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| - What a pleasure! Three excellent performers and one of the best piano players there is join forces to showcase their fine voices and show us why they've been on Broadway and on national tours of some of the biggest musicals there are--Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables.
This show opened last year, closed for awhile when the Plaza had a dispute with a promoter of two other shows at the Plaza, and then reopened after that promoter's things were removed from the showroom. The Phat Pack name comes from the fact that the three singers met while doing Phantom, the Las Vegas Spectacular and it's a play on words with the Rat Pack. When Phantom closed, they decided to do this show and I'm glad they did.
Generally, it's three men, Randal Keith, Ted Keegan, and Bruce Ewing. Ewing is out of town for awhile and they have gotten Rebecca Spencer, the original Madame Giry from Phantom, the Las Vegas Spectacular. She filled in quite well.
The show revolves around the three singing together and in solo mode. They tell some things about their lives and how they became entertainers. Keegan did a superb Danny Boy along with some other songs including a very haunting I'll Be Seeing You by Cole Porter. Keith's standout numbers were Bring Him Home from Les Mis and Is Anybody There from 1776. The two sang a song written by a local composer called Men of a Certain Age which is quite funny and hits close to home for me. Spencer's voice was very good and she was an able stand in for Bruce Ewing.
The three were accompanied by Philip Fortenberry, a very talented pianist that Las Vegas is lucky to have reside here. He is superb! He did a number that Liberace composed that's a great variation of Chopsticks. If you saw the HBO movie "Behind the Candelabra" about Liberace, you saw Fortenberry's hands and sometimes his body playing the piano.
This show is about 70 minutes in length and it is a gem. I hope more people get out and see this show. We are fortunate to have these talented people in this great city!
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