Voices 3, with some members of Las Vegas Tenors, makes debut

Las Vegas audiences know Bill Fayne from any number of entertainment projects, ranging from his tenure as Clint Holmes' longtime musical director to his performances as one of the Las Vegas Tenors.

This weekend, they'll be able to see yet another incarnation of Fayne when he joins vocalists Teddy Davey and Chris Coyne in the debut of Voices 3 at the Suncoast.

Fayne says the new trio is "kind of an offshoot" of the Las Vegas Tenors.

"Teddy Davey and I were original members of the Tenors," he says. "Now we've added Chris Coyne, who did sing with the Tenors a number of times, replacing one of us when we were indisposed."

Davey, a classically trained singer and actor, performs as a solo artist around town. Coyne has been lead singer in "Jubilee!" and "Folies Bergere" and is a veteran of musical theater.

But, Fayne says, Voices 3 offers the trio a bit more latitude -- and offers audiences a few more surprises -- than a Las Vegas Tenors show.

One reason for creating Voices 3 is to "just change our direction a little bit," Fayne says.

"Teddy, Chris and I, our roots are all in musical theater, so we wanted to do things a bit more theatrically," he says.

"Also, honestly, we found that since we were doing a lot of cruise ship shows, we found out that when people on the cruise ships see the word 'tenors,' they think it's all going to be classical, and that divides people. Some people say, 'I don't want to go see that.' "

"With Voices 3, it doesn't have that stigma," he adds.

In fact, Fayne says this weekend's shows will cover "everything from opera to R&B to jazz to classic rock, country and Broadway, and, of course ... 'popera.' We do all of that.

"And that's really what the audience wants to hear. They want the diversity, not just a highbrow concert."

The show also will include "a 20-minute version of 'South Pacific' " Fayne says. "That's something we want to do at each of our shows: A mini version of a Broadway show.

"So that's going to be a highlight, and we've invited Mollie Tennant, who is one of the lead singers of 'Jubilee!', to join us and be our Nellie Forbush."

"It's something new for us, and we feel like we're kind of out on a limb," Fayne adds. "I've never seen any other group or another show do something like that."

Also a bit different will be that the show will have "a little acoustic section," Fayne says, "where Chris will play guitar, Teddy will play ukulele and I'll play a Melodica, a mouth keyboard.

"So, we're really trying to set new standards for us and for the kind of entertainment that people see. They see a lot of the same stuff, so we're trying to break the mold a little bit."

"It really is fun," Fayne adds. "We've been rehearsing hard. We have a lot of surprises for the audience, and it's gonna be a fun show."

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@review journal.com or 702-383-0280.