Old Vegas kind of guy

By Jerry Fink

Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009 | 2 a.m.

It’s the same old song and dance.

People ask: Where did real Las Vegas-style entertainment go? Why aren’t there decent shows like we used to have with the likes of Frank Sinatra? Where are the good songs by Cole Porter or Irving Berlin?

No more griping. No more complaining about what used to be.

Broadway star Rick Faugno plans to give you what you say you want — good old song and dance, music from the Great American Songbook, Fred Astaire-like dance routines — in his show Sunday at South Point.

“This kind of entertainment is lacking in today’s world,” Faugno says, “especially in Las Vegas, which was the Mecca for those legendary entertainers. I want to see a return to the old song and dance people, Astaire and Gene Kelly and Sammy Davis Jr.”

At 30, Faugno is a young man whose heart is in the past.

He made his Broadway debut at age 12, playing Will Rogers Jr. in Tommy Tune’s Tony-winning “Will Rogers Follies” starring Keith Carradine. His Broadway credits also include “Conversations With My Father,” “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” “Wonderful Town” and “Fosse.”

Local fans will recognize him from “Jersey Boys.” Faugno plays Frankie Valli in the bio-musical about the Four Seasons, which debuted at the Palazzo in April 2008.

Sunday he plays himself in the debut of his first one-man show, the 80-minute “Songs My Idols Sang (and Danced),” a production that covers his life story and how he ended up as a devotee of great music.

“This is totally different from anything I’ve ever done,” he says.

“I’ve never just been me. I’m always somebody else. Playing Frankie Valli is a huge undertaking, but I’m playing Valli, not me. I’m almost naked onstage, vulnerable. I’m not hiding behind anyone else.

“I’m a little nervous. But at the same time this is very exciting.”

He will be accompanied by a seven-piece band featuring “Jersey Boys” conductor Keith Thompson on piano. The band also includes Don Meoli, drums; Tyler Williams, bass; Drew Zingg, guitar; Dan Falcone, trumpet; Kevin Stout, trombone; and Matt Taylor, sax and flute.

“We’ll have the piano, bass, guitar, drums and three horns,” Faugno says. “It’ll be a pretty rockin’ band.”

Fans from the old school of entertainment will be treated to Faugno tapping and singing with a broom, a la Astaire.

There is a flow to the show, focusing on different entertainers form the past.

“And each segment is tied to somebody in my own life,” Faugno says.

Faugno learned his first tap dance moves from his father, who took lessons as a child from a vaudeville entertainer.

At age 8, his parents took him to his first Broadway show, “Me and My Girl,” which is set in the 1930s.

“Lucky for me ‘Starlight Express’ was sold out that night,” he says. “Subconsciously (‘Me and My Girl’) influenced the rest of my life.”

He began taking dance lessons and when he had to decide between sports and dancing at age 10, he chose dancing.

Faugno hopes the show is not a one-time performance.

“I’ve put way too much time into it for a one-shot deal,” he says. “I want people to want it to come back.”