August 18th, 2008
If the prospect of talented performers singing for your supper whets your appetite, then gorge yourself on "Let's Go to the Movies," produced by Todd and Jennifer Vigiletti for Tibbies at the Queen Mary.

It's a dinner theater cabaret show that pays homage to the movies. It's pure spectacle, urbane and elegant, from the spotlight that creates moons on the wall and reflects sequined gowns, to the intimate dining area/stage bedecked in black, white and red, to the costumes that range from tuxedoes to cowgirl get-ups to Dorothy Gale of Kansas’s gingham dress.

The music sets the rambunctious tone for the evening. It's live (the Tibbies Trio) and it covers standards from the early days of Fred and Ginger all the way to, yes, disco (in fact the evening's best song was from "Footloose"). It sets the performers dancing everything from the Continental to barn dances, tap dancing to elegant waltzes, John Travolta gyrations to some hilarious ballet.

The uniqueness factor resides in the setting.

It's the Queen Mary, so things are glamorous, not glitter-glam.

It's like a self-enclosed world - no windows, so it's easy to forget that you’re dry-docked. The whole thing radiates with nostalgia: the songs, of course, and the costumes. Even the very idea of variety shows, those things we used to watch on TV when we were kids, harkens back to an earlier time. Now we have amateurs getting past judges to score recording contracts or, if that fails, becoming infamous on YouTube.

The production glimmers with a patina of stateliness and class. It's not overdone (neither was the salmon), it's just right. There's a sense of synergy. Servers become performers, the audience sings and claps along. Birthdays and anniversaries are commemorated. There are a couple of movie trivial pursuit sessions.

The servers/performers interact with the audience, constantly. They actually beam at you, with enthusiasm. The connection makes you giddy. You feel like you're lifted up on a wave in the middle of the ocean and then, at the end, the finale brings you back to earth. Talk about round-trip voyages.

You already know the songs (including "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious;" there, I've always wanted to write that word): "Over the Rainbow," "Where Do I Begin," the potato/tomato song that caused a Vice President such fits. You know the movies of origin. You know the original performers. And yet, there's something enchanting about seeing them performed before you, live, by the person who just brought you your ice cream and coffee.

With the songs, the setting, the costumes, the urbane club atmosphere, and the spotlights, the evening smacks of romance. But man and woman do not live by romance alone. There are some very funny moments to undercut the mood, lest we all head off to Las Vegas to elope. There's a humorous un-campy (miraculously) rendition of Manly Ballerinas of the Prairie.

The first course song exhorts us to eat our salad. The magisterial first act-closing concession song that concludes movie-trailers features performers dressed as a hot dog, a pizza, a bag of Sugar Daddies and an ice cream cone. Dorothy has trouble with a yodeling Toto in tow and schnozolaed Jimmy Durante sings "Inka Dinka Doo."

All this makes for one enchanted evening, not in the South Pacific but on the dock of little old Long Beach. This is prom night without the big hair, hormonal frenzies and curfews.

The show runs until Nov. 23. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Friday, 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $61.95, dinner inclusive. The theater is aboard the Queen Mary, 1126 Queens Highway.

For details, call 1-888-4TIBBIES or visit www.tibbiescabaret.com

"Superb Song and Dance - TIBBIES Great American Cabaret
is putting on the Ritz in downtown Santa Ana."
By Steve Thomas

Run, don't walk, dash, don't dally, to catch one of the remaining performances of TIBBIES "Silver Screen Spectacular," playing through the end of April. The song and dance review of music from classic Hollywood movies is great entertainment - a delight overall.

Technically, TIBBIES is dinner theater - patrons enjoy a choice of well-prepared entrees along with coffee, tea and alcoholic beverages - but the show is distinctly better than most in that category. Likewise the setting. Located in the plush upper cabaret-themed showroom of the newly restored Santa Ana Performing Arts & Events Center in the heart of Santa Ana's thriving downtown Art's District, TIBBIES is reminiscent of a 1920s or '30s supper club, the kind of place portrayed in Fred Astaire movies where elegant performers sing and dance their way into the hearts of a sophisticated, martini drinking crowd.

The fun of a trip to TIBBIES begins before you actually arrive. Riding up to TIBBIES theater in an antique elevator, walking through old mahogany doorways down hallways lit with alabaster chandeliers, is a trip back through the decades to a time that perfectly suits the classy music TIBBIES talented six-person troupe currently is performing.

