For those craving for a throwback to the classics, it can’t get bigger than this. The longest running ‘Rat Pack’ tribute show in Europe is all set to storm Qatar next month.
Supported by Doha Jazz, the show stars the trio who are better known as “Britain’s Number One Rat Pack Tribute act” who not only sing like their heroes, but also look and act like them.
Ray McRobbie, Director of Entertainment, Radisson Blu Hotel Doha, told Community, “Radisson Blu Hotel Doha is pleased to announce that ‘Rat Pack Tribute’ will be performing live at Giwana Ballroom on Thursday, October 20. They will be ably supported by the fine musicians of Doha Jazz. Come along and enjoy timeless classics of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Junior by the number one tribute act voted by the UK Agents Association.” Doors open at 7.30pm. The price of the ticket is QR390 per person including international gourmet buffet and selected beverages.
Originally centred on their leader, the great Humphrey Bogart, until his death in 1957, the Rat Pack was a group of actors. However, by the 1960s, the title Rat Pack is what the press and the people would use to refer to a later variation of the group that called itself “the Summit” or “the Clan”, featuring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Junior, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop – they appeared together on stage and in films in the early 1960s. Of these, Sinatra, Martin, and Davis were regarded as the group’s lead members.
The popular tribute show ‘The Rat Pack’ which is sure to wow Doha next month “perfectly captures not only the wonderful music and comedy of the original legends, but also the remarkable personalities of the stars who truly ruled the entertainment world.”
A note on The Rat Pack Tribute’s website says, “Fully rehearsed, the show has successfully toured venues throughout the UK and Europe for many years. Past bookings include a Royal Command Performance, a performance for former US president Bill Clinton at the Round House in London which was the biggest Rat Pack show in history, and regular performances at The Dorchester Hotel, The Cafe Royal, Gleneagles Golf Club, Wentworth Golf Club, Kensington Palace, Alexandra Palace, The Sporting Club of Monte Carlo, and the Limelight Theatre, Cologne. In addition to this, the show is a regular attraction at theatres, casinos, hotels, holiday centres and universities in all parts of the country.”
Some of the most memorable tracks of The Rat Pack are Sinatra’s Strangers in the Night, Martin’s Everybody Loves Somebody, Sinatra’s My Way, Sammy Davis Junior’s What Kind of Fool am I, and Martin’s The Door is Still Open to my Heart.
Richard Williams in his piece When The Rat Pack Ruled Supreme for The Guardian, wrote that from Las Vegas to Palm Springs to Miami, The Rat Pack lived in a world of endless sunshine. Nothing, surely, could be as much fun as the life of the Rat Pack at the dawn of the ’60s, he mused.
“During one four-week season at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, 34,000 people flocked to see Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford exude the glow of an effortless hedonism, behind which flickered the shadows of organised crime and political corruption,” Williams wrote.
“Sinatra sang, Martin boozed, Davis danced, Bishop did the standup thing and Lawford was Lawford, a handsome English actor of aristocratic background and indeterminate talent who happened to have become the brother-in-law of the next president of the United States.” As for The Rat Pack Tribute act, we guess we can go by Australian singer Dannii Minogue’s word: “These guys are fantastic.”