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Brat Pack gets ‘naughty’

Hard to imagine what Ol’ Blue Eyes would have said about songs about crotch-less panties, Viagra and Internet porn.
Poster-photo
Red Deer's own Brat Pack

Hard to imagine what Ol’ Blue Eyes would have said about songs about crotch-less panties, Viagra and Internet porn.

But then, Red Deer’s newest and naughtiest singing sensations, the Brat Pack, did say they were only loosely modelling themselves after Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack.

Red Deer singers Sharon Braun, Kimberley Denis, Darold Roles and Ron Schuster promised to deliver the smooth sounds of ‘60s Las Vegas with a dose of mischief at Friday and Saturday night concerts at the Scott Block at 4816-50th Ave. And they did just that on opening night — proving they are as much of a comedy team as a singing quartet.

Roles correctly predicted the group would be “letting our naughty, frivolous sides out.” The best numbers had a silly side, such as Denis’s performance of 15 Pounds, a song that defines for a woman the exact amount of weight-loss it would take to attain a certain guy’s love. (What a catch!)

A serious-looking Braun sang an overwrought Italian opera aria, as Roles and Schuster displayed to the audience large, hand-written translation cards that stated things like “I have to pee.”

Earlier in the show, Roles sang a full-blown romantic ditty to his true big-box-store love — Ikea, while Schuster later provided some interesting supporting vocals to the encore tune, Sexy Underwear, which tickled many funny bones.

My guess is that Friday night’s full-house crowd would also split a gut laughing at Austin Powers movies, because that’s the level of goofiness we’re talking about here. But it was all highly entertaining — especially a number in which a fully-dressed Braun, Roles and Schuster danced the “nude” cha-cha, while holding up slim squares of paper to cover their supposedly racy bits.

The classically trained Braun and Denis are great singers, and Roles and Schuster provided some strong harmonizing. But at times, the men could have held their mics closer, as their words were drowned out by the canned soundtrack. (It would be terrific if the Brat Pack could someday come back to the Scott Block with a live band.)

Of course, not all of the songs on the program were ribald

The Brat Pack also revived some well-loved standards with jazzy new arrangements. Among them were Petula Clark’s Downtown, the groovy ‘60s tune Color My World, Moon River, and some songs closely associated with the Rat Pack, including Mambo Italiano, Luck Be a Lady, That’s Amore, and Mr. Bojangles.

Somehow those just couldn’t compete on the memorability scale with The Internet is for Porn from the adult musical Avenue Q, or The Bitchin’ Babes song, Viagra in the Water.

Who knows? Maybe Sinatra would have come around on those after all.

The Brat Pack performs again tonight.

lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com