Perfect Lee: Greco, Anders bring ‘Fever!’ to Suncoast

Friday, Aug. 15, 2003 | 9:26 a.m.

Greco was sitting at the piano in the recording studio of the new Lee and Thomas Beam Music Center on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He was joined by his wife, Lezlie Anders, and seven musicians as they rehearsed, preparing for tonight's "Fever! A Tribute to Miss Peggy Lee" at the Suncoast.

Lee died in January 2002 after suffering a heart attack in her home in Bel Air, Calif. Coincidentally, at the time of her death, Greco and Anders were creating "Fever!"

Greco and Anders have been working feverishly for the past 18 months, trying to launch their tribute to the internationally acclaimed recording artist. The public got a sneak preview of the show last summer during five performances at and at a concert in Boston.

"This was just going to be an album project in the beginning," Anders said. But while working on the Lee CD in the spring of 2000, Greco and Anders happened to be in New York and watched an off-Broadway production that paid tribute to Frank Sinatra.

"It was not a good show," Anders said. "It was like a high school production." But they also saw a one-woman tribute to jazz vocalist Bessie Smith, which they liked.

After returning home from their trip to New York, Greco and Anders decided they could create a production honoring Lee, with Anders starring in the one-woman show. Greco and Lee had been friends for many years; their paths frequently crossed during their musical careers.

Lee, a native of Jamestown, N.D., was discovered by bandleader Benny Goodman in 1941 singing at a hotel in Chicago. She toured with Goodman until 1947, recording such hits as "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good," "Blues in the Night," "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place," "The Way You Look Tonight" and "Why Don't You Do Right?"

Greco sang with the Goodman band from 1951 to 1954. Although he and Lee never performed together with Goodman, their history with the bandleader was a common bond.

"Peggy and I became good friends," Greco said. "We worked together many times. The quality of her voice was always great, but there was something about her as a writer ... she was so diversified. And she had a knack for finding great songs."

Anders, 55, grew up a fan of Lee. Some say there is a remarkable physical resemblance between the two, and an even more remarkable similarity between their singing voices.

Anders says she makes no attempt to imitate Lee. Everything is natural. She also says she avoided focusing on the sadness and physical and medical problems that plagued Lee's life.

"We're focusing on her legacy," Anders said. "I couldn't write about her sad life."

Lee, married four times, was a diabetic, and in her later years she suffered from obesity and glandular ailments.

In 1961 she suffered double pneumonia, and in 1976 she had a near-fatal fall in a New York hotel. She was seriously injured in another fall in Las Vegas in 1987.

In early 1985 she underwent four angioplasties -- balloon surgery to open clogged arteries -- and resumed her singing tour. While appearing in New Orleans in October 1985, she underwent double-bypass heart surgery. In 1998 she suffered a stroke, which impaired her speech and required therapy.

"She was not a happy woman," Anders noted. "She was sick almost all of her life. But the music she gave us -- she was a tremendous lyricist, a poet ..."

And she was an innovator.

Anders said Lee was the first person to put singers in an isolation booth during recording sessions, and her recording of "Manana" was the first time a fade-out had been used.

Anders said the tribute show features some narrative history, some funny anecdotes and lots of music -- 26 of her most popular songs.

Greco arranged all of the music for the songs.

"It was hard to decide which of Peggy's songs to use to fill an hour-and-50-minute show," he said. "There are so many to choose from, so I picked the obvious ones, the most popular songs, like 'Fever' and 'Golden Earrings.' "

He composed an eight-minute overture to open the show, reflecting all of the songs to be used in the production.

Greco said instead of a full orchestra, he is using seven live musicians and tracks of eight more.

"It has the sound of a full orchestra," he said.

UNLV is a partner in the production.

In exchange for the use of the facilities and other considerations, the university owns 3 percent of the show for the first three years, and 1 percent for the remaining life of the production.

Jeff Koep, dean of the UNLV College of Fine Arts, says the business arrangement is similar to one followed by Yale University, which has sponsored fledgling productions that have gone on to find success on Broadway and other venues.

"It's an investment that gets students directly involved with professionals who are working," Koep said. "The return on our investment is not huge, but that's not our business. Our business is educating students. We're here to serve them, not producers and performers."

Anders said the arrangement has allowed them to cut costs, although producing the show has been an expensive proposition -- about $100,000 of their own money.

They have had to shoehorn their work on "FEVER!" into their busy work schedule.

Anders says the fact that local producer Dick Foster, former son-in-law to Lee, is working on his own tribute doesn't daunt her.

"You can't have too much Peggy Lee," she said.