The seemingly unwavering appeal of swing music has made the Rat Pack Live an irresistible draw to Fringe audiences year after year and this packed house proves that this year is no exception.
This perennial favourite shows no sign of losing its allure to audiences and the Rat Pack legacy is safe in the hands of these engaging young performers.
Here in its final ever Fringe appearance, this well-honed show is a lesson in how to give your audience exactly what it wants: their favourite performers and their most beloved hits. The Vegas-style cabaret show comes replete with a 12 piece jazz orchestra, glamorously clad back-up singers the Berelli Sisters and Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jnr. and Frank Sinatra – well almost.
The youthful singers portraying the infamous trio invest their performances with great energy and enthusiasm and manage to maintain convincing and amusing banter throughout, (albeit exploiting every corny cliché about Martin, Davis Jnr. and Sinatra you can think of) but it’s all done with such affection that the corniness is easily forgiven.
The banter also serves to imbue the show with an air of convincing realism as well as keeping the proceedings marching on at a lick. The brisk musical direction too, means the production packs plenty of punch. All the big hits are here, so familiar to this audience that most were attempting to drown out the performers on stage. Pleasingly, there are also a few surprises thrown in for good measure too. Physically, none of the trio manages to absolutely convince, but each tries to adopt their counterparts’ most familiar idiosyncrasies. Vocally, each is more than competent, but it’s Sinatra that stands head and shoulders above the pack and rightly so, the appeal of Ol’ Blue Eyes never diminishes and it is this that is unquestionably the major draw. The young actor/singer’s commanding voice more than does justice to Sinatra’s rousing classics.
This perennial favourite shows no sign of losing its allure to audiences and the Rat Pack legacy is safe in the hands of these engaging young performers. So sit back, imagine yourself at The Sands or Caesar's Palace and enjoy the show.
