Christmas with The Rat Pack - Live at the Sands Comes to The Bushnell for 8 Performances Only
Including…
‘The Lady is a Tramp,’ ‘That’s Amore,’ ‘New York, New York,’ ‘Fly Me To The Moon,’
‘Me and My Shadow,’ ‘Mr. Bojangles,’ ‘Everybody Loves Somebody Sometimes,’
PLUS SEASONAL FAVORITES ‘Merry Little Christmas’, ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’,
‘Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer’, ‘Jingle Bells’, ‘Silent Night’, ‘Mistletoe and Holly’,
‘Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow’, ‘White Christmas’, ‘Winter Wonderland’,
‘Love To Keep Me Warm’, ‘Ding Dong Merrily on High’, ‘Auld Lang Syne’
CHRISTMAS WITH THE RAT PACK – LIVE AT THE SANDS will play The Bushnell Center for The Performing Arts December 15-20, 2009. This Connecticut premiere is part of The Hartford Financial Services Group Broadway Series. Tickets are $15-$65 and are on sale now by visiting www.bushnell.org, calling (860) 987-5900, or at The Bushnell Box Office at 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford. Tickets for groups of 20 or more are available by calling (860) 987-5959.
This festive production will transport the audience to the early 1960’s, when Frank and his pals were filming the original version of the casino robbery caper Ocean’s Eleven in Las Vegas. The Sand Hotel was featured prominently in the film which included solo performances by Frank, Sammy and Dean. The Rat Pack legend was born when Frank and Dean spontaneously joined Sammy on stage and, to the surprise and delight of the audience, playfully interrupted his act. Subsequent nights the three of them were on stage together. There were hi-jinks and horseplay. They crooned, they quipped and they rolled out the gags right along with their on-stage liquor cart.
Director and Choreographer Mitch Sebastian re-creates the magic that was the Rat Pack on stage, and evokes all the glamour of that notorious nightclub gig when the audience glittered with the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Gregory Peck, Judy Garland, Tony Curtis, Sam Giancana and Jack Kennedy. It’s an evening of wisecracking, hip-cat nostalgia: a cool mix of sharpies and broads singing some of the finest music ever written, with an extra helping of holiday classics.
Set Design is by Sean Cavanagh, Vocal and Musical Arrangements by Matthew Freeman, Costume Design by Christopher Woods and Lighting Design by Mark Wheatley. The U.S. tour is produced by Paul Walden and Derek Nicol for Rat Pack Touring, Ltd., in association with Paul Woolf.
This sensational production celebrates the incredible talents of these three larger than life entertainers - legends in their own time. There’s a fifteen-piece on-stage big band, and of course, it wouldn’t be The Rat Pack without some fabulous broads: the beautiful backup singers/dancers, The Burelli Sisters.
About The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts
The Bushnell is Connecticut’s premier performing arts center, hosting more than 350 events yearly, including major Broadway tours, symphony orchestras, family presentations, local arts and community events. The Bushnell is home to two theaters- the historic 2,800-seat Mortensen Hall, and the 907-seat Belding Theater, a state-of-the-art performance hall that opened in 2001. The Bushnell’s nationally recognized, award-winning, arts-in-education program, PARTNERS® (Partners in Arts and Education Revitalizing Schools), now in its 17th year, is a cross-community educational effort serving 21 schools and educational organizations in 8 districts across Connecticut. The Bushnell opened in January 1930 and is a non-profit organization. For more information, call The Bushnell at (860) 987-6000, The Bushnell Box Office at (860) 987-5900 or visit our website at www.bushnell.org.
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With support from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism