The Rat Pack: A Review

Sorry for the late post today. I started writing this morning but then had to stop in order to get ready for work and I haven't been posting at work this week since I'm on a new job. So, today's post is late, which means many of you will be reading it on Thursday. At any rate, let's begin...

Last night Jackie and I went out to Merrimack Hall to see a performance of Sandy Hackett's Rat Pack Show. About three years ago, Broadway Theater League hosted a performance of he Rat Pack Show and I loved it and was anxious to see how this one compared. I met Jackie out front at 7:15 and we soon found our seats and settled in for the show which was supposed to start at 7:30 but actually started a few minutes after.

The guys came out singing, as expected, and they were quite good. The first act of the night was by the guy who played Joey Bishop. He told a lot of jokes, all of which were quite funny. Jackie and I laughed quite a bit during his performance. My face actually hurt a little bit from laughing so much.

After Joey, was Dean Martin, who looked a lot like Will Ferrell, a fact that Jackie pointed out.Once she noticed the resemblance, it was obvious and made us laugh almost every time we looked at him.He was quite tall, like Will Ferrell and also a lot of his motions were similar to Will's (yes, we are on a first name basis). He had a good voice but didn't look much like Dean Martin (clearly since he looked like Will Ferrell).

Sammy Davis, Jr. came out next and the guy had the glasses and some of the moves and even the voice was pretty spot on, but overall, I thought he looked more like an Asian Sammy Davis, Jr. than a black Jewish Sammy Davis, Jr. I think the man just had light colored skin, but his eyes had an Asian flare about them. Plus he was a little pudgy around the middle and call me crazy, but I've never seen the real Sammy Davis, Jr. with any pudge.

After a brief intermission, the guy playing old Blue yes came out to sing. He had a good voice but his mouth made some weird motions which was kind of distracting if you looked too closely. He also didn't look much like Frank, but as I said he had a good voice, which I guess is the point.

The foursome came out on stage again and had a few more jokes and a few more songs. Overall the show was really great. As I said, we laughed quite a bit and the singing was good and as a result, we were quite entertained. The show was similar to the one BTL did a few years back, except that show had actors that looked much more like the folks they were playing on stage. In fact, the Frank in that show looked so much like the real Frank it was scary and his voice was also so spot on you probably wouldn't have known the difference if you had closed your eyes.

Merrimack Hall is a great place to watch shows. If you've never been before, be sure and check out the other shows they've got in the line-up for the rest of the season. You might find something to your liking.