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March 28, 2024

Operation Frankie Moreno is finally at full force at Planet Hollywood

Frankie Moreno’s Opening Night

Denise Truscello / WireImage / DeniseTruscello.net

Opening night of Frankie Moreno’s “Under the Influence” on Wednesday, May 4, 2016, at Planet Hollywood.

Frankie Moreno’s Opening Night

Opening night of Frankie Moreno’s “Under the Influence” on Wednesday, May 4, 2016, at Planet Hollywood. Launch slideshow »

I won’t say the man was nervous. He handled that himself Wednesday night.

“Why am I so nervous?” Frankie Moreno asked everyone and no one in particular at Planet Hollywood Showroom.

Why? Well, he mentioned Clint Holmes and Earl Turner and Vince Neil in the audience, among many Las Vegas performers invited to the show. Maybe it was because it was the gala premiere of a lavishly produced and expensive new show in a room that can really use a hit.

And, maybe, for all the technological firepower in this show — eight hovering LED screens, new sound system, customized instruments, trio of new pianos (including one that swivels and another produced from the trunk of the show’s ’62 Shelby Cobra), customized guitars and multiple costume changes — Moreno is at the center of the action.

This is no piano in the corner, folks. “Under the Influence,” the show’s deft and dual-meaning title, has for months been a lively topic among Moreno’s Las Vegas entertainment brethren, hotel execs and even the officials at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts.

It was there, at Cabaret Jazz, where “Under the Influence” was born, 45 packed performances with a different theme every week, leading to the meeting between former Base Entertainment rep and entertainment manager Phil Reynolds and Moreno.

That partnership, and the show’s concept, grew from there. Reynolds “just made a few phone calls,” as he says, to his former Base colleagues, who were thrown by Moreno’s talent and vision for a star-power production in the old “Peepshow” theater.

The resources were released, with direction headed up by Base exec Vince Marini and Lacey Schwimmer, Moreno’s life and creative partner, who has led the 15-hour-day effort to bring the show to fruition.

It’s a risk, no question. Base is subsidizing a show in a climate where the four-wall lease concept is the rule rather than the exception for such headlining efforts. This theater has seen as many flops as successes (hate to evoke “Surf the Musical” and “Sydney After Dark” here, but …).

Moreno is not yet an established superstar, billed by Base’s marketing campaign as a “Vegas legend in the making,” the qualifier established that the show has a bold plan to match Moreno’s popularity with his ample aptitude.

As a result, the show has been constructed to play upon, and advance, Moreno’s entertainment capacity. Evident throughout is affection for movement in his band (guitarist Alex Zeilon, bassist and brother Tony Moreno, Matt “Peanut Butter’ Belote, trumpet player Chris Massa, sax man Fabricio Bezerra and backing singers Markevius Faulkner and Chrystal and Ashley Robinson). The choreography is set by Schwimmer, who later dances in the show during the Moreno original “Diva” and the Michael Jackson hit “The Way You Make Me Feel.”

The fluid movement in the show is evident especially at the top, when Moreno uncorks the James Brown-styled “I Gotta Have It” and “Cinderella,” the segment blazing with lights and LED screens showing the song lyrics and an old vinyl record.

This Base-executed armament is a clear indication that the Moreno act has moved beyond the more concert-styled shows at Stratosphere and certainly looks nothing like the days of the Lounge at the Palms and Rush Lounge at Golden Nugget.

That red Cobra, held over from “Peepshow,” where Little Red Riding Hood peeped out from under the hood, is used in two numbers (“Diva” and “Moonlight Matinee”). Moreno’s name flashes alternately, in bold white and glittery script, that reminds of the Elvis backdrop at Las Vegas Hilton.

“Moonlight Matinee” features an old drive-in movie set. Overhead videos produce shots of Moreno’s hand flying across the piano keys. Also featured: Fake smoke — real fake smoke! — emitting from the stage, a video image of Christine Rose playing the violin parts of “Eleanor Rigby,” and a trick little sound effect turns Moreno’s mic into a bullhorn at the start of “Biggest Fan.”

The originals are not yet universally familiar, but the covers Moreno has stitched in certainly are, among them, “Suspicious Minds” by Elvis, Sinatra’s “That’s Life” and “When I Was Your Man” by Bruno Mars. Moreno dips into an acoustic medley, one of the show’s highlights, where the setlist can change show-to-show (“Travelin’ Man” by Ricky Nelson was played Wednesday).

In this segment, Moreno plucks from a wall of guitars a white mandolin. He plays several guitars in the show and also rips into a harmonica solo in the middle of the set. But the musical strength, and galvanizing moments, of the show are just him at the piano illuminated by a single spotlight.

“Eleanor Rigby,” his own “Some Kind of Love” and the penultimate “Bridge Over Troubled Water” take over the room and remind why those backing Moreno believe that he is worth this expensive leap of faith.

While it is the goal of Base and Caesars Entertainment to make Moreno a legend, Moreno’s objective is to use “Under the Influence” to spark a trend of investment in high-caliber performers and productions in this city. As he said after Wednesday’s show, “This is what we’re talking about, starting that new wave in Vegas.”

Such talk is not cheap. But neither is this show, nor the man who is at the front.

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

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