Performer Vereen keeping icons alive

Ben Vereen knows about Broadway on the Strip.

When "Chicago" opened Mandalay Bay in 1999 and reopened the door to Broadway musicals, Vereen was there as fleet-footed lawyer Billy Flynn.

But the veteran song-and-dance man points out he also was in the chorus of another Bob Fosse title, "Sweet Charity," when Juliet Prowse starred at Caesars Palace for six months in 1967.

"I was a kid jumping around singing, 'Oh, yeah.' It was one of my first jobs," says the 61-year-old entertainer. "That's how I met Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra."

Vereen performs at the South Point Dec. 28-30, and says he probably will include "a little taste" of the touring show he would like to bring here, "Vereen sings the Music of Sammy Davis Jr."

"It's kind of nice to keep your icons alive, the people who paved the way for you," Vereen says of the tribute that incorporates film clips and a big band. "I tell stories about my personal relationship with him, and talk about the effect he had on society and who we are today."

Those who happen to be in Culver City, Calif., on Sundays can catch Vereen in another venue: the nondenominational Art of Living Church, which he helps oversee as an ordained minister. "It's quite a festive occasion," he says of the performance-oriented services.

"We all celebrate life just by waking up in the morning. But churches are built for people to come together of the same consciousness, on the path they're walking, to share with one another." ...

"Tony n' Tina's Wedding," the interactive dinner show at the Rio, is offering two-for-one vouchers to anyone donating a new, unwrapped toy for Toys for Tots today and Friday. Drop them off at the showroom entrance between 7 and 9 a.m. or noon to 3 p.m. The two-for-one passes are good through Jan. 30. ...

Clint Holmes isn't exactly taking it easy during the holidays. His "Unplugged Holiday Show" started Monday at the Sahara and runs through New Year's Eve. He also guest-starred with the Las Vegas Tenors last Sunday and turns up in his wife Kelly Clinton's Wednesday night showcase at the Suncoast; the final one is next week.

The Sahara gig couldn't be announced until Holmes finished shows at the Suncoast the weekend of Dec. 8, but it's not like the gig involved a lot of planning. It continues the loose vibe of August's Excalibur shows with just his pianist/musical director Bill Fayne and multi-instrumentalist Domenick Allen.

Locals can get tickets for the Sahara shows for $25 (not counting taxes and service charges). ....

Veteran producer Paul Stone, a part-time Las Vegan who imported the British variety act Stringfever last May, will be back at the Suncoast with "Variety Live! Direct from the London Palladium" Jan. 31-Feb. 2.

The lineup includes Wolfgang Bientzle, a former "Mystere" acrobat who revolves inside a giant wheel, and Kris Kremo, the juggler who performed in the Stardust's "Lido de Paris" for 11 years starting in 1978. ...

"We love what we do," Sweet Louie of The Checkmates said in May 1998. "I can't explain -- it comes naturally. ... We only know how to do it one way, and that's straight ahead, 100 percent."

One of the last of the great lounge acts from Las Vegas' heyday kept doing it that way until Saturday, when Louie (aka Marvin Smith) died on the return trip from a last-minute cruise ship booking. He was 68.

He and singing partner Sonny Charles caught the tail end of the classic lounge era, and they were the rare group to have a No. 13 Billboard hit, "Black Pearl," in May 1969, while they still were working the lounges.

Services for the singer will be at 6 p.m. Saturday at Palm Downtown Mortuary, 1325 N. Main St.

Mike Weatherford's entertainment column appears Thursdays and Sundays. Contact him at 383-0288 or e-mail him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com.