Triple the tribute

EACH YEAR Thailand’s largest annual performing arts festival brings to the stage not just classical dance and music but also acts that personify contemporary culture. This year’s event is no exception with Bangkok audiences invited to enjoy tributes to three of the most significant icons of pop culture, namely Lady Gaga, the Blues Brothers and Elvis Presley.
Taking the stage on September 14 is “The Fame Monster”, which is said to be the world’s best tribute to the reigning queen of pop, Lady Gaga.
Conceptualised in Milan in 2009, soon after the reissue of the singer’s debut studio album “The Fame”, this concert immediately established itself as the best European tribute to the chart-busting artist.
The Bangkok show features everything for which Lady Gaga concerts are famous: elaborate costumes, live musicians, energetic choreography, and spectacular special effects including pyrotechnics, kabuki confetti cannons and Lady Gaga’s pyro bra. Official footage from the “Monster Ball” and “Born this Way” tours form the video backdrops.
Lead singer Dale Lapointe is no ordinary impersonator. Not only is she closest to the superstar in physical attributes and voice, but she has also shared the stage with Gaga during her last “The Artpop Ball” tour.
Of Canadian origin but born and raised in Milan, Lapointe studied music, dance and acting and started her career in the theatre and on Italian TV and cinema. She later met Fabrizio Amilcare, founder and guitarist of the tribute act, and found her true calling.
Along with live musicians and dancers, another Lady Gaga alumnus joins her on stage. Choreographer Michael Silas was one of Lady Gaga’s original male dancers, performing in her jaw-dropping “Paparazzi” MTV Music Awards performance as well as on the “Fame Ball”, “Fame Monster” and “Monster Ball” tours. He also appeared in the music videos for “Poker Face”, “Love Game”, “Paparazzi”, “Telephone” and “Judas”.
Entertainers Brad Henshaw and Greg Lawson are up next on September 22 with their homage to another cultural icon, the Blues Brothers, in “The Approved Tribute to the Blues Brothers”.
The zany characters “Joliet” Jake and Elwood Blues were developed from the “The Blues Brothers” musical sketch on the hit NBC show “Saturday Night Live”, which was later translated into the 1980 musical comedy film of the same name, directed by John Landis and starring the John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd.
The stage version, produced by Aykroyd and Judith Belushi-Pisano, adapts the story of the movie, about the brothers taking on “a mission from God” to save the Catholic orphanage where they grew up from foreclosure by reuniting their rhythm and blues band for a performance to earn money to pay the tax assessor.
Henshaw and Lawson who reprise the roles of Jake and Elwood respectively, along with their all-star band and the Bluettes dance trio, have all worked with some of the biggest names in music and theatre. Together they put on a foot-tapping, rollicking performance segueing effortlessly from one classic hit to another, such as “Everybody Needs Somebody”, “Jail House Rock”, “Think”, “Minnie the Moocher”, “Soul Man” and “Shake a Tail Feather”.
The king of rock ’n’ roll proves he hasn’t left the building in “Return to Grace”. In what is essentially a “timeline” style concert, Elvis Presley impersonator and vocalist Steve Michaels traces the greatest musical moments of a generation through 30 Elvis Presley classics from July 5, 1954 when “That’s Alright” was recorded at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, through to the triumphant “Aloha” concert taped at the Honolulu International Centre in Hawaii on January 14, 1973.
A long-time fan of Elvis, Michaels’ devotion culminated in the ultimate accolade when in 2001, he was crowned the “Images of the King” World Champion in Memphis, the singer’s hometown.
The extravagant production scheduled for October 8, features more than 30 performers including six dancers, eight gospel singers, five horns, five strings and a five piece rhythm section and powers through a long line of hits such as “Heartbreak Hotel”, “All Shook Up”, “Jailhouse Rock”, “Don’t Be Cruel”, “Are You Lonesome Tonight” and “Love Me Tender”.
Generous sponsorship from Bangkok Bank, Bangkok Dusit Medical Services, B Grimm, BMW, Beiersdorf, Crown Property Bureau, Dusit Thani Bangkok, Indorama Ventures, PTT, The Nation Group, Singha Corporation, Thai Airways International, Tourism Authority of Thailand and Ministry of Culture has enabled the organisers, International Cultural Promotions, to bring shows of such magnitude to Bangkok.

POP  CULTURE
“The Fame Monster” will be staged at 7.30pm on September 14 and 15. Tickets are Bt800 to Bt2,500.
The “Approved Tribute to Blues Brothers” will be held at 7.30pm on September 22. Tickets are Bt800 to Bt2,500.
“Return to Grace” will be staged at 7.30pm on October 8 and 9. Tickets are Bt800 to Bt3,000.
All shows are at the Thailand Cultural Centre.
Get tickets at ThaiTicketMajor. For details, call (02) 262 3191.
For more information, visit www.BangkokFestivals.com.