Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Lorena Peril’s next port is a return to ‘Fantasy’

<em>Fantasy</em> With Lorena Peril

Tom Donoghue/www.donoghuephotography.com

Rehearsals at Fantasy featuring new lead singer Lorena Peril at the Luxor on July 29, 2010.

Fantasy With Lorena Peril

Rehearsals at Fantasy featuring new lead singer Lorena Peril at the Luxor on July 29, 2010. Launch slideshow »

Having toured Europe and set up shop in Puerto Vallarta over the past three years, Lorena Peril is returning to Las Vegas for what she says is a fantasy job.

That is, as the singer of “Fantasy” at Luxor.

The vocalist for the show from 2010-13 and a favorite singer in VegasVille since she arrived in 2005, Peril is back with the adult revue April 11.

The show’s current lead vocalist, Jaime Lynch, who replaced Peril to great reception in the fall of ’13, has taken on a “swing” role in the production. She is signed to perform Mondays, Peril’s off nights.

Producer Anita Mann says Lynch needed to focus on her life away from the show and had expressed last month that she wanted to lighten her schedule in the show. At that time, Peril was facing the end of her commitment to perform a cabaret show in Mexico, titled “Married and Looking,” with her guitarist husband, Ray Jon Narbaitz.

Mann offered Peril the chance to return to the show based on that scheduling template, and Mann now has two assigned “swings” in the show — Lynch and “Alice — A Steampunk Concert Fantasy” founder Anne Martinez, who also swings in “Steve Wynn’s Showstoppers” at Wynn Las Vegas.

The availability of top-notch singers is an embarrassment of riches for “Fantasy,” which has delivered a smart-sexy production for 16 years at Atrium Showroom. Peril is a great fit with her powerful, rangy voice and engaging personality that easily win over audiences.

“I’m just looking forward to coming back and being home,” Peril said today during a phone interview. “I saw the perfect timing that worked out for everyone. I’ve had a wonderful time here, a wonderful run, but I miss being there, I miss our two doggies, our friends and the show.”

Peril is signed through the end of this year. She had left “Fantasy” in the summer of 2013 to play the role of Sandy in an arena tour of “Grease” that wound through Belgium, the U.K., Germany, France, the Netherlands and Italy. When that tour ended, she returned to Las Vegas and spent a year in “Vegas! The Show” and developed her quirky-funny cabaret with Ray Jon at Golden Nugget’s Rush Lounge.

Peril also had occasional swing performances in “Fantasy” before Ray Jon and she left to perform “Married and Looking” at the Red Room at ACT II stages in what is known as “Old Town” in Puerto Vallarta. As Peril says, the best description of that two-person act is “Sonny & Charo.” When asked what Ray Jon has set up in his return to Las Vegas, Peril says, “He’s gonna do whatever he wants, like dishes and laundry.”

That’s pretty much the shtick in the Peril-Narbaitz partnership.

Through this series of events, Peril is back with even more stage experience than she had when she departed “Fantasy” three years ago. She’ll learn the new numbers in the show, which are the opening segment and a scene playing to “A Little Tenderness.” As before, Mann will likely develop a new number tailored for Peril. When Peril joined the cast in 2010, she teamed with comic Sean E. Cooper for a fun take on Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie.”

“Honestly, what I love about Lorena are her skills as a performer, her humor and wit,” Mann said today in a phone conversation from Los Angeles. “She has a fun attitude. … Lorena is very self-deprecating and funny while also being a great singer and dancer.”

Mann has bestowed similar praise on Lynch, whom she says is always part of the extended “Fantasy” family. As she says, “I cannot say how much I admire, appreciate and respect the performers we have.”

Though she doesn’t return to Las Vegas until the first week of April, Peril sounds like she is ready to start rehearsals, right now, saying, “My focus, my dedication, is ‘Fantasy.’ ”

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow Kats on Instagram at Instagram.com/JohnnyKats1.

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