Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

It’s a rock show, but it’s so much more, as Dolyniuk debuts ‘Brody’s World’

Brody Dolyniuk

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Brody Dolyniuk, whose band, Yellow Brick Road, has forged a strong locals following since debuting in 1997.

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Brody Dolyniuk as David Lee Roth during a performance of "RockShow."

Bro-Hemian Rhapsody

Brody Dolyniuk has a new show. Into this show he says, “I’m throwing everything I know into this.”

But if you know Dolyniuk, you feel that thought is incomplete, that a punch line is coming. And it is.

“I should have about a five-minute show.”

He cracks wise, that one.

Self-effacing shtick aside, Dolyniuk is at his core a confident individual. His cocksure attitude is not unfounded. For better than a decade he has fronted the classic-rock band Yellow Brick Road, one of the city’s most proficient and consistently entertaining live acts. Tailed by hundreds of devoted fans (Y-Bees?) YBR covers the valley and packs the Railhead at Boulder Station, Ovation at Green Valley Ranch and the Suncoast Showroom.

Beyond YBR, Dolyniuk has showcased on the Las Vegas Hilton Theater stage his concept of “RockShow,” a production featuring lively impressions of Van Halen, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones, among many others. He has even taken on the demanding vocal parts of the late Freddie Mercury in the Windborne Music’s of Queen, performing crowds in the thousands rather than hundreds (two performances in August at Connor Prairie in Indiana drew a total of more than 12,000 fans).

Tonight Dolyniuk is unveiling a concept that fuses his soaring voice, his ever-expanding music stylings and a sense of humor forged in the spirit of “Saturday Night Live.” The show is titled, simply, “Brody’s World – An Evening of Music and Impressions” and it hits the stage for a one-off performance tonight at 8 at Green Valley Ranch’s Ovation showroom (admission for the 21-over show is free).

Dolyniuk will be backed by a hybrid four-piece band: Bassist David St. John and multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Gilcrest from YBR, joined by drummer Jimmy Keegan and guitarist Steven Lee, both highly regarded Vegas musicians.

The impressions indicated in the show’s title range from Motown to metal, or specifically, from Stevie Wonder to Metallica “and everything in between,” as Dolyniuk promises.

“Michael will make an appearance, too,” he adds, speaking of the late Michael Jackson. “Without giving too much away, it will be a some of my musical and comical influences, little bit like what people of seen from YBR over the years, a little bit of the ideas I used in ‘RockShow,’ a little like ‘SNL,’ a little Mel Blanc, a little Danny Gans.”

Gans? The reference is not coincidental. When Dolyniuk moved on his dream of mashing comedy, impressions and music onstage, he partnered with none other than Gans’ longtime friend and manager, Chip Lightman. Having worked with Gans for 18 years (aside from a three-year hiatus he describes as a semiretirement from show business), Lightman saw in Dolyniuk someone who might be … well, the next Gans.

Lightman has witnessed scores of impressionists of all ilk and says of Dolyniuk, “I think Brody has the talent to be one of the best.”

But wait – there will be caveat.

Lightman and Dolyniuk worked together for a few months, honing Dolyniuk’s concepts to the point where he performed a 30-minute showcase at Ovation that so impressed Lightman that Lightman agreed to help manage Dolyniuk’s career and invested what he says was “thousands of dollars” into the project. There was even a plan to drop Dolyniuk from the entertainer’s stage name, going with the fast-and-easy “Brody.”

Following the Gans’ model, Lightman envisioned grooming Dolyniuk on the corporate circuit, then move him from convention gigs to a showroom in the same way he helped navigate Gans to his first Vegas headlining show at Stratosphere.

But there was a swift split in their relationship a couple of months ago.

“I would say there was a little too much difference in the creative content of the show,” Dolyniuk says. “I wanted to go one way. He kept tugging the other way. Well, I’m going to do it in the way I believe will work.”

Lightman, whose professional partnerships today include Donny & Marie Osmond, offers, “With Brody, it’s my way or the highway. He won’t take direction. Even Danny, the greatest impressionist ever, took direction. But Brody won’t take any at all.

“He is the most stubborn entertainer I’ve ever worked with.”

On Monday, Lightman was surprised to hear Dolyniuk was moving forward with the original music-comic impressionist concept. As the longtime manager reiterated, there’s no arguing Dolyniuk’s stage aptitude or experience.

“He’s a very talented guy,” Lightman said.

Similarly, there’s no arguing that this is the furthest Dolyniuk has ventured from his own band and his rock ’n’ roll roots.

“With this, the future for YBR, and for me, is really up in the air,” Dolyniuk said. “We’ll see how it is received, and see if it has any legs.”

No matter the results, the man fronting the show rocks -- in more ways than one.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.

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