Christmas with The Rat Pack - Darlington Civic Theatre, Teesdale Mercury

Christmas with The Rat Pack - Darlington Civic Theatre

Dec 2, 2009

THE Rat Pack have their seasonal make over with the addition of a Christmas Tree on stage and a number of seasonal songs added. The show of course features the music of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr and Dean Martin played by Stephen Rashbrook, Matthew Henry and Mark Halliday. They are of course joined on stage by a large band and Robyn Currell, Nikki Stokes and Rachael Parrott as the Burelli Sisters.

This is a very slick and stylish production with many classics being played including Almost Like Being in Love, Mr Bojangles, I've Got You Under My Skin and many Christmas greats White Christmas, Baby it's Cold Outside, Let it Snow and Rudolph. The evening really comes alive when all three are on stage together.

Stephen, Matthew and Mark have a great rapport sounding and looking right for their roles. The only downside for the evening is that they try too hard to portray the drinking aspects; someone pretending to be drunk on stage is only entertaining for a few minutes unfortunately they drag this out and it does get in the way of the music and becomes tiresome.

A J Harrison