel relayed, while pointing to a two-year closure of casinos and live events that stalled progress. Still, a three-year production timetable is considerable, and certainly outside of the comfort zone of traditional catalog owners.
It’s also the start of a dramatically expanded trajectory for the Marley legend. Up until this point, most of the Marley branding has involved items like headphones, coffee, and gear. Hope Road signals a ramp-up designed to further immortalize this artist and catalog, with newer generations potentially energized along the way.
Feature Story, Music Industry News
This post was originally authored and published by Paul Resnikoff Digital Music News via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
