Society of Seven — er, nine — promises to come back

By Jerry Fink

Friday, April 11, 2008 | 2 a.m.

After decades in show business the Society of Seven members understand the fickleness of their profession.

When they learned recently their afternoon revue at the Flamingo would not be renewed by Harrah’s Entertainment they accepted their fate and began planning their future. Their final performance will be at 3 p.m. Sunday.

“We’re confident we will find something,” Tony Ruivivar says. He and Bert Sagum founded the show band more than 40 years ago. “But we have some commitments for a tour. We’ll be coming back here, hopefully, around September.”

Once known as the Fabulous Echoes, SOS arrived in Vegas from the Philippines in the mid-’60s. In 1969, the band took its act to Hawaii, where it performed for more than 30 years. In 2001, a second SOS troupe stayed in Hawaii and the band returned to Vegas, where it has performed at the Las Vegas Hilton, the Golden Nugget, the Aladdin, Bally’s and the Flamingo.

The cast includes Ruivivar, who is the host and sings; Sagum, vocals and percussion; Hoku Low, bass; Roy Guerzo, keyboards; Wayne Wakai, saxophone; Vince Mendoza, drums; and Michael Laygo, vocals. (Gary Bautista, who had been with the group for 22 years, died in 2006 at age 54.)

Singers Lani Misalucha, who joined the group four years ago, and Martin Nievera, who joined two months ago, have increased the cast count to nine.

Though SOS members don’t complain, they expressed surprise that the Flamingo is pulling the plug when the show is drawing large crowds. Ruivivar says it was doing so well there was talk about trying to move the show to an evening slot.

“Harrahs’ people had been talking about an extension — a year, two years, three — and suddenly they changed,” Ruivivar says. “They told us they had made a corporate decision to go in a different direction, which surprised us a little bit.”

Part of the added vitality of the production is due to Nievera, a superstar in the Philippines. His father, Robert, was a member of SOS in the early days, when it was based in Hawaii.

“When I was a little kid I watched these guys from the audience,” Nievera says. “But when I joined the cast I thought when I was backstage I would see complacency — they’ve been doing this for 40 years. A lot of acts on the Strip just do their job and go home. But not these guys. These guys honestly love what they do. They get upset when the audience sucks. The mood of the audience is important to them, and they will do anything to get you off your seat.”

Nievera and Misalucha, another Philippine superstar, have added new energy to the show — not that it needed it. The core of SOS is made up of multitalented performers who play a variety of musical instruments, sing, dance, do impressions and mix serious music with comedy.

“There is a lot of chemistry between Lani and Martin,” Ruivivar says. “We feel the combination is amazing. Each complements the other. It takes the show to another level.”

The two are charismatic entertainers whose repertoire covers the musical landscape, from breathtaking opera to ballads to rock.

When the show ends Nievera and Misalucha have commitments for their own concerts in the United States and in the Philippines, but when SOS finds a new venue they plan to rejoin the show.

“This break will give me a chance to breathe a little bit,” Misalucha says. “And it will give the group time to decide what to do next.”

A lot of fans will be eagerly awaiting that news.

Fan loyalty was tested this week when technical problems with the sound equipment caused an almost hourlong delay of the start of the show.

Folks usually start lining up before 2 p.m., when the doors open for the 3 p.m. performance. On the day of the equipment failure the line began as usual but the doors didn’t open until almost 3:30. By then the line was stretched halfway around the casino and people were becoming agitated. A few asked for refunds — but the majority stayed and almost filled the room. The agitation faded as soon as SOS took the stage.

One of the most loyal of the loyal fans is Oakland, Calif., native Sharon Heinemann, who will follow the group wherever it goes.

She first saw SOS at the Outrigger in Honolulu in 1978 and since then has seen it more than 500 times at venues across the country.

Hers isn’t even the record. A fan in Hawaii has seen the show more than 1,000 times.

“This is the only show I see. It’s wonderful,” says Heinemann, who flew to Vegas for three days just to see SOS.

She will have seen the show three times this trip before she leaves tonight.

Heinemann won’t make Society of Seven’s final performance Sunday, but that’s OK because she says she plans to attend its shows at the Cache Creek Casino near Sacramento, Calif., on June 13 and 14. Then there’s the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center on June 20 and maybe even John Ascuaga’s Nugget in Sparks on June 27 and 28.

“I just love it,” she says. “They are so talented. You can take little kids. There’s no cussing. You can take anybody to see them.”

Heinemann says she has the stubs of every SOS ticket she has purchased over the past 34 years. And her house is adorned with framed SOS posters she has collected from theaters across the country.

“Everyone I’ve recommended the show to, they all come back and say it’s the best they’ve ever seen,” she says. “I turned my brother and his wife on to them, and now they’ve started squeezing in and saying they’ve seen SOS more than me. There’s a lot of family arguments about that.”