Lee Greenwood dealt blackjack, but was no bust in Vegas

One of the scheduled headliners at President-elect Donald Trump’s upcoming inauguration appeared regularly at the Tropicana.

As a blackjack dealer.

We speak of Lee Greenwood, famous for “God Bless the USA” and a featured performer in “The Make America Great Again” Official Inaugural Concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Early in his career, Greenwood dealt cards in the Stardust blackjack pit while alternating as vocalist and bassist in the lounge revue Bare Touch.

Greenwood worked those dual assignments for most of the 1970s. He shared this story one night when we were seated next to each other (a great coincidence) at a Terry Fator show at the Mirage. “I was burning the candle at both ends,” he said. “You have no idea.”

Years later, in September 2002, long after “God Bless the USA” became his signature song, Greenwood was the first act to perform at the Henderson Pavilion. A capacity crowd of 5,500 turned out that night.

The Vegas lounge-inauguration connection includes Tony Orlando, too, which is not so surprising. Orlando has told the story of his 1972 debut at the Las Vegas Hilton, when he received word that Elvis, in the midst of his headlining run at the hotel, was dropping by the lounge.

“I see this white flash of something, and everyone started screaming,” Orlando said. “Elvis walks in, he has no place to go because the place is packed, so he walks by the stage and he says to me, ‘Thank you! Thank you very much!’ And then he left. It was incredible.”

‘LOVE LETTERS’ FOR THE SPACE

Some of Las Vegas’ more prominent couples have signed on for a series of performances of A.R. Gurney’s play “Love Letters.” The shows are Feb. 10-14, with none other than Vegas power couple Penn and Emily Jillette opening the series. Additional details and ticket prices are being released this week. Other esteemed pairings who have committed are Bob and DeLee Lively-Torti, Graham Fenton and Nicole Kaplan, Clint Holmes and Kelly Clinton-Holmes and Josh Strickland and Todd DuBail.

TENORS ROCK IT

The staging was advanced. The dancers were great. The band burned. The songs were familiar fan favorites. The place was packed.

That’s the snap review of Sunday’s performance of “Tenors of Rock” at Harrah’s Showroom. This show blazes out of the gate, covering The Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There” to Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine’ in just the opening 10 minutes. The quintet of Gareth and Dai Richards, Jonathan Williams, Tommy Sherlock and Jimmy Denning packs a punch.

The singers, musicians and four backing dancers have already sent a message to similar productions opening in March — particularly “Raiding the Rock Vault” at Vinyl at Hard Rock Hotel and “The World’s Greatest Rock Show” at Stratosphere — that this production is a serious effort. This is not a storytelling show, exactly, though the guys do explain the production’s timeline. It’s mostly a rock concert — with one diversion into a spirited cover of “Music of the Night” from “Phantom of the Opera,” where the guys’ affinity for musical theater is unveiled.

Another highlight was a full-scale retelling of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

For those who saw the first version of this show in November 2013, performed to tracks at the Lounge at the Palms, the updated production is a real eye-opener.

SWANK ALERT

Michael Monge, the onetime headliner at Eastside Lounge at Encore Las Vegas, performs his second show at the ever-swanky Italian American Club on Wednesday night. Monge soared with such standards as “Fly Me to the Moon,” “My Girl,” “Save the Last Dance,” and “What Kind of Fool Am I” during his lounge gig on the Strip. He then filled the IAC showroom in his debut there in November. Tickets are $25 and available at 702-457-3866 or iacvegas.com

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section, and Fridays in Neon. He also hosts “Kats! On The Radio” Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on KUNV 91.5-FM and appears Wednesdays at 11 a.m. with Dayna Roselli on KTNV Channel 13. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.

Note: This version of the column corrects the hotel in which Lee Greenwood worked as a lounge performer and card dealer.