By BRUCE DENNILL
Swingin’ Las Vegas 2025 / Conducted by Adam Howard / Teatro, Montecasino, Fourways
It’s often the case that top-class music, theatre and/or entertainment involves technical excellence, committed performers, well-written or curated material and good pacing. It’s less common to find all of that coupled with an infectious enthusiasm and chemistry that, by the end of the second half of the show, has developed – in some of the performers – into straight-up joy. The apparent big band-wide good feeling must be credited, at least partly, to the leadership of the baton-wielding and trumpet-playing Adam Howard, founder of the Johannesburg Big Band (JBB), which provides the powerful, layered backing for the quartet of singers in the show. He is a chirpy, cheerful stage presence, but getting – and keeping – 18 musicians (and the aforementioned handful of guest vocalists) as disciplined, dynamic and apparently warm and friendly with each other as this collective is must also require some steel and shrewdness.
Whatever the case, the finished product, together on stage, is an electrifying unit that must be a thrill to sing in front of. Indeed, enjoying being there is a notable characteristic of the production – skilled, talented artists knowing that everyone around them is as good or better than they are, with everyone delighting in the playing or performance of everyone else and supporting the role they play in the overall sound and texture of the arrangements. That exhilaration radiates off the stage, creating an atmosphere in which it’s impossible to be glum or unresponsive.
Chief cheerleader is returning collaborator Craig Urbani, equalling Hugh Jackman for charm, easygoing goofiness, slick suavity and effortless triple-threat talent. He’s his own and the entire production’s hype man, with his Elton John medley just after interval one of the show’s highlights. Pop singer Nadine, in her first outing with the JBB, impresses hugely with her vocal range and tone, knocking a version of Celine Dion’s It’s All Coming Back To Me Now – incredibly challenging and at least as satisfying when delivered well – out of the park. Her chemistry with the other performers is also excellent.
Harry Sideropoulos and Timothy Moloi, gravelly belter and soulful crooner respectively, bring a wide range of added colour as returning alumni, with the latter duetting beautifully with Nadine and the former offering an amusing part-way literal interpretation of the lyrics to Joe Cocker’s You Can Leave Your Hat On.
Howard’s arrangements variously give fresh new life to well-known standards both classic (Luck Be A Lady, L.O.V.E) and modern (Hello, Wonderwall) and keeping the music close to the original where that makes more emotional sense (Urbani and Nadine’s gorgeous take on Shallow).
Members of the brass section – including Howard himself – trade crisp solos throughout the production and drummer Rob Watson and pianist David Cousins give masterclasses on their respective instruments, both without any unnecessary fuss. The same level of expertise, it’s important to highlight, is shown by the technician in charge of the sound (uncredited in the promotional materials) who makes each facet of a large, complex band sound crystal clear and distinctly separated, adding enormously to the audience’s enjoyment of the production.
Generous and joyful, with a further instalment planned (according to Howard’s closing greeting to the audience) – this is a series to keep putting in the diary.
