Las Vegas Weekly

March 27, 2010 · 9:47 AM

Exclusive photos: Legends rehearse for tonight’s Michel Legrand tribute

By Robin Leach

Michel Legrand's rehearsals included his guest performers at MGM Grand Garden Arena on March 26, 2010. Music legends Andy Williams, Melissa Manchester, Michel Legrand, Dionne Warwick and Steve Lawrence are pictured here.

Photo: Tom Donoghue/www.donoghuephotography.com

“The man is a genius,” said actor Jon Voight at yesterday’s rehearsals for tonight’s 50th anniversary tribute concert to Michel Legrand at MGM Grand Garden Arena.

“They just don’t make them anymore like him,” said Dionne Warwick after she rehearsed her duet with the 78-year-old award-winning and chart-busting composer legend.

“It is the greatest honor of my career to stand beside him and sing and play for him,” George Benson told me.

Contributing photographer Tom Donoghue was granted unprecedented access as the stars rehearsed for tonight’s mega-musical extravaganza, and Vegas DeLuxe is proud to post his exclusive gallery of candid photos. We also posted Tom’s photographs from Thursday’s rehearsals.

Just what does it take to celebrate 50 extraordinary years as the main man of music and turn it into a two-hour PBS TV special?

To start with, 10 cameras and a dozen of the biggest superstar singers and musical masters! Believe it or not, there isn’t an ego anywhere. Just reverential respect and hushed admiration for the legendary man of magical melodies.

At tonight’s show, expect to thrill to Dionne, George, Melissa Manchester, Patti Page, Steve Lawrence, Andy Williams and Frank Sinatra Jr. with beautiful Jennifer O’Neill and Jon serving as hosts. Legendary comedian and film star Jerry Lewis will be a guest conductor of the 66-piece orchestra to give Michel a brief break.

Sting, Lionel Richie and Quincy Jones are scheduled to appear in the final PBS fundraiser broadcast. Rumors abound that Barbra Streisand herself also will make a surprise appearance tonight. She’s expected because famed lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman are taking part, and Marilyn is Barbra’s best girlfriend. Additionally, there’s a “Pieces of Sky” salute to Barbra’s award-winning film Yentl, and Michel himself will sing his “Once Upon a Summertime” theme from Barbra’s 1989 album. How could she miss out?!

I watched and listened in awe yesterday as Andy and Steve rehearsed their separate numbers. The orchestra made up of many Las Vegas musicians sounds phenomenal and, in the now-intimate, carved-down MGM Grand Garden Arena for TV purposes, has a Royal Albert Hall or Carnegie Hall feel about it.

You know the magic of music is in the air when technicians and backstage crew applaud during rehearsals, and the show stoppers with Dionne, Melissa and Patti singing Michel’s “Windmills of Your Mind’ are breathtakingly beautiful.

Tonight’s audience will get two hours of some of the best music in the world performed by some of the greatest artists on the planet. What movie theme has Michel Legrand not composed? What hit songs have he not orchestrated and played?

As a jazz pianist, he was just 22 years old with his first album I Love Paris. He has record more than 100 albums and received 13 Oscar nominations, taking home three Oscars and five Grammy Awards. He has worked with the biggest names in the business: Ray Charles, Neil Diamond, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Lena Horne, Diana Ross, Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli, Johnny Mathis and Tony Bennett to name just a few of the greats.

Ask him to pick his favorite stars and favorite tunes, and he can’t -- and won’t. He doesn’t even want to look backwards through his remarkable catalog. Even at his age and a half-century of hits behind him, Michel will tell the audience tonight that there’s still more to come.

The classical pianist, arranger and conductor has composed more than 200 film and TV scores, in addition to several musicals, including his beloved Summer of 42, The Thomas Crown Affair and Terms of Endearment. All of them get their moments of glory tonight, and at the end of the exciting and elegant evening, I’m betting the crowd will be cheering long and loud to drown out the nearby competition from John Mayer at Mandalay Bay, Lionel Richie at Caesars Palace, Garth Brooks at the Wynn and Jay-Z at the Palms.

What a night of musical achievements covering the genres of pop, rock, blues, R&B, country, hip-hop and Michel’s modern-day standards.

We’ll have full photo coverage of the show right here at Vegas DeLuxe on Monday, along with my interviews with the stars. Meantime, tickets are still available for tonight’s performances at MGM, and all I can tell you is that based on the rehearsals I attended, this superstar spectacular is going into the music history books!

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter at Twitter.com/Robin_Leach.

Follow Vegas DeLuxe on Twitter at Twitter.com/vegasdeluxe.

Follow VDLX Editor Don Chareunsy on Twitter at Twitter.com/VDLXEditorDon.

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