Friday, May 6, 2005 | 10:11 a.m.
Jerry Fink
Only adults are allowed to attend a performance by Mark & Clark, which is a shame because, in this city where adult entertainment rules, the twin pianists put on a show that could be enjoyed by all ages.
There is nothing edgy about the act the brothers keep their clothes on; they do almost nothing salacious, off-color or offensive. They just give fans 75 minutes of high-energy piano-pounding, vocals and comedy.
Maybe the show is too clean for Vegas' increasingly raunchy standards.
It is pure vanilla, with no real bite, which is not such a bad thing if you're tired of being bitten by shows that have substituted sleaze for real entertainment.
Only the location, inside the Stars Lounge at Tuscany, prevents this from being a show for the entire family. The 150-seat mini-theater (which also serves as Gallagher's Comedy Club) is barely large enough to contain the dynamic duo, who are prone to leap onto their twin pianos and do a cha-cha in the middle of performing a Latin number.
They manage to squeeze a size 44-long act onto a size 40-short stage. It's a tight fit, but fun to watch.
Given enough space, these guys could run wild.
As it is, they blow the roof off the small room.
Mark & Clark are talented pianists, but they are, above all, showmen -- along the lines of Liberace, though not so flamboyant.
They don't so much play their pianos as attack the keyboards. But it is a friendly assault.
The 57-year-old Columbus, Ohio, natives have been performing their synchronized act since age 16, which explains why they blend so effortlessly as they play "Exodus" (by their mentors, Ferrante & Teicher) or Barry Manilow's "Copacabana" or any of the other dozen or so numbers.
The almost-nonstop evening of music is interspersed with flashes of humor and bits of information about their lives (they began playing piano at age 4; they owned the Keyboard Cabaret in Pompano Beach, Fla.; their records once were produced by Ron Dante, who was Manilow's producer).
The show opens with the brothers performing on a set of portable keyboards that hang from their necks.
Then they move to a set of keyboards that are tilted, with the keys pointing up, and finally they unveil their white pianos.
Their opening numbers are serious classical pieces, demonstrating these guys aren't lightweights when tickling the ivories.
Then they leap into the comedy, performing the late Peter Allen's "I Go to Rio," with Mark wearing a parrot hat and dancing on his piano.
For a change of pace Mark & Clark step away from the keyboards, exchange some banter, tell a couple of jokes and then get back into their music.
A couple of the highlights of the evening were Elton John's "Circle of Life," from "The Lion King," and Scott Joplin's ragtime number "The Entertainer," which was the theme for the 1973 film "The Sting."
Injected into the evening of famous tunes was a piece Mark wrote almost 20 years ago, "The Rundown Piano," from their debut album on Columbia Records, "Doubletake." The album was No. 1 in Europe for 17 weeks and went gold.
"We came back to the United States, where it went stainless steel," Mark quipped.
After a medley of Manilow songs, Mark & Clark close with a piece in which they combine the music and lyrics of "Somewhere Out There" (from the film "An American Tail") and "Somewhere" (from the play and film "West Side Story").
The finale is a rousing bit that leaves the fans wanting more, which is the proper place to end a performance.
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