Gans looks in top form starting second year at Mirage

Joe Delaney

Friday, April 6, 2001 | 7:33 a.m.

Danny Gans started his second year Wednesday at the Mirage. We reviewed him on opening day last year, and caught him again just before the close of his first year.

What we experienced earlier this week takes the entire art of the impressionist to its highest level yet. Words such as "incredible," "bravura" and "tour de force" do not do full justice to a Gans performance today.

Every one of the 1,265 seats in the Danny Gans Theatre were filled. Gans is sold out three weeks in advance and deservedly so. The night we were there, at least 100 hopeful fans were in line, in case there were no-shows or a cancellation.

No two performances are exactly the same. Just before going onstage, Gans pre-sets the first 10 or 15 minutes with his outstanding musicians and superior tech crew. From that point on, Gans has felt his audience and lets the audience communicate its wants. He in turn, with a word or gesture, signals the next impression or segment to his team.

The transitions from character to character are seamless, there is never a hesitation; it flows so smoothly that 90 minutes seem like half that many. At the show caught, he opened with Smokey Robinson, Joe Cocker, Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles. Next came a series of current performers whose lyrics are often unintelligible. Gans caught the sound of each one perfectly.

A Jeff Foxworthy "You're a redneck if ..." segment was an impromptu high spot, as was a Hollywood segment featuring Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Hanks and Al Pacino. There was also a touch of Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter.

Regis Philbin hosting "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire," with the Simpsons as contestants, scored heavily, as did the singers who were hot in each decade. There was a political segment depicting recent presidents that favored the Republicans, with full audience approval.

For the more current generations, there were send-ups of 'NSync, Janet Jackson, Macy Gray, Savage Garden, Ricky Martin and Earth, Wind and Fire, contained in an imaginative segment with Gans as Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau, doing the impressions. He closes as himself, singing his composition, "A Brand New Dream," from a recent best-selling CD.

The highest compliment: Gans is still a work in progress, rehearsing every day, adding new material as it happens and sometimes before it happens. He stands alone in his chosen performing art genre.