Las Vegas Weekly

July 9, 2012 · 11:48 AM

In collaboration with RagTag Entertainment, Bill Fayne is in good ‘Company’

By John Katsilometes

Bill Fayne in his natural habitat: at the piano.

Photo: John Katsilometes

In January, when Bill Fayne worked with RagTag Entertainment on the production “Putting It Together” at Green Valley Ranch, a bell went off.

Or, maybe it was middle C.

“I loved working with (RagTag Artistic Director) Andrew Wright, who was so proactive and organized as a producer, and I said, ‘I really want to do ‘Company,’ ” said Fayne, one of the city’s fine vocalists and pianists who was Clint Holmes' music director during Holmes’ run at Harrah’s (and before that, at Golden Nugget). “I don’t know how he does it, but about two months ago, we started looking at the open dates at LVH and when we saw this opening, we jumped on it.”

So it is that the Stephen Sondheim musical “Company,” replete with a 22-piece orchestra of local musicians under the direction of Fayne, opens a two-night run this evening at LVH Theater. Tickets are $25, and the shows benefit the AIDS/HIV treatment charity Golden Rainbow.

For the show to break even, it needs to sell 300 tickets in a venue where the full capacity is 1,700, or 800 if the balcony and back sections are draped off.

If “Company” is successful, Fayne says, RagTag might do three or four a year at LVH. The shows kick off a “Sondheim Week” in Las Vegas. On Sunday, Fayne and Wright are resurrecting “Putting It Together” for Sunday afternoon and evening at Cabaret Jazz in the Smith Center for the Performing Arts (times are 2 and 7 p.m.). The highlight performance through this stretch is an appearance by Sondheim himself at 8 p.m. Saturday at Reynolds Hall (for info on both productions, click the Smith Center website).

Fayne has performed tributes to Sondheim outside his affiliation with RagTag, including a set of four shows in October at Suncoast Showroom. The two have never met.

“It’s on my bucket list, though,” Fayne says. “I have always loved his music and educating myself about him and his life has given me a great deal of joy over the past year. If there is a meet-and-greet or not, I would love to meet the man.”

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWithTheDish.

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