Gold Coast’s ‘Rockin’ & Romancin’ mostly uninspirin’

Friday, July 30, 2004 | 8:53 a.m.

I have a lot of respect for producer Sharon Haynes.

She has created some great little shows for the Gold Coast -- nothing elaborate or particularly dazzling, but entertaining.

She first arrived in 1998 as the vocalist for "The Original Tribute to Patsy Cline," which featured the Jordanaires, backup singers to such legends as Elvis Presley, Loretta Lynn, Hank Snow and, of course, Cline.

In 2000, when the Jordanaires semi-retired, Haynes stuck around and produced her own Cline tribute: "Honky Tonk Angels." The show features some very talented performers, including Haynes as Cline, Corrie Sachs as Reba McEntire and Lori Legacy as Dolly Parton.

Last year she began alternating "Angels" with another fine production, "Serendipity," which paid tribute to pop music of the '60s, '70s and '80s, focusing on such artists as Bette Midler, Frankie Valli, Connie Francis and Stevie Wonder.

This summer she added "Outlaws, Cowboys and the Man in Black" to the rotation cycle.

And now we have "Rockin' & Romancin'" on the roster.

Spokesman Martha Armstrong says it will be in the lineup for six weeks through Aug. 22.

It's going to be a long six weeks.

The production stumbles along, trying to find its rhythm, but never comes anywhere near the entertainment values of the earlier shows.

Haynes has missed the mark with this production, which has the feel of being hastily thrown together at the last moment to fill a spot.

After attending a recent performance, I wasn't sure what I had seen.

I'm not even sure what the title "Rockin' & Romancin' " means. One would expect atribute to some rock 'n' roll stars, but comedienne Janice Hart has almost equal stage time with vocalists Mark Maynard and Craig Canter.

Hart is the show's host, in addition to being a major part of the production.

She is a veteran comic, full of energy, fun to watch, a ball of laughs. But she has nothing to do with what the title says the show is about.

Hart, who has a superb singing voice, does some fantastic impressions: Tina Turner, George Burns, Barbra Streisand, Cher, Madonna, Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, Doris Day, Carol Channing and many more.

She practically steals the show, all but overshadowing Maynard and Canter.

Maynard's main character is Frankie Valli. He's good at the impression, but I'm not sure how much interest there is in the singing star from the '60s, who is still around performing with new members of the Four Seasons. Certainly a Valli tribute isn't enough to carry a show.

And that is almost what Maynard has to do.

Canter, tall and handsome, is barely average in his tributes to Neil Diamond and Engelbert Humperdinck. With the right makeup, hairdo and costumes he resembles the artists, but his vocals are weak and not particularly interesting.

There are several better Diamond impressionists in Vegas.

And then, Maynard and Canter unite for a tribute to the Everly Brothers.

It's the low point of the show. They stumbled over lyrics, were never really in close harmony, sounded nothing like the brothers and looked even less like them.

By the time the cast got around to performing a tribute to the Mamas & the Papas at the close of the show (with Haynes playing the role of Cass Elliot), the show had already bottomed out and lost whatever it might have had in the beginning.

Hopefully, the next production by Haynes will be more in keeping with her past standards.