TOO DARN HOT

By Ed Bruce edbrucevegas@yahoo.com

Best show I have seen this year ! ! !

First lets get this out of the way....13 minutes late...... and at kickoff some bozo announces that people are waiting in line to buy tickets.... and...... the show will be held up because some inconsiderate would be patrons could not make proper arrangements...... and management of this production would cater to their rudeness ! What bullshit....how about the 1000 people like me who were here on time and ready and waiting .....how about us ? I speak for the nearly 2000 already seated....not myself (actually this is for myself). Why must we wait on a few jerks and people that cannot tell time and producers who cause the late start. 700 oclock is 700 oclock and not one second later.....this is penultimately important here because they are going to do the best show of the year and now make you wait for it. Sure kills the edge. As my readers know my grade for each review is .....losing one point for each minute late.......so they are at 87 before kickoff. Absolutley terrible, this from a company that is trying to make an influence (and did). In my eye they cannot overcome this opening gambit with the second coming of Christ. A whole paragraph on this crap but its my review and thats how it hits me.

Enough ! If they want to use my review maybe they will use the opening line !

What a fabulous show. Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett are the top five singers I have ever seen.......In the last year I have added Bryan Stokes Mitchell to my top ten.....Brett Barrett is also now in the the top ten....this is first class company.
Barrett was in the Phantom at the Venetian twice for me this year and knocked my socks off....more of the same here and my first row seat gave me an extra treat. Barrett headlined this mammoth (late) production. Reva Rice and Tina Walsh, also Las Vegas production stars shined just as bright as Barrett in this Hall of Fame lineup.

I am not sure what the Red Mountain Music Company and BZ Productions are trying to do here ....especially for this one night, one time shot at the Cashman Field Theatre in Las Vegas, but what they did was give me the show of the year.....it could run every night and with the lineup and music premise the script was limitless. Red Mountain is just trying to improve, teach and enjoy the arts.....seems very expensive to provide a lineup like this !

MUSIC...I hope to hell...... Jule Styne, Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim, Cy Coleman, Johnny Mercer, Richard Adler, Jerry Ross, Leonard Bernstein, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein, Irving Berlin, Frank Loesser and Lionel Bart.....no crap here, just the great old American Theatre songbook done by 3 all americans who acted like they had seen the music before and knew what they were doing ! A 76 member choir (kind of uncecessary, but the window dressing did not get in the way and had some moments), a full orchestra, coconductors Jeffrey Skouson and David Skouson showed great heart and preparation and they presented a perfectly costumed well produced show. Lighting not the best, but the audio at the Cashman (which has not been the best in the past) was near perfect. I was hoping it would go on all night....it was so good my wife did not close her eyes during the whole show and she is usually good for a nap or two.

TBCOTA.....thats The Best CIty Of Them All.....a byline by former Sun writer Forrest Duke, thats what Las Vegas is and thats the response to this show.....Too Darn Hot is what Las Vegas gives the world ! Closed the show with everybody singing Oklahoma......what a finish !

All the elements were in play this night...top talent, top effort, great production, hall of fame music, orchestra, choir-chorale, sound, production, great theatre and lots of smiles. They could have got a 100 if they could tell time....86 B. When is next one ?

www.redmountainmusic.org/camp,cfm 702 351 6552