Howard provides big-budget fun at cheap price

Friday, April 25, 2003 | 8:48 a.m.

What: "Stars of the Strip."

When: 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays.

Where: Plaza Showroom.

Tickets: A $5.95 drink.

Information: (702) 386-2110.

Rating (out of five stars): *** 1/2

Entertainment directors are always on the lookout for fresh young talent.

What about the older talent, veterans of the boards who know how to put on a super show?

Robbie Howard is a case in point.

Someday someone at a major resort is going to discover this impressionist (he prefers to be called an entertainer who impersonates) and put his name on a marquee.

But for now, Howard is downtown at the Plaza Showroom starring in "Stars of the Strip" at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.

"They haven't put my name on a marquee here," the avid entertainer told one recent small-but-enthusiastic audience. "We don't want to run the risk of being discovered. I never wanted to be a big star, and so far it's worked out pretty good."

Howard's career began in the early '80s at a nightclub/restaurant in Anaheim, Calif., where he produced a dinner theater that featured a troupe of madcap comics and musicians.

It lasted eight years until 1991, when Mickey Finn (of Dixieland Jazz and comedy fame) lured Howard and his crew away from Anaheim to Las Vegas. Finn had the showroom at Main Street Station in downtown Las Vegas.

Within a year the casino closed (only to reopen later) and Howard went on tour with Finn for a few months. Then he created the revue, "Hurray America," and was at the Westward Ho from 1993 to 1999.

In 1999 Howard renamed his show "Stars of the Strip" and moved it to Lady Luck, where it enjoyed some degree of success until the venue was sold to a time-share company last year.

The new owners contracted with Isle of Capri to run the casino, and Howard says he got caught in the middle of two companies who weren't sure what to do with entertainment.

And so he moved to the Plaza, whose showroom is faded but has the overall feel of what showrooms used to be like in Las Vegas.

"Go ahead, you can smoke," Howard told the audience as it was being seated. "It's not going to get any worse."

The bare-bones production, which once had a cast of five or six, has been pared down from when it was at Lady Luck to just Howard and three top-notch musicians, saxophonist David Poe, drummer John Plows and keyboardist Pat Marlin.

"One casino wanted to hire me but not my musicians," he said. "They wanted me to use taped music. I don't like to do that."

The three-man band sounds like a full orchestra.

Although there are fewer performers in the latest incarnation of "Stars of the Strip," Howard's energy and enthusiasm make the show appear much bigger than it actually is.

The impressionist could do wonders if he had a budget, but the price of admission is only one $5.95 drink, a paltry sum that does not inspire an epic extravaganza.

But Howard does a lot with what few resources he has.

His is a classic Las Vegas-style show, one in which much of his energy is expended getting fans to join in and have a great time.

After singing "Let the Good Times Roll," he says to his audience, "That's what this show's all about -- let the good times roll."

Then he chides the fans to join in the merriment, and if they don't, he threatens them with a bad joke. And when they don't react enthusiastically to his comment, he makes good on his promise.

Howard is an excellent impressionist, leading off the show with Johnny Carson, segueing to Bobby Vinton singing "I Love You," and then Tom Jones singing "She's a Lady."

Marlin stepped from behind the keyboards to do an impression of Willie Nelson and sang a duet with Howard as Julio Iglesias. Their takeoff on Nelson and Iglesias' hit, "To All the Girls I've Loved Before," was hilarious.

After the duet, Howard waded into the audience as Iglesias, exchanging banter with the fans before launching into a series of impressions that included country singer Randy Travis, Dean Martin, Jimmy Buffett and Elvis.

Using the premise of 100 love song CDs being sold on the radio, Howard did brief impressions of Roger Whitaker, Kenny Rogers, Wayne Newton, the Bee Gees, Engelbert Humperdinck, Joe Cocker, Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, the Righteous Brothers, Eric Clapton, Fats Domino, Roy Orbison, Freddy Fender, Barry Manilow and Redd Foxx, among others.

The rapid-paced, hour-long show opens with a vigorous rendition of Louis Prima's classic, "Jump, Jive An' Wail." It closes with a dynamic medley of swing music.

In between, there is a pep rally, a good old-fashioned country revival that is determined to revive old-fashioned Las Vegas-style entertainment, the kind popular when money flowed freely but when the money wasn't as important to entertainers as sharing a good time with fans.