Las Vegas Rat Pack Reopens at Adelphi, 28 Sep

As previously tipped (See The Goss, 18 Jun 2009), the concert-style tribute show The Rat Pack – Live from Live Vegas will return to the West End this autumn, opening at the Adelphi Theatre on 28 September 2009 (previews from 23 September).

The Frank, Sammy & Dean regular edition will run until 21 November 2009, followed by a limited season for the festive edition, Christmas with the Rat Pack from 24 November 2009 to 3 January 2010.

The action is set in the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas where, in 1960 during the filming of Ocean’s Eleven, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford first performed together on stage for the first time. From then on, they were known as the Rat Pack and Las Vegas was their domain – everywhere else, in Rat Pack vocabulary, was “Dullsville, Ohio”.

In the stage show, produced by Paul Walden and Derek Nicol, a trio of Sinatra, Davis and Martin look- and sound-alikes, accompanied by the ‘Berrelli Sisters’, perform Rat Pack classics including “Witchcraft”, “The Lady Is a Tramp”, “Mr Bojangles”, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, “That’s Amore”, “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime”, “New York, New York”, “My Kinda Town”, “Fly Me to the Moon”, “Volare”, “My Way” and “Memories Are Made Of This”.

The Rat Pack originally opened in the West End for what was meant to be a limited stint at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in March 2003. After extending at the Haymarket, the show moved in June of that year to the Strand Theatre (now renamed the Novello), where it again extended repeatedly before moving to the Savoy on June 2005, where it had to close in August 2006 to make way for Trevor Nunn’s staging of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. Since then, it’s continued to tour and has had a few one-off West End dates.

Currently at the Adelphi, mindreader Derren Brown finishes his run in Enigma on 18 July. The next production expected at the theatre is Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hugely-anticipated Phantom of the Opera sequel Love Never Dies, which is now expected to premiere in spring 2010.