“You’re sure to find the looks, charm and charisma that struck a chord with the world forty years ago.”

The three men have received worldwide recognition individually, and now, as an electrifying trio.
“The Rat Pack is Back” has it all: great songs, terrific voices, the easy camaraderie and confident stage presence of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.

The quartet created a show at the old Sands casino in Las Vegas in the 1960s that has become legendary and spawned a tribute show now in its 15th year in the gaming and entertainment capital of the world. That production in turn gave rise to a touring version that played Tuesday at the DECC Auditorium.

Brian Duprey (Sinatra), Drew Anthony (Martin), Kenny Jones (Davis) and Mickey Joseph (Bishop) are not impersonators, although, except for Joseph, all resemble in appearance and voice the originals and duplicate key mannerisms as well.

Anthony not only sports Martin’s pompadour but is never without cigarette and cocktail glass. He swaggers loose-limbed about the stage and has mastered Martin’s satiny, languid phrasing, even if his voice is smoother than the original’s.

His “That’s Amore” and “You’re Nobody Til Somebody Loves You” are faithful to Martin’s recorded versions, down to the trademark quick two-note glide over a single short syllable.

But the performers are not locked into stylings or arrangements familiar to those who’ve only heard recordings. Backed by a Live onstage orchestra, they’re free to take the songs in new directions, just as the originals no doubt did over weeks of nightly performances.

Jones’ rendition of Anthony Newley’s “What Kind of Fool Am I” opens much more slowly than we’re accustomed to hearing it, building to a crescendo clearly — and effectively — calculated to rouse an audience.  Jones, like Davis a short, slight black man but otherwise resembling his character less than Anthony does Martin, nonetheless captures Davis’ stage manner, with constant finger-snapping and a constant prancing dance.

Just as Sinatra, the “chairman of the board,” was the dominant member of the original show, Duprey’s appearance (except for a brief opening number with the other cast members) is deferred to Act II, which he opens with “I’ve Got the World on a String.” With one number he establishes that he not only has Sinatra’s sound, but his gift for phrasing, a knack for starting a lyric a half- beat or so ahead of or behind the music, then stretching or compressing it to bring it in exactly on time.
Act II features more numbers with all the singers, but Duprey’s voice dominated on “Luck Be a Lady,” a Christmas medley and the finale: “New York. New York” and “The Birth of the Blues.”
It would be impossible in the comparatively cavernous, not to mention tobacco- free, DECC Auditorium to create the atmosphere of the old Sands Copa Room, but Tuesday’s show provided at least a taste of what those good old, bad old days were like.