Leader of the Pack

Oh, you young folks, with your Ocean’s Eleven and all that. There’s nothing to compare to the original Rat Pack, who collectively starred in the original movie. And anyway, who today could be as suave, classy, footloose and, okay, a little bit sleazy, as Frank Sinatra, one of the redoubtable kings of said Rat Pack? Sinatra had everything: rags-to-riches fame, sinister connections, loads of charisma and a voice like raw silk. George Clooney is more handsome and completely, can’t-touch-me debonair, but he’s way too principled a guy to touch Ol’ Blue Eyes, and he probably never even meant to try. The best he could do was to reimagine Danny Ocean to fit his own two feet.

But even if it’s hard to imagine anyone sitting in the chair reserved for the Chairman of the Board, there are a few who qualify, at least in some respect, and Sinatra tribute act Steve Lippia turns out to be one of them. They say you can’t tell the difference with your eyes closed, which is why Simply Sinatra, his pops performance tonight with the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, might just be the next best thing to seeing and hearing the real thing.

Lippia will style on such classic tunes as “The Best Is Yet to Come” and “Fly Me to the Moon” tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Macky Auditorium on the University of Colorado campus in Boulder, with apt backing by the BPO; for tickets, $13 to $78, visit www.boulderphil.org or call 303-449-1343, ext. 2.
Sat., Jan. 17, 7:30 p.m., 2009