LONDON PALLADIUM

If I had one piece of advice to you before seeing this show it would be to leave your glasses at home, or at least don't sit any closer than the Dress Circle. Not because of anything you might see on stage. In fact, I would highly recommend putting your glasses back on when The Burelli Sistes come on. But because this show is best seen from a distance. That way you stop thinking about whether this one looks a bit too young to be Sinatra, or that one looks a bit too tall to be Dean Martin, and instead concentrate on listening to the music and the banter.

The first half of the show works hard to take you back to the '50s and the first few numbers seem a touch uncomfortable as the audience embarks on this piece of communal time travel. 

The detailed choreography needed when performing with microphones with 20 metre cables is probably the first thing you notice, followed by the on stage smoking, then comes the drinking, and to fully take us back to another era comes the gags about Sammy Davis Jnr being black, gay and Jewish.

Stylish and highly polished though the show is, it is an incredibly tall order for any performer to match up to the voice of Sinatra, the magic of Sammy Davis or the crooning of Dean Martin.  The banter is lifted straight from the recordings of the original shows, but lack the panache of the originals.  The drinking and smoking seem pantomime - but maybe that's just the health conscious viewer of today in me worrying about the consequences of such carefree behaviour.

Like the best Christmas wish, if you believe in this show hard enough, then you too can spend an evening in the presence of the Rat Pack and London becomes Vegas. The seasonal songs, the giant christmas tree and the Burelli Sisters dressed as 3 of Santa's most fetching helpers makes this a great seasonal treat and you'll leave the theatre singing your way home. 

On the night I saw this performance we left the theatre to find it snowing in central London - now you can't ask for more than that as the big finale!  Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!