Performers have high hopes for show space

There are many causes in this world, and Las Vegas entertainers raise money for lots of them. Everything from Family Promise, sheltering homeless families here in town, to earthquake victims in L'Aquila, Italy.

Recently, a bunch of performers had a benefit to put better lighting and sound in a little room that's important to them, but maybe not to you.

Not yet, anyway.

They call it the Cabaret Showroom at the Liberace Museum. The name flatters a modest space with black walls and a step-up stage, a room that can fit about 90 people and one of Liberace's nine-foot, mirror-tiled grand pianos.

But local show folk -- most of them from Broadway musicals in residence -- have adopted it as their hub, a place to showcase a genre still missing amid our filthy hypnotists, Michael Jackson impersonators and topless vampires.

They call it cabaret, which may be confusing in the same way you can call "lounge" a musical genre or the place you hear it.

"In New York, cabaret's an institution," explained Keith Thompson, a "Jersey Boys" conductor. Broadway actors all have a cabaret show, both as a practical audition vehicle and a means "to give the arts a voice."

The benefit for the Liberace Foundation and Museum gave patrons a crash course in the genre. It ranged from showroom veteran Clint Holmes' hushed rendition of "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?" to Thompson singing about how his cat never poops.

"The most important part of doing an interesting cabaret show is being truthful and self-revealing," pianist Philip Fortenberry told the crowd. But that doesn't leave out fun, especially in the looser second half, with "Jersey Boys' " Erich Bergen and Travis Cloer going all Bill Murray lounge lizard on the Divinyls' "I Touch Myself" and Styx's "Renegade."

Granted, the benefit may have been a little inside if you don't appreciate jokes about having to sing alto instead of soprano. And at 31/2 hours, it might have jeopardized some of the good will it engendered with civilians.

But most of us understand: Give show people a chance to perform and that's just what they'll do.

And the little cabaret is creating a ripple effect. Saturday's big Michael Jackson benefit at the Palms had its roots there. So did "Jersey Boy" Rick Faugno, assisted by Thompson, branching out for a one-man showcase at South Point. And Thompson taking part in "Dance With Me" on Sept. 19 at the Charleston Heights Arts Center.

I'd like to get back to the museum some Sunday afternoon to see Ali Spuck's show, "Here I Am," after she did the funniest, most original songs in the benefit (including the alto bit).

The performers got my attention. Maybe some day they'll get yours, too.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.