A Tribute to The Rat Pack at the Civic Theatre

By GRAHAM REID

There's a world of difference and difficulty between those who do Stars in their Eyes-style shows as Freddy Mercury or Neil Diamond and those who play the famous Rat Pack of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis jnr.

Stars-type entertainers just sing like their chosen artist and adopt some visual iconography. The Rat Packers of Steve Apple (as Dean), Gary Corsello (Frank) and Lonnie Parlor (Sammy) refer to each other by their characters' names and adopt the roles so their show is a piece of theatre.

Because it was a different kind of tribute, the audience was slow to suspend disbelief on Saturday, not helped by the preponderance of jokes about Dean's drinking delivered to (mostly) sober people who not only couldn't "drink up" but even found it a struggle to at the under-staffed bars during intermission.

But, some flat or familiar jokes aside, this was classy stuff. Apple was a credible Dean look-alike and his woozy vocals on material like Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime and That's Amore were winningly accurate.

Corsello (looking more like Pee Wee Herman) delivered swinging versions of Come Fly With Me, I've Got You Under My Skin, You Make Me Feel So Young and a powerful My Way, which didn't shy from the difficult parts.

He, too, was exceptional.

Parlor (who could probably do a convincing Dizzy Gillespie) had the toughest gig. Sammy's routine as put-upon fall guy, song and dance man, impersonator - anything for audience approval - is less familiar but Parlor won through with Candyman (a hit from long after the Vegas-inspired period of the show) and a well-received Mr Bojangles, which required only some Sammy-style tap dancing to be fully satisfying.

Surprisingly, given the hits were all delivered early, the second half was much better. The personae had been accepted and the timing of the stage banter was snappier. Assisted by a polished and punchy band of mostly locals (plus a couple of local references amid the Vegas-jokes), the performers pulled off that rare feat: they looked like they were loving it.

A good night, but next time let's find a venue where you too can "drink up" to create the full Vegas-lounge ambience of the early 60s, where being drunk in public was not an offence, it was the show.