Lionel Richie is up next as Axis at Planet Hollywood headliner

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Tom Donoghue / DonoghuePhotography.com

Lionel Richie headlines with CeeLo Green at Mandalay Bay Events Center on Friday, June 6, 2014, in Las Vegas.

Thu, Sep 10, 2015 (2:31 p.m.)

Lionel Richie and CeeLo Green at Mandalay Bay

Lionel Richie and CeeLo Green at Mandalay Bay Events Center on Friday, June 6, 2014, in Las Vegas. Launch slideshow »

Be it a stadium, arena, open-air festival, showroom, theater or theater retrofitted to feel like a nightclub … Lionel Richie can play anywhere.

And he’s playing Axis at Planet Hollywood in 2016, as our URL — Ubiquitous Robin Leach — first reported in April.

The upcoming mini-residency is set to be announced next week, just after Britney Spears followed through with speculation that she would sign for an additional two years in the theater beginning in January and running through December 2017.

Jennifer Lopez, too, is booked next year to play the former Aladdin’s Theater for the Performing Arts, which has taken on a nightclub vibe for Spears’ residency “Britney: Piece of Me.”

Richie’s run will not be so extensive, as mini-residencies typically run from about nine to 12 shows. But his appeal is inarguable, proven during his more recent appearances in Las Vegas.

He is the rare artist to play a refined theater — the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, most recently in the summer of 2010 — and a downtown music festival.

Richie partied deep into the night at the 2014 Life Is Beautiful festival, fulfilling organizers’ expectations that he was still a viable live act who could draw tens of thousands of fans to a single performance.

Few artists have approached Richie’s commercial success, first as a member of The Commodores (“Brick House” being one song that had the LIB crowd jumping), and later with solo hits such as “Hello,” “Truly,” “All Night Long” and “Dancing on the Ceiling.”

Especially, Richie was one of the predominant recording and touring stars in the 1980s and one of the more popular video artists in the early days of MTV. His first three solo albums all went multiplatinum, and his most recent release, “Tuskegee,” sold more than 1 million copies.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.

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