Font ResizeA tribute show, particularly one about a group as outrageously unique as the Rat Pack, certainly depends on appearance and sound — if you don't nail performers as well-known as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Joey Bishop, you might as well give up.
More important than the singing, however, is the attitude — that almost indefinable sense that yes, indeed, you are seeing the Rat Pack at the height of its power, in the early 1960s, when they shot movies during the day and at night played on stage at the Sands, and ruled the Las Vegas Strip with equal parts of talent and personal magnetism.
They were Vegas, something producer Sandy Hackett (who also plays Joey in the show) saw firsthand as the son of Buddy Hackett.
The late comic legend was pals with the pack and young Sandy got to know them all well. His familiarity served him nicely as he developed the Rat Pack shows, a staple in Las Vegas for years. A national tour will launch in San Francisco's Marines Memorial Theatre.
In assembling the cast, Hackett and director Billy Karl obviously wanted men who looked and sounded like Frank (David DeCosta), Dean (Tony Basile) and Sammy (Doug Starks), but they also seemed to cast performers who quickly could develop the rapport and genuine friendship shared by the men. To work, the show has to reveal affection both for performing and each other.
Already, in some scenes, it works magnificently, and the more this
Along with that, Hackett has developed an extremely strong and hugely entertaining show that retains the voice of Buddy Hackett as God, urging the Rat Pack to return to earth for just one more show.
The Marilyn Monroe character has been removed from the piece and replaced by Lisa Dawn Miller, Sandy Hackett's wife and daughter of the late songwriter Ron Miller.
Miller plays the role of Frank's One Love, a sort of everywoman character who pays a longing-fraught visit to Ol' Blue Eyes and sings "Wasn't I a Good Time," a song by her father heard for the first time in the Rat Pack show.
The other tunes in the piece are familiar to most Rat Pack fans — "Volare," "Sam's Song," "You Make Me Feel So Young" and "Luck Be a Lady," among others.
The show unfolds on a set you might have seen in a '60s Las Vegas showroom, with a remarkable band, directed by Chris Hardin at the back of the stage, dramatic night club lighting, and, in an effect that works extraordinarily well, a misty haze that fills the lower portion of the stage through most of the show.
Contact Pat Craig at pjcraig495@yahoo.com
