12:05 AM CST on Wednesday, March 4, 2009
By LAWSON TAITTE / The Dallas Morning News ltaitte@dallasnews.comOriginal post
An airline ticket can get you to Las Vegas quite reasonably these days. A time machine that’ll get you there a half-century ago is another matter.
That’s the goal of The Rat Pack – Live at the Sands, the London hit that Dallas Summer Musicals brought to the Majestic Theatre on Tuesday.
You can guess the format from the title: Singers portraying Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. cover the stars’ greatest hits. A 16-piece band (something of a luxury in the theater these days) plays onstage, and three curvaceous backup singers add a considerable amount of what in those days was called sex appeal.
This may sound like a dubious proposition, but people apparently are still eager to hear numbers out of the great American songbook (alongside tunes of lesser pedigree) sung by voices of substance and backed by choirs of actual saxes, trumpets and trombones.
Of the three leading performers, only Stephen Triffitt’s Sinatra provokes the occasional internal double take, providing reassurance that this is only a latter-day impersonator rather than the real thing. At first, he’s almost too successful in duplicating Sinatra’s every rhythmic and phonetic inflection. Eventually, he makes us forget the mechanics and just listen to the music – especially the torch song “Angel Eyes.” He’s also got the physical manner, at once regal and offhand, down pat.
His pretend buddies both boast fine voices, but the illusion is weaker. Davis sometimes trod perilously close to self-parody, which makes things doubly hard for David Hayes. He’s lively and he can hoof it, but he lacks the grit under the original star’s larger-than-life exterior. Mark Adams projects Martin’s macho appeal, and the voice evokes the star without imitating him slavishly. But Adams works too hard at ingratiating himself with the audience, whereas you could always see a dead chill of indifference in Martin’s eyes.
The Rat Pack brims with the buddies’ horseplay (complete with sexist, racist and boozy jokes authentic to the period). What it leaves you with, however, are meditations on Frank Sinatra’s unique career. Not only does Triffitt bring him to life, he sings the questionable later material, especially “My Way,” with genuine feeling that we didn’t always get from the man himself.
PLAN YOUR LIFE
Through Sunday at the Majestic Theatre. Runs 140 mins. $12 to $71. Ticketmaster at 214-631-2787, www.ticketmaster.com.
After many inquiries and requests, we have just decided to release the THE MAJESTIC SERIES to go on “soft-sale” this Friday morning, Dec. 19 at 10am. So that will be only these shows:
BOB THE BUILDER
Feb. 21 – 22, 2009 @ The Majestic Theatre
RAT PACK LIVE AT THE SANDS (my pick for one of the best shows…)
March 3 – 8, 2009 @ The Majestic Theatre
The Rat Pack Live at the Sands Show Page
PAJAMA GAME
March 10 – 15, 2009 @ The Majestic Theatre
FROST/NIXON
April 28 – May 3, 2009 @ The Majestic Theatre
Friday morning, 12/19 at 10am, you’ll be able to purchase tickets at ticketmaster.com. This link is live now, but they are currently updating the page, switching the onsale dates from January 26th to December 19th, so don’t let that throw you off.
The homepage on our website will also be reflecting this later today, so you’ll be able to get details there: http://www.dallassummermusicals.org/. You can also email us at webinfo@dallassummermusicals.org if you have questions, or just to say hello!
Happy Holidays,
DSM
PS: If you haven’t already, we’d LOVE to have you follow us on TWITTER.COM:
Our twitter account is like a giant conversation of DSM announcements, facts, questions etc… and also one of the most consistent ways to hear of what’s happening at DSM before anyone else!