The Rat Pack lives, sings again in touring show

"The Rat Pack - Live at the Sands" is a touring tribute show to famed Rat Packers Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin, with three actors portraying the entertainment icons in their prime.

The show, which started in January 2000 in England, comes to Gammage Auditorium in Tempe this week. We talked to David Hayes, who plays Sammy Davis Jr., from his home to learn more about the production.

Q: You've been doing a Sammy Davis Jr. act for a while, right?

A: I've been doing it quite a long time, and it's been great. The experience of it, the energy and enthusiasm I get just doing it. The love and respect and admiration I have for Mr. D is just incredible.

Q: What led you to that in the first place?

A: Sammy was my entertainment hero, someone that I emulated and admired. I wanted to be him, and now I'm him. That's kind of rewarding. Working with this whole show, "The Rat Pack," it's a re-creation of the original, down to the sharkskin suits, the tuxes, 15-piece big band. It's just a really amazing, phenomenal show. I'm the only American in the show.

Q: The show started in England, right?

A: Yeah, it started in England, played in the West End. I was there for about three months. It was just a great experience. It took a British company to produce these three icons. You'd think an American company would do it.

Q: It's meant to be as accurate to the real thing as possible, right?

A: We're using, like, '58 microphones with the cords, so it's authentic. The director has taken a piece of great music and segued it into the creative and imagination, and you go, 'Oh man, I get it.' I've never seen it in this format before. It's really up there. It's the cat's meow.

Q: For you and the other actors, is the goal to look and sound as much like the originals as possible, or is there room to put your own spin on it?

A: When you put the costume on, you are the guy. You are Dean Martin, and Sinatra and Sammy Davis. It's like the real thing. I don't want to give away too much, but there's like, drinking and smoking on stage. When (the actor playing) Frank Sinatra is singing "Angel Eyes," and this beautiful light is on him, and he lights a cigarette, and smoke is going up, and you hear the strings and the horns, and he does this dialogue before he sings - about eight bars into the song, the horns come in, and it gives you that melancholy kind of feeling - it's Frank Sinatra.

Q: Is the audience for it fairly broad, or mainly people that remembered the Rat Pack from when they were active?

A: I think the young people that come to see it, you have your Harry Connick, Tony Bennett's still around, Michael Buble. And where else can you go to a show and actually see a man wearing a tuxedo?

Q: The music does seem to have a timeless quality.

A: A great piece of music I don't think will ever die. It's available out there. "That's Amore," "Everybody Loves Somebody," "I've Got You Under My Skin," New York, New York," "My Way." It just goes on.

Q: You actually got a chance to meet the real Sammy Davis, right?

A: A drummer friend of mine used to play drums with him. I learned from the original, but you never stop learning. There's always new stuff to learn, new books to read, new videos to see. There's always something. The more I see him, the more I'm intrigued by this talent. He was just the epitome of talent. He could do anything, and everything he did, he did great.

'The Rat Pack: Live at the Sands.'

Where: Gammage Auditorium, 1200 S. Forest Ave., Tempe.

When: Tuesday through Oct. 19.

Cost: $26-$71.

Information: (480) 965-3434 or www.asugammage.com