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Elvis meets Jerry Lewis, Wayner talks of the Fremont, Cirque bounds, and Sinatra returns at 150th anniversary show

Nevada Sesquicentennial All-Star Concert

Tom Donoghue / DonoghuePhotography.com

Jerry Lewis addresses the audience during the Nevada Sesquicentennial All-Star Concert on Monday, Sept. 22, 2014, at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Las Vegas.

Updated Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014 | 8:05 a.m.

Nevada Sesquicentennial All-Star Concert

Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki and Gov. Brian Sandoval attend the Nevada Sesquicentennial All-Star Concert on Monday, Sept. 22, 2014, at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Las Vegas. Launch slideshow »
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Bob Anderson performs as Frank Sinatra during the Nevada Sesquicentennial All-Star Concert on Monday, Sept. 22, 2014, at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Las Vegas.

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Venetian headliners Human Nature perform during the Nevada Sesquicentennial All-Star Concert on Monday, Sept. 22, 2014, at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Las Vegas.

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Cirque du Soleil cast members perform during the Nevada Sesquicentennial All-Star Concert on Monday, Sept. 22, 2014, at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Las Vegas.

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Clint Holmes performs during the Nevada Sesquicentennial All-Star Concert on Monday, Sept. 22, 2014, at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Las Vegas.

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Stratosphere headliner Frankie Moreno performs during the Nevada Sesquicentennial All-Star Concert on Monday, Sept. 22, 2014, at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Las Vegas.

The night opened with a greeting from Penn & Teller (guess which one held the mic) and a burst of artistic acrobatics from Cirque du Soleil. It ended with Clint Holmes’ ascending version of “Hallelujah” backed by the Las Vegas Mass Choir and Wayne Newton remembering how it used to be in the days at the old Fremont Hotel.

In a now-classic accounting, Mr. Las Vegas told the sold-out crowd, “We played six shows a night for six nights a week, but we were teenagers, and we didn’t realize that it was hard work.”

We laughed, we clapped. It was one of those nights that made it great to be a Las Vegan.

History sang and danced and cracked wise with the present Monday night at Reynolds Hall in the Smith Center for the Performing Arts during the Nevada Sesquicentennial All-Star Concert. The room was filled with dignitaries from across the state (Gov. Brian Sandoval; Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki) and the world (including a group of diplomats from Australia).

On a night that was singularly relevant, the best current stars and performers in production shows on and off the Strip powered a terrifically entertaining, and frequently moving, celebration of the state’s 150th birthday.

Show producer and Smith Center President Myron Martin again worked quick magic to make this far-flung show come off successfully much in the same manner in which he organized and directed the USO benefit show at Mandalay Bay Events Center just after 9/11 in November 2001.

Rolling through the program were Holmes, as introduced by his friend Antonio Fargas, the great actor (Huggy Bear on “Starsky & Hutch”); Newton; Penn & Teller; Frankie Moreno backed by the Gilbert Magnet School Choir on “Home Means Nevada”; Human Nature; Mark Shunock of “Rock of Ages”; and Dennis Bono, Lorraine Hunt-Bono, Deana Martin, Ronnie Rose, Sonny Charles of the Checkmates and Earl Turner with a tribute to Las Vegas’ golden age of lounges.

Also, Leigh Zimmerman and Domenick Allen; Philip Fortenberry with a tribute to Liberace; Susan Anton; Elvis tribute artist Justin Shandor of “Million Dollar Quartet”; the cast of “Jersey Boys”; Sesquicentennial cowboy poet Waddie Mitchell (and it is a long-held tenet in show business that you never want to follow a cowboy poet); a number by Broadway in the Hood dance troupe; a tribute to Mark Twain by McAvoy Lane; performances by members of “Jubilee”; and the already noted Cirque du Soleil and Las Vegas Mass Choir.

The acts hit the audience like tides rolling in from the sea. Bob Anderson (in his full-scale stage makeup) evoked Frank Sinatra with longtime Sinatra music director Vinnie Falcone alongside for “Where or When” and “Fly Me to the Moon.”

