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| The Rat Pack - Live From Las Vegas | |
|---|---|
 Promotional image for the West End production | |
| Music | Various |
| Lyrics | Various |
| Productions | 2003 West End 2009 West End revival 2011 West End revival 2017 West End revival |
The Rat Pack - Live From Las Vegas is a stage musical produced by Flying Music Group Ltd. The stage show was conceived and created by Mitch Sebastian, who was also the show's director and choreographer.
Developed over three years the original production opened outside London at the Beck Theatre, Hayes in January 2000. A short tour featured Louis Hoover as Frank Sinatra, Michael Howe as Dean Martin and Peter Straker as Sammy Davis Junior. The show was rewritten and new set designs were added for a second UK tour in 2001 with Clive Carter and George Daniel Long playing Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Junior. It was not until the 2002 UK Tour that the show found its audience. Further rewrites and new set designs by Sean Kavanagh with costume designs by Paul Clarke and a cast that featured Stephen Triffit (Frank) Mark Adams (Dean) and George Daniel Long (Sammy) performed a sold-out 6-month tour.
The production transferred to the West End for a limited six-week engagement at Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2003. Due to rave reviews and sold-out performances, the run was extended for a further six weeks before transferring to Strand Theatre (now Novello Theatre), where it played for two years breaking all box office records in advance sales. The original West End cast starred Mark Adams (Martin), George Daniel Long (Davis Jr), and Stephen Triffitt (Sinatra). In May 2005, the show transferred to the Savoy Theatre where it ran for another two years, exceeding over 1000 consecutive performances.
A new limited season was performed at the Adelphi Theatre in London from September 2009 to January 2010 starring Craige Els (Martin), Giles Terrera (Davis Jr), and Louis Hoover (Sinatra). It returned for another limited season to the Wyndhams Theatre in 2011–2012 with the original cast.
It currently holds the record for playing in the most houses (eight) in London's West End. The production has played the following West End Theatres from 2003 - 2014 Peacock Theatre, Theatre Royal Haymarket, Novello Theatre , Savoy Theatre, London Palladium, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Adelphi Theatre and Wyndham's Theatre. On 13 December 2017 it returned to the Theatre Royal Haymarket and in January the show was enhanced with a celebration of Ella Fitzgerald's centenary. Ella Fitzgerald is played by Nicola Emmanuelle. It closed in February 2018 followed by another UK tour which finished on June 9, 2018.
A European tour premiered in 2004 and ran for four years playing, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Norway and Denmark.
The show was renamed "The Ratpack Live from the Sands" when it embarked on its first USA Tour in 2005. It continued to tour America as part of the Broadway series for a subsequent four seasons. Other productions opened in Toronto, Canon Theatre.
Mitch Sebastian also directed the film for PBS in America. It is currently available on Amazon [1] (Giles Terrera appears as Sammy Davis Junior)
Original West End cast recording was made early in the run at the Novello Theatre featuring the original cast. [2]
The show was nominated for best new musical in the WhatsOnStage awards and for best entertainment in the 2003 Laurence Olivier Awards. [3]
Dean Martin was an American singer, actor, comedian and television host. One of the most popular entertainers of the mid-20th century, he was nicknamed "The King of Cool". Martin gained his career breakthrough together with comedian Jerry Lewis, billed as Martin and Lewis, in 1946. They performed in nightclubs and later had numerous appearances on radio and television and in films.
The Rat Pack was an informal group of entertainers, the second iteration of which ultimately made films and appeared together in Las Vegas casino venues. They originated in the late 1940s and early 1950s as a group of A-list show business friends, such as Errol Flynn, Nat King Cole, Mickey Rooney, Frank Sinatra and others who met casually at the Holmby Hills home of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. In the 1960s, the group featured Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford, among others. They appeared together on stage and in films in the 1950s and 1960s, including the films Ocean's 11 and Sergeants 3; after Lawford's expulsion, they filmed Robin and the 7 Hoods with Bing Crosby in what was to have been Lawford's role. Sinatra, Martin, and Davis were regarded as the group's lead members after Bogart's death.
Samuel George Davis Jr. was an American singer, actor, comedian and dancer.
Joseph Abraham Gottlieb, known professionally as Joey Bishop, was an American entertainer who appeared on television as early as 1948 and eventually starred in his own weekly comedy series playing a talk/variety show host, then later hosted a late-night talk show with Regis Philbin as his young sidekick on ABC. He also was a member of the "Rat Pack" with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford. He is listed as 96th entry on Comedy Central's list of 100 greatest comedians.
