This Saturday night at 8 p.m., exactly 28 years to the month after the passing of Wladziu Valentino Liberace, old friends, former show business colleagues and admirers of the flamboyantly affable entertainer, widely known as Mr. Showmanship, will once again light the candelabra and return music and frivolity into his home. The former Walter Busterkeys inspired the glitz and glamour of many a performer including current day music icons Elton John and Lady GaGa. The celebration is called 'Music, Memories and The Mansion: A Night with Liberace" to benefit Opera Las Vegas, a nonprofit company dedicated to bringing world-class opera to Southern Nevada.
Rock and Roll, Vocal Group and Grammy Halls of Fame international recording artist, The Platters, who recently released their first official LP in 50 years titled Back to Basics with
The Platters LIVE!, are special guest stars for the evening. They will be accompanied on the piano by their music director
Michael Larson.
The Platters, the only officially authorized vocal group to perform around the world today, will be performing their first show in Vegas in more than 15 years when Herb Reed, founding and naming number of the group was honored by former Governor
Kenny Guinn at a Salute to the Troops fundraiser at the
Cashman Center. In 2012, Reed stopped an imposter group calling themselves
The Platters that performed for years at the former Sahara Hotel and more recently the Rio Hotel and Casino.
There will be special performances by Broadway and concert pianist
Philip Fortenberry, who was the hand and body double for
Michael Douglas' Liberace in HBO's biopic "Behind the Candelabra," co-starring
Matt Damon. International Steinway concert pianist and composer Danny Wright, international pianist and Liberace scholar Spencer Baker,
Martin Kaye, British entertainer and piano man who portrays
Jerry Lee Lewis in "Million Dollar Quartet," and his understudy, singer, performer, actor and recent American Idol contestant Jacob Tolliver will round out the bill. Several of the ornate pianos that were once controlled by the nimble fingers of the Glitter Man virtuoso will be used throughout the evening for the various performances.
Those attending the black tie affair will take a "musical tour" of the Liberace mansion, starting and ending in the ballroom. After an opening set of star-studded entertainment, guests will split into three groups and visit the mirrored "living room," the bathroom/bedroom suite where Liberace is said to have commissioned a distant ancestor of Michelangelo to paint a custom version of his famous Sistine Chapel painting on the ceiling, as well as the Moroccan room that was often the site of numerous after show rendezvous. The three groups will rotate between the rooms, ending up back in the ballroom. In keeping with Liberace's focus on young, up-and-coming performers, Opera Las Vegas Young Artists also will be showcased as part of the festivities.
The guest list for the private, swank and intimate affair reads like a who's who of Las Vegas Glitterati. Media personality
Robin Leach, formerly of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," will host a gaggle of elite partygoers at the recently restored and storied mansion. The diverse list of attendees confirmed to frolic among some of the most prized possessions of the King of Bling range from legendary Vegas entertainers such as Siegfried and Roy to billionaire developer
David Siegel of Westgate Resorts and owner of the former Las Vegas Hilton. The Hilton once hosted a residency by Liberace where, after being paid a reported $300,000 a week, he became the highest paid entertainer in Vegas.
Longtime friends of Liberace who will be attending along with Siegel include: Cindy Doumani, philanthropist and founder of the Arf Awards,
John Thompson, The Great Tomsoni, who after a long career on stage and television has recently worked behind the scenes with Penn and Teller,
Criss Angel and
Lance Burton, and
Myron Martin, president and CEO of Las Vegas' Smith Center. They will recount their memories of "Lee," as he was commonly known to them.
The Liberace Mansion is now the private residence of United
Kingdom Businessman Martyn
Ravenhill who bought the mansion out of foreclosure, restoring it to its original glamour.
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