They were joined onstage by a man performing as Jerry Lewis — who happened to be Jerry Lewis. He would not be confused with Jerry Lee Lewis, who was resurrected earlier in the show with Moreno’s blistering “Wild Child” backed by the blasting Lon Bronson All-Star Band. The music mix was further bolstered by Nina DiGregorio and Bella Electric Strings, and the national anthem was recited beautifully by Miss Nevada Ellie Smith.

The interplay backstage, where the talented and famous met in a rarified environ, was a show of its own:

Anderson, eerily made up as Sinatra after a three-hour session by Oscar-nominated makeup artist Kazu Tsuji, said he has finally found a home for his fantastic Sinatra tribute show that blew away the capacity audience at the Venetian in May. Anderson and a full orchestra, replete with a saloon-styled set, are moving into Palazzo Theater either Jan. 17 or 24 after “Panda!” runs its course in that theater. The contract extension for that show times out Dec. 28.

As Lewis chatted with Anderson and Falcone backstage, a woman ducked into the room and said, “Uncle Frank!” to Anderson, then leaned down to a seated Lewis and said, “Uncle Jerry!” It was Deana Martin, daughter of Lewis’ old partner Dean (or, “Paul,” as Lewis still refers to his legendary sidekick).

Between posing for photos, “Jersey Boys” cast member Deven May confirmed that he is indeed leaving the show, ending his five-year run portraying Tommy DeVito. His last show is Nov. 23. He’s involved in a budding TV project focusing on former Mayor Oscar Goodman, partnering with “Highway Vibe” radio host Bart Torres, and also is licensing a beverage dispenser that floats in a swimming pool called Remark-A-Ball. He says the Goodman show has a distribution deal in the United Kingdom, and he has been busy shooting footage of Goodman over the past several weeks.

Shandor, a Lewis devotee, finally got a chance to meet his hero after a lengthy hang-around session that could be classified as stalking. But he finally tracked down Lewis backstage, and we had the odd pairing, in 2014, of Elvis and Jerry Lewis.

Newton returned from Montana to close the show and was a photo magnet. Everyone wanted a shot — Clint and Kelly Holmes, the “Jersey Boys” stars, Moreno, Smith Center officials. It was a flashy welcome backstage for Mr. Las Vegas, who will be in town for a spell before spending the holidays back in Big Sky Country.

Zimmerman and Allen said they have bought a home in Carmel, Calif., although Leigh is still performing in “A Chorus Line” on London’s West End. She starred as Ulla in “The Producers” at Paris Las Vegas, and Allen’s return reminded of his rich history in the city, which included a run as Liberace’s opening act at Las Vegas Hilton.

In one setting, Moreno, Travis Cloer, Holmes, Mitchell and Fargas were seated in one of the dressing rooms, as Moreno animatedly told Holmes about one of his (Moreno’s) favorite recent gigs — the San Gennaro Feast, You haven’t truly arrived in VegasVille unless you have played San Gennaro.

Jillette said the long-awaited Vanishing African Spotted Pygmy Elephant Act being developed for the Penn & Teller show at the Rio would be onstage “soon, but we have been saying soon for five years, right?” Hey, we can wait. This is no ordinary elephant.

Walking in various stages of a tuxedo was Turner, a gen-u-ine badass entertainer, which gives us a chance to promote his weekend gigs at Suncoast Showroom on Friday and Saturday. It’s themed for the ‘80s, but whatever the decade, Turner is a master of that decade.

Lewis was played off to the Count Basie classic “Blues in Hoss Flat.” Lewis fans — and most film fans — remember that song from the unspoken “Chairman of the Board” scene from “The Errand Boy.” Jimmy Fallon’s crew played that clip when Lewis appeared on “The Tonight Show” last week, and the band also played Lewis off with that song. “I thought, hell, I’ve got that chart. Let’s do it. I was hoping Jerry heard it,” Bronson said.

Probably, but regardless, it was one of the touches onstage and offstage that made the night a winner. What a time, ladies and gents, what a time.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.

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