Music is essential to any celebration of Christmas, be it the famous carols, the 80s and 90s pop songs that are so much a part of modern experience or the 1950s and 60s crooner numbers synonymous with the perfect snowy American yuletide. The Rat Pack at Christmas speaks to that audience, a festive edition of the regular show by Stephen Triffitt, Mark Adams and George Daniel Long performing as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr for two shows at Cadogan Hall.
The group have, of course, performed this show before and this reprise merges 50s and 60s detail with some more modern references such as the alcoholic Dean Martin acquiring a taste for hand sanitiser during the pandemic. It is the chat between songs that brings show like this to life and here the trio use these opportunities to play out their characters’ roles to the full. Frank is smooth as silk, Dean a tad grouchy and Sammy wants to sing till Easter. And the lads take every opportunity for improvised comedy at the audience’s expense, be it people arriving late or daring to leave their seat during the show.
But everyone’s here for the music which doesn’t disappoint and having performed as their heroes and together for years, there is no questioning the soundalike quality of their voices or the, by now, playful ways in which they each deliver their songs. And The Rat Pack at Christmas is enhanced by a good mix of solos, duets and numbers for all three cast members, as well as plenty of variety in the rotations that makes viewing the show more interesting as it packs in 32 songs across the two 65-minute halves.
The visual aspect of the show is also enhanced by the lighting choices that uses a palette of festive green and red along with blues and golden orange at different pitches to change the tone and create a cosy feel as the mood develops from big band classics to more wistful and atmospheric, almost melancholic, tunes. And while this certainly showcases the range and variety of the titular Rat Pack, it is their band – The Manhattan Swing Orchestra – that deserves extra applause. The brass section has much to do as saxophone and trombone solos are needed for many of the songs while collectively they produce that jazzy big band sound that nicely fills Cadogan Hall, pushing the vocalists to compete.
As this is a Christmas show, there are plenty of festive tunes to warm the audience’s hearts. From the openers It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year and Winter Wonderland performed by all three singers to the encore finale, their most famous numbers have been included, picking up Sinatra’s The Christmas Song and Martin singing Baby, It’s Cold Outside during the show. By the second half, there is plenty of pranking with Triffitt and Adams interrupting each other’s song but making their intrusions seem spontaneous and unrehearsed.
The only downside is too little of Long’s Sammy Davis Jr who has far less stage time than his fellows and is generally not involved in these skits but gets to sing an intensive For Once in My Life and Mr Bojangles before joining what is a major Sinatra medley of My Way and New York, New York to end the show. Audiences adore them and the Rat Pack vocals are second to none. This Christmas show certainly doesn’t disappoint all those people dancing in their seats as the final bars of White Christmas fade out.
Reviewed on 17 December 2022
