by Norm Johnson Send Me E-mail

Attended last Sunday's performance of the Las Vegas Tenors at the Hilton Hotel and, as usual, came away feeling great. This time, however, there was a slight glitch. Teddy Davey, one of the original members, was not on stage. Davey was stricken late Friday night (May 30th) with a gall bladder problem and was at Summerlin Hospital. Bill Fayne and Bobby Black (original founders) immediately went into emergency mode and began re-arranging the entire show. Chris Coyne, who happened to already be on board (replacing Mark Giovi who had notified the group he would not be performing Sunday), was given more responsibility, and had to quickly prep on music he was not totally familiar with. But much to his credit (he's the lead singer in the Folies at the Tropicana), Chris pulled it off brilliantly.

In the true tradition of show business, the show went off as scheduled. Fayne informed the near capacity audience of the circumstances and the show began. "All You Need is Love" kicked off the nearly 90-minute show (opening act was comedian Gary Jenkins of Nashville, Tenn.), first with Bill singing and hitting the ivories, followed on stage by Black and then Coyne. The "Love Fest," between the audience and the group, was never stronger than it was this evening. The audience realized that this would not be a typical highly polished Las Vegas Tenor performance-but they knew it would be great and it was!

The three tenors went on to perform such favorites as "Let The Good Times Roll" and "Unchained Melody," "The Prayer" and "You Raise Me Up," as a trio. Bill's rendition of "Be My Love" was definitely in the tradition of all great tenors, as was Blacks "Amazing Grace." We really liked Coyne's "I Believe" (The Ervin Drake song was a huge hit for Frankie Lane in 1953). It sorta reminded me of a wonderful movie short plugging the March of Dimes, when Howard Keel sang "You'll Never Walk Alone," while a little kid on crutches walk towards him. I have no reason for connecting the two songs, other than both have beautiful words.

Bill Fayne did a great medley of songs made famous by Barry Manilow, Elton John, Frank Sinatra and Elvis: "Mandy," "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" (wearing big glasses), "I've Got You Under my Skin" (hat included)" and "Teddy Bear" (with wig, glasses and sideburns)."

The long anticipated Beatles medley was next. Fayne introduced the string section, Bella Rumore (meaning Beautiful Noise) consisting of Lisa, Nina, Adrienne and Mandy, who kicked off the medley playing a beautiful arrangement of "Yesterday." Black and Coyne teamed up for "Let It Be" with all three joining in on "Because." "Eleanor Rigby" was wonderfully sung by Black as was "Something." Chris came back with "Help" and Fayne followed with a wonderful "Imagine," accompanied by Kim De Libero on Harp. The finale of the medley, where the audience was encouraged to join in, was "Hey Jude."

The closing number is one that has been performed by every tenor, at every performance in the world, and one Las Vegas audiences come to expect from our tenors, "Nessun Dorma."

And, as usual, the vast crowd of happy people stood and gave the three men and the orchestra a well deserved and appreciative standing ovation.

Incidentally, Teddy Davey is resting comfortably following successful surgery Monday.

THIS AND THAT QUICKLY "Up and Smoke" after hours at PUFF Nightclub always features top international DJs every Friday and Saturday. Doors open at 8 p.m. throughout the weekend. The location is a bit hard to find the first time, but it's in a purple building just around the corner off East Flamingo. The actual address is 1030 E. Flamingo. It's really a neat place to hang your hat until the wee hours of the morning. And, for you smokers out there, you can actually smoke in the bar section. Food is out of sight, by the way...

Jason Byrne, the magician in the David Saxe produced "V - The Ultimate Variety Show" at the "V" Theatre inside the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood, was recently awarded the Merlin Award from the International Magicians Society for Best Cabaret Magic... Well, gang, that's about it for this week. I'm outa here!

Well, gang, that's about it for another week.

I'm outa here!

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