You know what else vets like, Wayne? Shirts.

Wayne Newton did his turn for more than 100 veterans last night, meeting with everyone in the audience who had served after the show to thank them personally and bring them to lunch today at his ranch, Casa de Shenandoah. Among the crowd was The Bachelor’s Andy Baldwin, who is a doctor and lieutenant commander in the Navy. Newton does a whole USO setpiece in Once Before I Go, so the Veteran’s Day fete fits in with the show. Although we do maintain that instead of “Red Roses for a Blue Lady” he could’ve covered all of Elvis Costello’s Armed Forces album. Would’ve loved to see the die-hards try to figure out “Oliver’s Army.”

By Jason Scavone

Hey! Wayne Newton can see your house from here! (Photos by Erik Kabik | Retna)

New management at the Tropicana has been aggressive since taking over, and today they staged the biggest coup of their short tenure by signing the actual undead to perform five nights a week, live on stage, as the lifeless, shambling corpse of Wayne Newton will celebrate 50 years of entertaining in Las Vegas starting Oct. 14 in Once Before I Go. Which is a title that makes it sound either like Newton is going to pull a Budd Dwyer in his last show, or he just learned that a bunch of angry villagers finally found the voodoo spell to reverse zombiism.

The show is being positioned as a celebration of the Newt’s career with full orchestra, video and photos — all brought together by Trop chairman and CEO Alex Yemenidjian. It’s poised to be kind of a life story, including the tale of his signature tuxedo (There’s a story behind dressing up for shows? Isn’t that what everyone did in the ’50s? We thought that was as common as smoking in the doctor’s office and daring cirrhosis to invade your liver.) to his history with Elvis, the Rat Pack and others. To be fair, we’d pay good money to spend an evening listening to stories about Dean Martin.

“Being the new kid on the block back in 1959, it is both exciting and artistically challenging that in 2009 I am able to do the kind of show I’ve always wanted to do here in my home town that I love,” Newton said.

Tickets go on sale today and are marked at $79.99, $99.99 and $149.99 for the VIP package that includes a meet and greet. The show will run Tuesday through Saturday at 8:30 p.m. in the Tiffany Theatre. Although if they got Matthew Broderick to lip synch on a float as part of the last big number, the tickets are easily worth twice that.

By Jason Scavone