Smashing Pumpkins Eye Las Vegas Sphere for 'Mellon Collie' Orchestral Show
Billy Corgan expresses interest in bringing the Smashing Pumpkins' 'A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness' orchestral show to the Las Vegas Sphere, envisioning a unique, album-focused production.
Billy Corgan has expressed a strong desire to bring The Smashing Pumpkins' 'A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness' live show to the Las Vegas Sphere.
These shows, which were first announced in March 2025 and later launched in North America, feature Corgan collaborating with a 60-piece orchestra. Together, they deliver an operatic reimagining of The Smashing Pumpkins’ acclaimed 1995 album, Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness.
Billy Corgan
Dubbed ‘A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness Featuring Billy Corgan’, the music is a joint effort by Corgan and Grammy-nominated conductor James Lowe, performed with world-class soloists and orchestras.
Corgan recently stated that the band would be thrilled to bring the show to the Las Vegas Sphere, revealing a specific vision for the production.
"It’s a no-doubter for us. We just haven’t been asked yet,” Corgan said in a recent interview on KROQ when asked about his interest in playing the high-tech venue. “See, if the Sphere came to us and said, ‘We’d love you to do all of Mellon Collie with that production.’ Now, that makes sense to me to do something like that, to build the show around the album…. Then you have a chance to recast the songs and the music in a different dynamic.”
According to a press release, the shows aim to "re-imagine and pay homage to the era-defining album of the same name, whilst also expanding the definition and intention of opera". Highlights include a "tear-jerking" rendition of ‘Tonight, Tonight’ by the orchestra.
The shows will come to the UK and Europe later this year, and you can visit here for tickets.
Earlier this month, Corgan held a “requiem” show for the character ‘Zero’ – the persona he adopted during the album’s release.
Last year also saw The Smashing Pumpkins release the 30th-anniversary deluxe reissue of ‘Mellon Collie’, featuring over 80 minutes of unreleased audio from their 1996 tour, a hardbound book with new liner notes from Corgan, a custom tarot card set, and seven frameable lithographs.
Before then, Corgan spoke to NME that February and opened up about the milestone for the 1995 album – hinting that he was “working with the parent label” to release a revisited version of the record at the time.
"It’s weird because I can’t believe it’s been 30 years. I’m really excited, but at the same time, I’m like ‘What happened over these last 30 years?’” he said.
Since then, he has invited Hole’s Melissa Auf der Maur on his podcast and opened up about being inspired by Courtney Love, invited Love herself onto the show where they shared their issues with “gatekeeper” Kim Gordon, and duetted with Sombr at Coachella.
Elsewhere, the band recently announced they have reunited with Butch Vig for a new song that’s “98 per cent done” – and on its way soon.
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