Moving Las Vegas: the Lounge Show

Put Wayne Newton in front of a symphony orchestra, and the veteran entertainer just might take a Pavarotti-like turn on Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma”?

Not on your life.

Newton has never been one to put on airs or arias. His appearance Friday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, his first of a two-night run, proved what everyone knew all along: You can take Wayne Newton out of Las Vegas, but you can’t take Las Vegas out of Wayne Newton.

True to form, the 55-year-old entertainer turned Segerstrom Hall into a casino showroom, with jokes, endless trips down memory lane and even an Elvis impersonation from one of his vocalists.

He introduced many of the songs in classic lounge-act style, with the refrain “And it sounds something like this.” He also emphasized sentiment by dedicating numbers to Frank Sinatra, military veterans, including those in the audience, whom he asked to stand for applause, and, of course, “you beautiful ladies.”

Newton closed the show with “My Way,” sung in convincing fashion, but not so convincing that you’d mistake him for Sinatra. In short, Newton stayed true to himself.

And that’s just what the adoring audience wanted. Although Newton’s once golden voice has gone to gravel, he’s still a master of pacing, chumminess and all things associated with lounge entertainment. He played piano, guitar and banjo, bringing energy at every turn. When he said he wanted to stay onstage all night, we almost believed him.

Still, Newton might have taken better advantage of the orchestra. While the musicians provided simple accompaniment or crescendo here and there, they often seemed superfluous to the proceedings. Only on a considered version of “September,” backed by lush string passages, did Newton and the orchestra come to terms.

The orchestra, under the direction of Richard Kaufman, opened the program with deliciously performed arrangements of film music, including the concert premiere of three sections from the 1953 western “Shane,” written by Victor Young and Mack David. Their stirring reading of sections from Ottorino Respighi’s “The Pines of Rome” carried the requisite majesty and, during “The Pines of the Appian Way,” an appropriate sense of menace.