The show started with a medley of Irving Berlin songs beautifully sung and accompanied with some fun, half-campy, yet still elegant dancing. Live music comes from a top-notch sound system and a three-piece combo in the back of the room - piano, bass and drums.

Watching "Top Hat" and "Holiday Inn" repeatedly over the years, I have always been slightly bemused by the night club settings. Did people really get dressed up and make a night of going out to see two people dancing with each other in a floor show or onstage?

Watching hosts Jennifer and Todd Vigiletti and their fellow performers singing, and dancing to, "Easter Parade," "Dancing Cheek to Cheek" and half-a dozen other tunes - the very songs that Berlin wrote for the Astaire movies I mentioned - I suddenly understood the attraction of the club environment Hollywood recreated or imagined in those exhilarating films. It is a very swanky form of entertainment.
A medley of love songs by various composers followed Berlin and, again, the songs were wonderfully sung. There is not a bad voice among the six entertainers and all of them achieved moments of real grace and beauty as they traded off the solos-those moments when sound somehow reaches its delicate fingers into the listener's heart and opens the floodgates of emotion.

The show closes with a set of songs taken from the great animated musicals of the 1990s - "Pocahontas," "The Lion King," "Toy Story" and others - and there were moving moments in that medley as well.

In between the opening and closing sets, the cast members serve salads, dinner and dessert, and perform a variety of other musical numbers, including a set of Western songs and several celebrity impersonations. The dancing - a couple of tap numbers and many small-scale Ziegfeld-type pieces of choreography - go off without a hitch. Several are quite intricate and very well done. Jennifer, in particular, is a fine dancer. Jimmy Fisher, Jennifer's partner in the main tap number, is distinctly less light on his feet than Astaire - but then who isn't? Fisher's enthusiasm and heart make him a pleasure to watch.

The costumes are good - varied and quite elegant. Jennifer, Todd, Jimmy and the other cast members are warm, friendly people. They greet audience members on the way out, inviting everyone to return for the next show - "Forever Fifties" - which opens May 10. I'd be willing to bet that most people will in fact be back.
TIBBIES is highly recommended.

TIBBIES Great American Cabaret, 505 N. Sycamore Street, Santa Ana;
1-888-4TIBBIES

• TIBBIES REVIEW •
(TIBBIES at the Queen Mary, Long Beach)

"Classy Setting for Feel-Good Show!"

Well, it’s true the Queen Mary no longer cruises. It’s also true
that the new TIBBIES At The Queen Mary is a mix of dinner theater and lounge act, with the entertainers serving the salad. But you get the picture. TIBBIES has been a part of the entertainment scene in the Southland for a decade. Creators Todd and Jennifer Vigiletti took the time-honored dinner theater format and twisted it to fit into performances of musical reviews. The opening salvo at the Queen Mary is something called “Those
Fabulous Forties.”

It’s hard to beat the Queen Mary when it comes to the dinner
portion of the evening. And the room, a transformed Queen Elizabeth Room on the deck above the Observation Bar, was class personified. Black booths, white tablecloths, intimate service.

Sean Sooter is the star as the emcee with the cruise director
patter. He worked the crowd of international visitors with polish and provided a polished version of the challenging “Minnie the Moocher.” Everyone else in the ensemble got the chance for a solo number in the spotlight. But the group really shined when they were a group. The precision choreography on the miniscule 10’x10’ stage was something to behold, and the harmonies were sweet — particularly the ladies as the Andrews Sisters.

Special mention must be made of the three-man band. The
musicianship of Jeff Linder (piano), Clayton Ives (drums) and Chris Booke (bass) ratcheted up the quality of the evening, and the high tech sound system worked perfectly in the small room.

Most of the TIBBIES crew counts cruise ship time, Disneyland tours and Knott’s Berry Farm gigs prominently in their credits. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that. They are there to provide a good time, and that’s exactly what they do.

The staff at the Queen Mary is to be commended in its efforts to
draw people down with entertainment — Jazz Thursdays, gospel brunch on Saturdays, a comedy club several nights a week and now TIBBIES on Fridays and Saturdays.

Seating for TIBBIES begins at 7 p.m., with the show starting at 8
p.m. For more information or to make reservations, go to
www.tibbiescabaret.com or call 1-562-499-1757.