Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
At 82, Valli still driven by passion to perform
Frankie Valli’s career should be sponsored by Everlast. As a performer, he has outlasted all of his original Four Seasons band mates, most of his contemporaries and even the stage show paying homage to his career.
“Jersey Boys” closed at Paris Las Vegas last September. Valli, whose story is told in that musical, will be back onstage Saturday night at Pearl Theater at the Palms.
“I just keep going and I don’t exactly know why I still have all this passion,” the 82-year-old Valli says. “Probably, it’s because I really love what I do. I love it more than anything in the world.”
Valli is among very few active performers who date to the formative years of Las Vegas entertainment. He remembers driving through the city around 1960 to meet one of the Strip’s earliest giants.
“I was working with a group the Four Lovers, on our way to Hawthorne, little casino there … I went in to see Louis Prima, to help us get into Vegas,” Valli says. “In those days, there were very few hotels on the Strip and nothing bigger than about a 750-seat room. We saw Louis in the Desert Inn, I think it was, and we wound up getting into the lounge at the Flamingo.”
That plum gig was a lot of work. “We did two shows a night, and a couple nights a week, we’d get outta there at like 4:30 in the morning,” Valli recalls. “Now you do one show, and it’s a walk in the park, by comparison.”
BEAUTY, EH?
The downtown Las Vegas Life is Beautiful festival has gained the respect of its peers in the big-event industry. It also has gained a trophy.
The annual music, art and food festival claimed the 2016 Pollstar Music Festival of the Year Award. Pollstar is the highly regarded music industry publication that tracks festivals and tours around the world. The honor was presented Feb. 2 at The Novo theater at L.A. Live.
LiB, to use the festival’s shorthand title, is to again overtake downtown from Sept. 22 to 24. In winning the Pollstar honor, the festival was in play with some true industry giants. Filling out the list of nominees were the Levitate Music & Arts Festival in Marshfield, Mass.; the Newport (R.I.) Folk and Jazz Festivals; Shaky Knees Festival in Atlanta and the Treasure Island Festival in San Francisco.
VENUE HAPS
Tantalizingly, Neonopolis owner Rohit Joshi and Best Agency CEO Ken Henderson are in talks to develop three live music theaters and a bar at the entertainment compound on the corner of Fremont Street and Las Vegas Boulevard. Businesses at Neonopolis have had a checkered past, to put it diplomatically. But Joshi is nothing if not persistent, and Henderson has a wealth of concepts that could make this work. Nothing is yet formally announced, but our interest is piqued.
‘LOVE LETTERS’ PREMIERS
Penn Jillette offered his own review of the first night of A.R. Gurney’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Love Letters” at The Space: “His greatest strength is reading long Christmas cards. Really long ones.” Jillette, an avowed atheist, stretched his acting capacity to recite that passage in the famous play. He appeared alongside his wife, Emily, in Friday’s debut of the series of “Love Letters” performances starring prominent Las Vegas couples.
The reading by the Jillettes was warm, gripping, and left many in the audience in tears. The performance was devoid of any electronic interruption after The Space proprietor Mark Shunock asked that all cellphones be shut off.
Set to appear Saturday night were Bob and DeLee Torti. Sunday it’s Josh Strickland and his husband, Todd DuBail. Monday it’s Graham Fenton and his wife, Nicole Kaplan. The Valentine’s Day capper is Clint Holmes and his wife, Kelly Clinton Holmes. Friday’s show drew a solid audience of 190 in what Shunock called the “theatrical debut” of The Space.
A CHER SHOUT
We experienced what is likely a first in Las Vegas: A shout-out to the mayor of Flint, Michigan, by a Strip headliner.
Cher called Flint Mayor Karen Weaver “a real asskicker!” during Friday’s show at Park Theater. Weaver is leading that city through its severe water contamination crisis, and her name drew massive applause.