The Adelphi Theatre is a West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster, central London. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals. The theatre was Grade II listed for historical preservation on 1 December 1987.
Sergeants 3 is a 1962 American comedy/Western film directed by John Sturges and starring Rat Pack icons Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop. It was the last film to feature all five members of the Rat Pack, as Sinatra would no longer speak to or work with Lawford following the abrupt cancellation in March 1962 of a visit by Lawford's brother-in-law, President John F. Kennedy, to Sinatra's Palm Springs house.
The Novello Theatre is a West End theatre on Aldwych, in the City of Westminster. It was known as the Strand Theatre between 1913 and 2005.
The Rat Pack is a 1998 American HBO made-for-television drama film about the Rat Pack. The movie stars Ray Liotta as Frank Sinatra, Joe Mantegna as Dean Martin, Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis, Jr., and Angus Macfadyen as Peter Lawford. Despite his membership in the Pack, Joey Bishop is given minimal screen time, while John F. Kennedy, depicted as an on-and-off friend of Sinatra's, is given a more central role.
Christmas with the Rat Pack is a 2002 musical album compiling Christmas songs by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.
Gareth Valentine is a Welsh composer, arranger, conductor and musical director. He has worked extensively in London's West End on musical productions and also conducted orchestras worldwide including the BBC Concert Orchestra, Welsh National Opera Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Pasdeloup orchestra, RPO Concert Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, ENB Sinfonia, Orchestre de chambre de Paris and many others. After graduating from the Royal College of Music, London, he studied with Sir Peter Pears at Aldeburgh.
Jan Waters is an English actress of the theatre, television, and film. She was particularly active in the London theatre scene during the 1960s and 1970s, notably appearing in the original West End productions of Jule Styne's Do Re Mi and Noël Coward's High Spirits. She also appeared on British television and in a few British films during this time. She was once married to actor Peter Gilmore.
Antonio Morelli (1904-1974) was a producer, arranger, bandleader, movie producer, and conductor most well known for serving as orchestra leader for the famous Sands Hotel Copa Room in its Rat Pack heyday from 1954 through 1971. He was music director, band leader, and friend to some of the biggest names in show business for twenty years and is credited with bringing classical music to Las Vegas. He was also a songwriter, arranger, and music director for several Broadway musicals, and beloved for his devotion to philanthropic endeavors in his community most notably founding The Las Vegas Pops.
Great West End Theatres is a documentary series detailing the history, architecture and theatrical anecdotes of the 40 West End Theatres of London, released individually as All-Region DVDs and also as digital downloads and the first 10 episodes were broadcast from 3 August 2013 in the UK by the BSkyB digital satellite channel Sky Arts 2 and were chosen as "Pick of the Day" by the London edition of Time Out magazine.
Liam O'Brien is an Irish actor, most notable for his three years playing Ethan Blake on ITV's long-running soap Emmerdale.
Live & Swingin': The Ultimate Rat Pack Collection is a 2003 album compiling songs by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.
Giles Terera is a British actor, musician, and filmmaker. He is best known for his work in the theatre, particularly in the original cast of the London production of the musical Hamilton, as Aaron Burr, for which he won the 2018 Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical. His first documentary, Muse of Fire, premiered in autumn 2013.
Mitch Sebastian is a British theatre director, choreographer and performer. He has been nominated for an Olivier Award and Whatsonstage Award for writing, directing and choreographing The Rat Pack: Live from Las Vegas. He was Artistic Director of Kilworth House Theatre 2005-2015. He won a BAFTA Award as part of the creative team behind the children's animated TV series, Yoko! Jakamoto! Toto!.
Philipa 'Pippa' Ann Ailion MBE is a British Theatrical Director and Casting Director best known for her contributions to London theatre. Ailion has worked extensively in the West End and for film and television. She has cast Broadway and European productions, UK and US tours as well as seasons at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre and Crucible Theatre Sheffield. She has cast over 185 productions with a focus on productions that cast people of varying ethnicities.
Robbie Howard is an American born entertainer, singer, impersonator and comedian who resides in Las Vegas, Nevada where he has directed, produced and starred in long-running shows on the Las Vegas Strip with Hurray America (1993-1999) and Stars of the Strip (1999-2005) and The Rat Pack is Back (2006-2014).
Otho Stuart was a British actor of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who specialised in performing in the plays of Shakespeare. Stuart played the range of Shakespearean leading men, both with the Company of F. R. Benson and with his own Company during his management of the Adelphi Theatre in London. Of independent means, he used his own money to help finance Benson's productions and his own. The theatre critic J. C. Trewin described him as 'one of the handsomest Oberons of all time.'
