Tony Bennett: Concert of Hope
((Pantages Theater; 2,700 seats; $ 1,000 top))
Promoted by Center on Addiction & Drug Abuse; produced by Ken Ehrlich Prods. Executive producer, script, Ehrlich; executive in charge of production, Angela Fairhurst; associate producer, Renato Basile; consulting producer, Danny Bennett; co-producer, Tisha Fein; director, Louis J. Horvitz; lights, Bob Dickenson, John Morgan; production designer, Bruce Ryan; art director, Andy Reeder; music directors, Jorge Calandrelli, Ralph Sharon. Cast: Tony Bennett, Patti LaBelle, Peggy Lee, Brandy, Rosemary Clooney, Roseanne, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Liza Minnelli, Tony Danza, John Larroquette, Kelsey Grammer, Ralph Sharon Trio, Orchestra. Reviewed Oct. 16, 1995. Tony Bennett headlined a concert/TV taping Monday night, attended by celeb-packed audience including two U.S. presidents. Ticket sales and other funds generated by the show will, according to its organizers, raise more than $ 1 million for the Center on Drug Addiction & Substance Abuse at Columbia U. Spec, which will air in two-hour slot on CBS Dec. 1, honored Bennett, late Walt Disney Co. president Frank Wells, former First Lady Betty Ford and President Clinton for their contributions to the fight against drug abuse. Taping coincides with release of Bennett's Columbia Records album "Here's to the Ladies," a salute to femme singers of the past, and more or less followed its theme as Bennett sang numbers associated with his opposite-sex predecessors and sang duets with relatively contempo performers. Latter can be seen as latest move in Bennett's campaign to woo crowd younger than his core audience; he'll be at the House of Blues next month.
Highlights here included Bennett with hot young Atlantic Records R&B singer Brandy on Billie Holiday's "God Bless the Child," with Columbia act Mary Chapin Carpenter on Fats Waller's "Honeysuckle Rose" (concept was only loosely observed), and his show-closing "Lost in the Stars," performed in the capacious Pantages sans microphone.
Show ran smoothly under Louis J. Horvitz's direction.
Brief acceptance speeches were given by Wells' widow, Louanne, and Betty Ford , whose husband was in the audience.
Clinton gave a longer talk, promising to continue his administration's fight against substance abuse and noting experience within his own family with the problem.
Bennett responded to his award with a rendition of semi-appropriate (if sung from the p.o.v. of a drug user) "Who Can I Turn To."
