He’s Mr. Las Vegas, but on June 3, Wayne Newton will be Mr. Coconut Creek

Wayne Newton knew at age 4 he wanted to entertain, when his parents took him to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. But it wasn’t the singers onstage that inspired him.

“I didn’t have a very good seat, and I couldn’t see the stage,” Newton says. “But I could see the faces in the audience and the happiness the performers were bringing to them. So right then I told my mom I wanted to do that. I wanted to be an entertainer.”

It has been 71 years since that event, and Newton has spent parts of almost every one of them on stage. Newton, born in rural Virginia, appeared regularly on a radio show by age 6 and three years later, he had his first television show in Phoenix, Ariz., where his family had moved because of his asthma. At 15, he was performing six shows a night, six nights a week, at the Fremont Hotel & Casino, the first of what would be more than 25,000 appearances in the city. No wonder he became known as “Mr. Las Vegas.”

Newton, who plays 13 instruments, comes to Seminole Casino Coconut Creek June 3. Expect to see videos clips and hear his signature hits, including “Danke Schoen” (released in 1963 and revived thanks to “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”) and “Red Roses For a Blue Lady.”

But also expect to get a lesson about Las Vegas in his show, which is called “Up Close and Personal.” He created it last year after coming out of retirement.

“Bally’s Hotel contacted me about a year ago and I had just finished putting together my ranch in Las Vegas to open as a museum,” Newton says via phone. “They said, ‘Quit loafing and get back to work.’”

Bally’s officials wanted Newton to open a new, smaller, 500-seat theater room on the property.

“A regular show usually has, like, 28 musicians, three backup singers and different specialists and that’s kind of what Vegas has turned into and expects from the performers,” he says. “I wanted something intimate, and I got to thinking about when I went to Las Vegas in 1959.

“I decided to write something that was a little retro about Vegas, and my own career, and that’s what the show is about,” he says. “I had no idea whether the audience would embrace it or hate it, but as it turned out they have received it beautifully.”

As you might or might not expect, Newton talks with quite the expertise when it comes to Las Vegas life.

“When I started here of course it was the star policy, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.,” he says. “Then came the magic phase and everyone had white tigers. Then the impressionists, and then we went through 10 years of the cirque phase, then trapeze, and now we’re coming back to full circle to stars. I’ve watched each of those phases and see how they’ve done and where they’re headed and thank God it’s coming back to what I know.”

But Las Vegas has become more corporate, he notes, and the town has changed tremendously because it is more convention-oriented, he says.

“We used to do two shows a night, seven a week, but now the mainstream show rooms will do basically one show a night and that’s at 7, 8 or 9 because the people going to the convention have to be up early the next morning,” he says.

But the town has been wonderful to him, says Newton, who plays along with his linkage to Vegas. (Remember in the 1997 “Vegas Vacation” movie when Chevy Chase’s wife ditches him to hang out with Wayne Newton? And the cameos in “Ocean’s Eleven” and “The Hangover?” As Merv Griffin once said, “Las Vegas without Wayne Newton is like Disneyland without Mickey Mouse.”)

“First we’d have to decide if there needs to be another Wayne Newton. That could be a blessing,” he says. “Not to patronize, but I’m not sure the time and places still exist that would allow that phenomenon to happen.

“For example, I came up in the lounges, doing six shows for five years. Now the lounges are almost a thing of the past, so people move on to other things,” he says. “But it was that strange phenomenon that allowed a Wayne Newton to flourish in Las Vegas.”

“Wayne Newton: Up Close and Personal” is at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 3, at Seminole Casino Coconut Creek. Tickets available at Ticketmaster.com, or by calling 800-653-8000

This story was originally published June 1, 2017 at 11:06 PM.