While there is no dearth of quality entertainment in Las Vegas, there is always something new just over the horizon. And by horizon, I mean in 2020. New magicians, old favorites, street fights, drag races—it’s like Las Vegas decided to pull out all the stops in 2020. Does Vegas know something we don’t know?

Well, in any case, let’s have a look at what the year and Sin City have in store for us by checking out the 12 best new shows in Las Vegas in 2020.

RuPaul’s Drag Race Live!, Showroom, Flamingo Las Vegas

After a successful run at Treasure Island’s “drag brunch,” Ru Paul is moving her production to the Flamingo Las Vegas with “RuPaul’s Drag Race Live!” The live show features eight of the winners of past seasons of the television contest RuPaul’s Drag Race. Scheduled to run from January 2020 through August, the presentation will be held in the showroom at the Flamingo recently vacated by the Donnie and Marie Osmond show, which itself originally began as a limited six-month engagement and eventually ran for 11 years.

The Live! version of RuPaul’s Drag Race will run on Tuesdays, and Thursday through Sunday; it will be dark Mondays and Wednesdays. The show begins January 30th, 2020, and runs until August 1.

You can get more info, including schedule and ticket information, at the Flamingo Las Vegas website.

Sting: My Songs, Coliseum, Caesars Palace

Sting will be headlining the Coliseum at Caesars Palace beginning in May 2020. The show, “My Songs,” is planned to run for 16 nonconsecutive shows over five months—from Friday, May 22nd, until Wednesday, September 2nd—with the majority of shows in May and in August; no shows are scheduled for the month of July. All the shows begin at 8pm.

You can get more info, including schedule and ticket information, at the Caesars Palace website.

David Lee Roth Rocks Vegas, House of Blues, Mandalay Bay

Legendary front man for Van Halen and ‘80s rock idol David Lee Roth is coming to Sin City for a relatively short-term residency of nine shows at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay. Along with some of his own gold and platinum solo efforts, including “Just Like Paradise,” we can expect to hear a healthy selection of Van Halen hits, such as “Hot For Teacher” and “Dance the Night Away.” January dates are 8 and 10-11, while the March shows are 18, 20-21, 25, and 27-28.

For more info, visit the House of Blues website.

Hans Klok: The World’s Fastest Magician, Thunderland Showroom, Excalibur

Although technically the Dutch-born Hans Klok began his Vegas stay with some alternating dates at the Excalibur in 2019 culminating with series of holiday shows, he will be following that with his “Hans Klok: World’s Fastest Magician” show well into 2020. He’s been sharing the Thunderland Showroom with the “Thunder from Down Under” as well as the “Australian Bee Gees” tribute show.

By the way: In case you’re ever on Jeopardy and the $500 clue under Birth Names is “Hans Klok,” your response should be: “Who is Johannes Franciscus Catharinus Klok?” You’re welcome. Send my cut of our winnings care of GamblingSites.com.

You can find schedule and ticket information at the Excalibur website.

Keith Urban Live – Las Vegas, Colosseum, Caesars Palace

Like Glenn Campbell before him, Keith Urban started out his career as a session guitarist but later found success of his own, making his mark with songs like the Grammy-winning “You’ll Think of Me.”

Now he’s going to dazzle his Las Vegas fans throughout 2020, with one-, two-, and three-night appearances at Caesars Palace’s Colosseum. His appearances begin in January, then are sprinkled lightly through April, July, August, and November.

You can get more info, including schedule and ticket information, with a visit to the Caesars Palace website.

Chicago, Venetian Theatre, Venetian Resort

The venerable rock band that introduced rock music to the horn section is back in Vegas. This is the first American rock band to chart in the top 40 in six consecutive decades. That’s 60 years, for us non-math majors. Incidentally, extra points if you know what the band’s original name was.

Regardless, you’ll find Chicago at the Venetian Theater at the Venetian in February and March.

You can get schedule and ticket details with a visit to the Venetian website.

Oh, and you can just look at the title of the band’s first album to learn that they were originally called Chicago Transit Authority, but even before that—when they were still covering top 40 songs in Chicago nightclubs—they were called the Big Thing.

R.U.N, Luxor Hotel & Casino

Another 2020 show that technically started in 2019 (but who’s counting?) is Cirque du Soleil’s R.U.N. Cirque teamed up with filmmaker Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Planet Terror, El Mariachi) to invent an entirely new form of entertainment: The live-action thriller. Fist fights? They got ‘em. Car chases? You bet. Guys on fire? Natch. Love story? Come on, where do you think they get the motivation for the fist fights and guys on fire?

R.U.N has it all, including director Michael Schwandt (of the surprise TV hit Masked Singer) and music by Tyler Bates, who knows a thing or two about scoring action—he did music for the John Wick franchise as well as for Sucker Punch. He even had a hand in scoring Guardians of the Galaxy.

R.U.N has two shows nightly Wednesday through Sunday at 7pm and 9:30pm. The show is dark Mondays and Tuesdays.

You can get more info, including schedule and ticket information, with a visit to the Luxor website.

