The Tenors of Rock on bringing throwback tunes to Dubai
The Tenors of Rock are at Dubai’s newest gig venue until December 21, with a high-energy show of rock classics that’s sure to have toes tapping and arms waving in the Caesar’s Palace Rotunda. Direct from their show at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, where three of the original quintet are still performing with replacement tenors while original members Johnny and Dan, along with new tenors Paul and Craig, have made the trip for the Dubai run.
The first thing Johnny wants to clarify is that we shouldn’t get confused by that “tenors” moniker. “Tenor just means someone who sings high. A tenor instrument is a high instrument, and a tenor voice is a high voice,” he explains. “So we’re just singing rock like it should be – nice and loud and in your face, and there’s four of us doing it. We do a version of
Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera, but that’s about as classical as we get.”
It’s appropriate that the band should drop a West End hit into the set – the five original tenors all met while performing in London’s thriving musical theatre scene, as Johnny explains: “It all started about eight years ago, on 10/10/10 actually. There was a bunch of us, all doing musical theatre in London and we were always playing a part. We just thought it would be nice to go onstage as ourselves because people would come up and say: ‘Hey! You’re one of the greatest Jean Valjeans I’ve ever seen’. And I’d say: ‘Thanks – what’s my name?’ ‘No idea.’”
“It was frustrating to be in a situation where once a show ended, you’d have to take jobs in London that you literally cannot afford to live on just so you could audition for the next job.”
The gang decided to take a chance in a new direction: “It was a case of taking matters into our own hands and making money while still doing what we love doing, and doing something a bit unique,” Johnny says. “We started out with seven guys, and now we’ve narrowed that down to four or five. We just wanted to sing rock, that’s what we all love, and rather than have one frontman we’d have five, or four in this show.”
The tenors may have shed their musical theatre roots, but they have become something of a brand, with several members on hand to drop in and out of shows, allowing them to perform in numerous locations at once. Although Paul and Craig aren’t part of the original quintet, both have performed with the show before, and both have been involved in the original Vegas show. Paul is native of the American city, who met the tenors while performing in a Vegas production of Rock of
Ages, and joined the “stable” when his run finished. Craig, meanwhile, was introduced through a mutual friend. “We’re kind of a brotherhood. These guys came up through the West End and I became involved through a friend who works on Broadway,” he explains.
The guys have been in Dubai for a couple of weeks now, so I ask what differences they’ve noticed between their run at Caesars Palace Las Vegas, and Caesars Bluewater Island Resort, Dubai. “Well, there are obviously huge differences, though weirdly it’s as much different as it is the same,” says Johnny. “Everything is really big and the architecture is amazing and everybody wants the best building, which is just like Vegas. Here things seem to be
more built to last. In Vegas, everything seems to be built to get bored of, blow it up and build something else.”
He adds diplomatically: “They both have lots of positive things about them. I haven’t been in Dubai long enough to judge whether there’s negative things, and I’d never say anything bad about Vegas because it’s where I make my living.”
The Rotunda is Caesars Bluewaters’s new entertainment venue, a sphere-shaped tent with a stage and rows of seats. The focus is very much on the show, so there’s a couple of makeshift beverage counters, and not a lot else. If you fancy a “dinner and a show” evening, however, Gordon Ramsey has set up a branch of his Hell’s Kitchen restaurant next door and, as we discovered, the staff are more than happy to make sure everything is prepared and served on time if you tell them you’re here for the show.
Once you enter the Rotunda itself, be prepared for an hour and a half or so of pure cheese. Classic rock shows, Vegas and musical theatre are probably three of the corniest things around, so when you mix all three together, you’re guaranteed a night of fist-pumping, axe-slinging silliness from the tenors and their accompanying live guitarist and drummer, right from the opening chords of Sweet Child O’Mine. There are sweeping lights, flashing visuals, and the slightly strange opportunity to hear songs you’ve been hearing your whole life given the West End treatment with harmonies and vocal arrangements by a group of singers who are, technically at least, probably better than the original.
It’s like an extended, rockthemed episode of The X-Factor and seems just as popular. By the time the band launch into a closing medley of classics including Here I Go Again and
Alright Now, almost all the audience are on their feet. It’s really a silly proposition all round, but sometimes a bit of silliness is just what you need.