Pianist Philip Fortenberry performs last week at the Liberace Museum. Fortenberry is assistant conductor and a performer in “Jersey Boys” and resident pianist at the Liberace Museum. He just released a Christmas album.
Monday, Dec. 22, 2008 | 2 a.m.
Beyond the Sun
Name: Philip Fortenberry, pianist
Age: 50
Education: Private student of Myoko Lotto at the Juilliard School; master’s of music degree in classical piano performance at New Jersey City University
Gigs: Associate conductor of “Jersey Boys,” star of “Liberace and Me,” pianist at Faith Community Lutheran Church
The scene: It’s a snowy, cold afternoon in Las Vegas. A small audience is huddled cozily around tables in a dark cabaret room at the Liberace Museum. Battery-operated candles flicker on the tables. Fortenberry throws himself into every note of ragtime, show tunes and his own bluesy, soulful mix of popular favorites.
Wearing a gray suit, he stands up between songs to tell stories in a mild but sincere manner, about his life in music and about Liberace’s influence on him while he was growing up in Mississippi.
Fortenberry has played before the president and other dignitaries, performed on Broadway and at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the United Nations. Next week he’ll be at the Kennedy Center playing “The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber.”
But at the Liberace Museum on Tropicana Avenue, he is bringing a smattering of tourists and locals to tears with his version of “Midnight” from “Phantom of the Opera.”
Getting here: Fortenberry wasn’t thinking of Las Vegas when he was working on Broadway, touring and playing with the likes of Eartha Kitt at Carnegie Hall and Frederica von Stade before Margaret Thatcher. But an audition for the musical “We Will Rock You” at Paris Las Vegas got his attention. Four years ago he left New York City to move here with his cat, Thelma Louise, who lived to be 23. The show didn’t last long, but Fortenberry got other work.
His cabaret show at the Liberace Museum is unlike anything he’s ever done. It’s his first time doing a solo show. He calls it an opportunity to create something, to work through his demons, his lack of confidence in speaking before people.
“Anybody can be up there telling their story. We’re all from someplace. It’s not really special. It’s just my turn to do it.”
On Liberace: Using Liberace as a guide, Fortenberry’s aunt introduced him to the classical music that fills a large portion of his repertoire.
He says Liberace was a big influence on his life and remembers people saying “You’re going to play just like Liberace,” but never thought about it much until about three years ago, when he was in Mississippi visiting his parents, and his mom was playing a Liberace Christmas album. “I felt like I was listening to myself.”
Fortenberry would not call himself a fan of the showman. He’s not an impersonator. He’d rather focus on the sound and not the “musical tricks.” “The man played the (heck) out of those pieces. He was a serious player, and people forget it.”
Life with piano: He started playing piano at age 4 in an area of Mississippi so remote it didn’t have a name. By 7 he was an accompanist at his Baptist church and stayed at that gig until after college, when he left for New York City. Fortenberry spent 25 years in New York and made a brief Broadway appearance in a show called “Cleavage” that lasted only one night. He became pianist and musical director for off-Broadway’s “Forbidden Broadway” and worked other touring Broadway shows. But New York was a different scene for this self-described country boy. After a few awkward incidents, including asking Von Stade what she did for a living during a pause in her voice lesson, he says he learned to keep his mouth shut. “I was country come to town. I was clueless. All I had goin’ for me is that I could play. I was an ignorant red-neck kid.”
Fortenberry has recorded several solo albums, including a recent Christmas CD. He plays a diverse assortment of music, including classical, but says he doesn’t have that conservatory sound. “I come from dirt, not even a town, Highway 13 South. Music in my ears is the sound of a region. What’s in my sound is my Southern roots — Dixie, gospel, blues — a raw, earthy sound.”
On being in Vegas: “Vegas was never on the radar at all. Ever. But when I got that job (with “We Will Rock You”) it felt like the absolute right next thing for me. I was such a country boy, was relieved to come to Vegas. I loved the heat. I loved everything about it.”
On culture in Vegas: At first he was surprised by the lack of offerings that New York had, but realized he could help change that. “Back in Mississippi, if something doesn’t exist, it’s because nobody has come to build it yet. If it’s not here, it’s because I’m not stepping up to do my own calling.”
Favorite music: R&B, gospel and blues.
Other interests: Loves Eudora Welty, wine, rock climbing and Mississippi — where he owns 66 acres.
Sticking around? “As long as I work.”
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