The Great Crooners

The Great Crooners

The Great Crooners

Presented by the award-winning Daytime Concert Series

Let the music transport you to the lounge with the valve radio playing or the smoky bar with its lights down low.

The Great Crooners celebrates the rich, velvety music made famous by the likes of Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Doris Day and Rosemary Clooney. Our talented Crooners recreate the atmosphere of this bygone era, sending us back in time with fast and slow moods including songs like Sway, Unforgettable, Embraceable You, Catch a Falling Star, New York, New York, Hey there and Memories are made of this.

Featuring three professional singers - Tom Sharplin, Debbie Penney and Bonaventure Allan-Moetaua. As a professional singer, actress and performer, Debbie has been in the business for over 30 years having been cast in both stage and television productions. She has performed in musicals such as 'South Pacific' in the role of 'Bloody Mary' as well as 'Hot Mikado', 'Annie', 'Oklahoma', 'Jekyll and Hyde' and many more.

Bonaventure Allan-Moetaua, one of the New Zealand Three Tenors, features in this show, where his beautiful tenor voice complements the mellow Crooners style in a similar manner to the voices of Josh Groban and Michael Bublé.

Tom Sharplin reminisces, as he describes early memories listening to the Great Crooners... “The songs of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin were played every day by my father. After work each day he would come home and play his collect of 78 rpm records. One of his favourites was Dean Martin singing ‘Memories are made of this’ which is one of the great songs I’m singing in the show. They were mostly happy songs about love and romance. Some of the greatest tunes ever written were from these days.”

They are supported by a 3 piece band including Bruce French, one of New Zealand's most respected sax players who has performed with Ray Columbus, Sonny Day, Ritchie Pickette, Mark Heke, Peter Morgan and Bunny Walters. Bass player Ray Eade has played with the legendary ‘vision’ band and was indoctrinated into the Southland Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2009. They are joined by experienced and talented pianist, Ron Coleman, who has been working and living overseas, performing on cruise ships for the last 12 years.

The Daytime Concert Series, presented by Operatunity, runs over 200 concerts per year in 24 venues throughout NZ and has become the largest employer of professional singers and artists of its type in NZ since its humble beginnings 11 years ago. Each concert is a quality experience, presented professionally with a unique character of light hearted fun and laughter.

Concerts commence at 11am & tickets are $30 including lunch with the artists (discounts for groups & regular bookings).

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