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Published on: 9/1/2007
Last Visited: 9/1/2007
Few, though, have stuck with the R at Pack act as long as Nigel Casey, the London-born 41year-old who plays Dean Martin in Frank, Sammy & Dean - the Rat Pack Live From Las Vegas, an Olivier award-nominated show which, following its West End run, returns to the Gaiety Theatre on September 10. ‘‘I've been doing the job for two years," Casey says.
‘‘I've never done a show for that long.I've just signed again for another five months.Next month, we're going back to the States and we're going to do the West Coast.While people are enjoying it and it's fun, why not stick around?"
Although Casey is a musical veteran, with previous credits including Starlight Express, Jesus Christ Superstar, Grease and West Side Story, when his agent called him up several years ago about the audition to play Dean Martin, he was less than prepared for the role.
‘‘She thought I looked a bit like Dean Martin.I wasn't a Dean Martin fan, I didn't have any Dean Martin albums or anything.My father was a huge Frank Sinatra fan, though, so we did always have the music at home when I was a kid.I went along to the audition, learned a Dean Martin song on the way there, and did King of the Road."
It was a sufficiently impressive version to convince the show's producers that Casey should be cast as Dean Martin.
After he signed on the dotted line, Casey hit the libraries. ‘‘It was a thrill finding out about him," he says.
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Casey describes The Rat Pack: Live From Las Vegas as ‘‘not so much a musical theatre show as a crossover into cabaret".
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Asked about the challenges in the show, Casey says that he finds life most difficult when the team hit American shores.
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Playing Dean Martin has had some interesting repercussions for Casey in his personal life.He's occasionally asked to appear at functions as Dean Martin.Does he take on the jobs? ‘‘Now and again," Casey laughs. ‘‘I try and stay away from it."
The money for such employment isn't as lucrative as people believe, he adds. ‘‘It's probably not anywhere near half as much as people think.Dean in the 1960s was earning ten million a year from his show on TV.Let's just say I'm nowhere near those noughts at the end."
Casey has also branched out in recent times to record his own album, Forever is a Long Time, which was released in Germany. ‘‘It was a dream come true," he says.Although it would presumably have been an extremely easy - and more far commercially fruitful - route for him to take, Casey jettisoned the idea of doing Dean Martin covers in favour of creating his own original material for the album.
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For the moment, though, Casey will be making his living every night by getting under the skin of one of the best-loved entertainers of all time.The shows have been extremely successful so far.
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‘‘That would be nice, that would be optimistic," Casey says.But it's not something Casey has to think about much right now. ‘‘I'll just keep singing those songs."
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