The Rat Pack - Live From Las Vegas returns to the West End in December
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
OLIVIER nominated The Rat Pack – Live From Las Vegas is returning to the West End – to the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, home to its first West End run in 2003 – for a strictly limited season from Wednesday, December 13, 2017 to Saturday, February 3, 2018.
This spectacular production – with a very special Christmas theme until January 6 – celebrates the incredible singing talent of three world-famous entertainers and performers and some of the finest music and song that has ever been recorded.
Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr and Dean Martin are once again performing in the world-renowned Copa Room at the famous Sands Hotel, supported by the fabulous Burrelli Sisters and The Rat Pack Big Band in a critically acclaimed show that clocked up over 1,000 West End performances on its West End premiere.
The Rat Pack – Live from Las Vegas features numerous hits, including Pack favourites The Lady is a Tramp, Mr Bojangles, That’s Amore, I’ve Got You Under My Skin, What Kind of Fool Am I?, Volare, My Way, Candyman and Everybody Loves Somebody.
During the Christmas theme, the show will include the Pack’s unique take on such festive classics as Baby It’s Cold Outside, Merry Little Christmas, White Christmas, Winter Wonderland, Jingle Bells and Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow.
The Rat Pack – Live from Las Vegas, directed and choreographed by Mitch Sebastian, first played in the West End in 2003 and in 2004, was nominated for an Oliver Award as Best Entertainment. It has since toured the world and returned several times for further West End seasons.
Frank Sinatra’s “Rat Pack” – not initially called that – came about from their work in Las Vegas and their Hollywood contacts. The late 1950s early 1960s “Rat Pack” era begun in Las Vegas in January 1959 when Frank Sinatra (1915–1998) and Dean Martin (1917–1995) – then performing separately at The Sands – began appearing in each other’s acts. Sinatra was singing with Tommy Dosey’s band in 1941 when he first met Sammy Davis, Jr. (1925–1990), then an aspiring dancer with The Will Mastin Trio. They reconnected after Davis was discharged from the US Army, and Sinatra would later help him in his career.
By the early 1960s The Rat Pack became known for its multiple-person stage acts and The Sands would advertise the horseplay on its massive marquee with billings such as: “Dean Martin – Maybe Frank – Maybe Sammy.” The Rat Pack “schtick” was part Vaudeville, part Hollywood, and part “bad boys”. It became a unique stage genre and vintage Las Vegas. In its day, The Rat Pack caught the national mood.
Musically and culturally, it occupied the transition period between the first surge of rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s by the likes of Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, and Buddy Holly – music which Sinatra initially derided – and the arrival of the Beatles in 1964.
In addition to their stage act, the Rat Pack compadres also made films together – some shot in Las Vegas. Ocean’s 11 of 1960 was among the more famous of the Rat Pack films, but there were also nearly a dozen others. Through the early-1960s period, Sinatra and his Rat Pack group reigned supreme in contemporary culture; they became the “cool guys” of their generation.
Tickets: from £15 – available from the box office on 020 7930 8800 and online at www.trh.co.uk/ or www.flyingmusic.com/box-office/.
Times: Monday to Saturday at 7.30pm; Thursday and Saturday at 3pm.
Prior to the West End, The Rat Pack – Live from as Vegas will play:
Tuesday, November 28 – Hull New Theatre
Wednesday, November 29 – Gateshead The Sage
Thursday, November 30 – Halifax Victoria Theatre
Saturday, December 2 – Basingstoke The Anvil
Sunday, December 3 – Brighton Theatre Royal
Tuesday, December 5 – Cambridge Corn Exchange
Thursday – December 7 – Nottingham Royal Concert Hall
Friday, December 8 – Poole The Lighthouse
Saturday, December 9 – Sheffield City Hall
Following the West End season, The Rat Pack – Live from Las Vegas will play:
Monday, February 5 – Saturday, February 10 – Glasgow King’s Theatre
Monday, February 12 – Saturday, February 17 – Liverpool Empire Theatre
Monday, February 19 – Saturday, February 24 – Manchester Opera House
Monday, February 26 – Saturday, March 3 – Edinburgh Playhouse
Monday, March 5 – Saturday, March 10 – Eastbourne Devonshire Park Theatre
Tuesday, March 13 – Saturday, March 17 – Sunderland Empire Theatre
Monday, March 19 – Saturday, March 24 – Cardiff New Theatre
Monday, March 26 – Saturday, March 31 – Birmingham Alexandra Theatre
Monday, April 23 – Saturday, April 28 – Blackpool Grand Theatre
Monday, April 30 – Saturday, May 5 – Sheffield Lyceum Theatre
Monday, May 7 – Saturday, May 12 – Darlington Civic Theatre
More dates will be added later.
Also at the Theatre Royal Haymarket: the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Queen Anne, starring Romola Garai and Emma Cunniffe (June 30 to September 30) and the West End premiere of David Ives’ hit Broadway play Venus in Fur (October 6 to December 9, 2017).