White shines bright as Diamond

Kirk Baird

Friday, Aug. 1, 2003 | 8:49 a.m.

What: "America's Neil Diamond Tribute" with Jay White.

When: 7 p.m. Sunday-Thursday.

Where: Le Bistro Theatre at the Riviera.

Tickets: $39.95.

Information: (702) 794-9433.

Rating (out of 5 stars): *** 1/2.

Seeing a good celebrity impersonator is like driving a Ford instead of a Mercedes. Ultimately, it gets the job done -- it's just that you miss out on all the fancy frills in the process.

Such is the case for Jay White, who performs in "America's Neil Diamond Tribute" at 7 p.m. Sunday through Thursday at the Le Bistro Theatre at the Riviera.

That's not meant as a slight against White, who has donned the Diamond duds for two decades. Truth be told, he's the probably the best Diamond impersonator out there.

Even Diamond allegedly has said as much. White tells the story of meeting the real deal before a concert, then sitting with the legendary performer's 80-year-old mother during the show as she provided pointers to the tribute act about how her son moves and sings.

White must have been taking notes, because his onstage shtick is pure Diamond -- cheesy hip swivels, arms thrusting skyward, crowd pointing and all. White even has two sparkly jeweled shirts he made himself while he performed with "Legends" for nine years before coming to the Riviera a year and a half ago.

It's all meant to evoke the '80s/early '90s Diamond who, he said, most people know best.

It's also a style and look that's tailor-made for a Las Vegas lounge act.

The small theater -- which looks to seat around 200 -- affords White more audience interaction than Diamond fans would get in an arena show from the real-life performer.

And for better or worse, White took full advantage of the venue size in a recent performance, leading the 100 or so patrons through several sing-alongs and arm-waving exercises.

The old and older crowd clearly wanted the complete Neil Diamond experience and White seemed game to give it to them.

After a video montage of history-book images and videos of the United States (to better tie in with the title of the show, I suppose), the curtain rose to a five-piece band playing the opening chords of "Love on the Rocks."

White emerged moments later to a wall of fog and dim lights. Pure cheese, yes. Then again, considering the song's chorus -- "Love on the rocks/Ain't no surprise/Pour me a drink/And I'll tell you some lies" -- the moment worked just fine.

Of course, the key to impersonators is that they both must look like who they're impersonating and they must sound like them as well. In some respects, it's a more difficult task than for the real performer, who "simply" has to be him or herself.

White with a perfectly coiffed Diamond 'do, circa 1980, has the nose, sideburns and bushy eyebrows to pull off the look of the singer. (I'm not sure if that's entirely a compliment.) And, his singing matches Diamond's vocals fairly well.

At first, though, White's voice was a bit nasally compared to Diamond's. Several songs into the show, however, particularly with "Hello Again," White seemed to better emulate the vocal stylings of the legend. He hit the husky highs and the smooth lows of the real-life singer. White has even picked up on Diamond's near-trademark pronunciations, such as "spring became the 'summah' " during "Sweet Caroline."

Besides, "Sweet Caroline," most of Diamond's hits were present: "Cherry, Cherry," "Kentucky Woman," "Song Sung Blue," "Cracklin' Rosie," "I'm a Believer," -- a Diamond tune the Monkees made famous -- "Holly Holy," "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show," "I am I Said" and "Forever in Blue Jeans."

White even pulled out the melodramatic classic "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," a duet Diamond performed with Barbra Streisand. For the show, White performed both parts with surprisingly effective results that had the crowd responding enthusiastically at the song's climax.

The audience's biggest response, however, was reserved for "America."

The patriotic crowd-pleaser -- "Everywhere around the world/They're coming to America/Every time that flag's unfurled/They're coming to America" -- resulted, predictably, with the audience standing on its feet and clapping along, especially after a giant American flag dropped out from the ceiling mid-song.

An hour into the performance, it was, perhaps, the best way to end the show: an over-the-top moment by an eager-to-please impersonator of a gifted-but-cheesy music icon.

And for Diamond fans, even without the frills of the real thing, that should be plenty enough.