Kelly Clarkson: Invincible, Zappos Theater, Planet Hollywood Las Vegas

Eight award-winning albums after winning the competition on the first season of American Idol, Kelly Clarkson brings it to Zappos Theater Planet Hollywood with her “Invincible” concert. Incidentally, while she was doing all that, she somehow also found time to serve as a talent judge herself on The Voice as well as host her own daytime talk show, The Kelly Clarkson Show.

So you can’t even begin to imagine the amount of energy she will bring to the stage. Don’t even try.

With a total of 16 dates, starting in April and continuing in July, August, and September, Kelly’s making sure fans have ample opportunity to catch her show. You can get schedule and ticket information at the Planet Hollywood website.

The Doobie Brothers Live in Las Vegas, Showroom, Venetian

Okay, strictly speaking, this is three of the original members of the Doobie Brothers, accompanied by some extremely talented musicians and vocalists hand-picked by those original members. The Doobie Brothers will be performing over eight scattered nights in February at the Venetian, performing their hits like “Black Water,” “China Grove,” and “Taking It to the Streets,” to mention just a few.

You can get more info, including schedule and ticket information, with a visit to the Venetian website.

Lionel Richie: A Legend in Las Vegas, Wynn Las Vegas

Yes, Mr. Ritchie—it is you we’re looking for. And we found you—appearing for three nights in March at the Wynn Las Vegas. We’ll mark calendars for March 11, 13, and 14, 2020, to make sure we don’t forget where the man with more than 100 million albums sold worldwide will be those three nights.

We can get more info, including schedule and ticket information, with a visit to the Wynn Las Vegas website.

Foreigner, Venetian Theater, Venetian Las Vegas

Some of the bands with more than a couple of decades of touring under their belts (that didn’t sound right, did it?) are missing one or two members, and Foreigner is no exception. In fact, Foreigner may be in line for some sort of award for most band members over the course of the group’s 40-plus years of performing.

Mick Jones, a founding member and one of the primary songwriters for Foreigner, heads up the newest iteration of the band, and you can expect to hear all the biggies—”Juke Box Hero,” “Cold as Ice,” “Hot Blooded,” and “Feels Like the First Time,” to mention a few—at the Venetian Las Vegas, where Foreigner will be appearing for five nights January 24-25, 30-31, and February 1st.

You can get more info, including schedule and ticket information, with a visit to the Venetian website.

George Strait, “Strait to Vegas,” T-Mobile Arena

George Strait is one of the few veteran country artists who has managed to stay relevant through the cyclical churn of the C&W milieu. Why? Because he writes and sings good, honest country music, with a voice that somehow manages to be redolent of Haggard and Jones while remaining wholly his own.

If you don’t own a single George Strait album, you are not a country music fan. We get it. It’s not your jam. We’ll give you the BOD and allow that you probably have other redeeming qualities. But even if that is the case, you’ve probably heard (and perhaps even liked) one of Strait’s chart-toppers, like “Amarillo by Morning” or “All My Exes Live in Texas” or even “Ocean Front Property.”

In any case, it’s a tribute and a testament to George Strait’s popularity and talent that he’s booked into a stadium-sized venue. He’ll be appearing for a few select evenings in January and February. You can get more info, including schedule and ticket information, at the T-Mobile Arena website.

Entertaining Possibilities

Along with the above-noted shows debuting (or very nearly so) in Las Vegas in 2020, there are a couple of wish-list items that may or may not happen in 2020. These are shows that either have not been firmly scheduled or may not include Las Vegas as a tour stop at all. I include them here so that you’ll be aware of them and ready to take advantage of the heads-up when—and if—the opportunity arises.

“Sharp Dressed Man,” Venue Unannounced, Caesars Entertainment

Okay, first off, this is not a ZZ Top concert. It is—or will be—a musical, with a story line and everything. And all the music is from or inspired by ZZ Top. The band—comprised of Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill, and Frank Beard—is listed among the show’s executive producers but not in the cast.

According to the Caesars Entertainment press release announcing the show, “Sharp Dressed Man is an outrageous, bawdy musical romp about a Lone Star auto mechanic who becomes a modern-day Robin Hood, stealing hearts — and car parts — with the help of his merry band of beer drinkers and hell raisers.”

Sounds like fun, and who doesn’t love ZZ Top? The bad news here is that Caesars Entertainment announced the show back in May of 2019 with the intention of opening it at a Las Vegas Caesars venue in 2020. Well, at the time of this writing—December 2019—it is very nearly 2020, and still no firm opening date or venue announcement.

Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, and Poison, Stadium Tour, Venue Unannounced

Admit it—you’ve been secretly languishing in despair that the Hair Metal Era is long gone, and you with all those pallets of Aqua Net in the garage…

But hark! Rolling Stone magazine says that Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, and Poison have announced a 2020 Stadium Tour. If that doesn’t drive the prices of hair product into the stratosphere, then I can’t even.

Of course, the real question is: If the three bands wanted to add a Vegas stop to their tour, will Allegiant Stadium be finished in time? Or is “stadium” just another word for “large entertainment and sports venue”? Because we have plenty of large venues here in town—T-Mobile Arena comes to mind.

Guess we’ll just have to see.