Las Vegas Sun

By John Katsilometes

Published Sat, Nov 21, 2015 (4:30 p.m.)

Updated Sat, Nov 21, 2015 (7:36 p.m.)

Funny thing about saying “yes” to every professional offer: One moment you’re without a gig, wondering whence your next paycheck will arrive. The next, you’re a star of a Broadway show, featured performer in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and guest vocalist in a holiday production on the Strip.

Yes, it’s been a rocket ride for Ruby Lewis since we met her in June as a cast member of “For the Record: Baz” at Light in Mandalay Bay. That show closed in September, and the cast has effectively dispersed while awaiting word of its future, whatever that might be.

But Lewis, who blew minds as Daisy Buchanan from “The Great Gatsby,” is back on the Las Vegas stage beginning tonight. She’s the guest star in a series of holiday-tinged shows with Human Nature at Sands Showroom at the Venetian. “Christmas, Motown and More” is the annual rite of passage, running through Dec. 22 (tickets are $49 through $170 VIP, fees not included, call 702-414-1000 or go to Venetian.com to click through the purchase process).

The show is an unabashed trip down Santa Claus Lane, with Human Nature rolling out holiday faves from its 2013 release, “The Christmas Album.” Filling the set are such recognizable numbers as “Please Come Home for Christmas,” “Sleigh Ride,” “Silent Night," "O Holy Night,” “Winter Wonderland” and the fun video segment of the guys in animated form singing “White Christmas” while stranded in the desert outside Las Vegas. Also on the list are some of the Motown songs held over from the group’s long-running stage show of that theme.

Human Nature effectively discarded its Motown show Wednesday night in favor of a more wide-ranging production in line with its “Jukebox” CD release of October 2014. The holiday show is a convenient steppingstone toward that new production. If you are wondering about the “where” of it all, you’re not alone, and Human Nature has for weeks been reviewing a couple of options for a home stage in 2016.

An announcement of that move is expected during the run of “Christmas, Motown and More,” so some hotel — maybe the Venetian itself — is to receive a wonderful Christmas present.

How Lewis factors into this kinetic series of events is entirely by happenstance. Human Nature took in a performance of “Baz” at Light, and afterward Andrew Tierney asked Lewis if she would guest star in the holiday show — which at the time was six long months in the offing.

“I said yes,” says Lewis just after a rehearsal of the holiday show Thursday afternoon at Sands Showroom. “I love what these guys do anyway, and in this business, you say 'yes' to everything.”

Careful about that. At the time, Lewis also was being eyed for the lead role in the upcoming Cirque du Soleil production of “Paramour,” the first Cirque show developed for Broadway. As “Baz” was closing, Lewis was about to say “yes” to an offer to star in that upcoming production. “Paramour” is based on the Golden Age of Hollywood, in which a lovely young actress (Lewis) must choose between a well-known director and a composer.

At the moment, Lewis is the lone cast member announced for a 38-member company of actors, dancers, aerialists and various circus performers. The production opens in April and is sure to generate ample advance buzz simply because Cirque has never attempted anything like a proper Broadway show.

Cirque and For the Record were linked, in part, through “Baz,” as Cirque was the production partner when the show was staged at Light. In seeking a show that could work in such an uncommon stage space as Light, Cirque officials quickly realized that Lewis was easily a Broadway-caliber performer.

“I’m like, ‘Can I sing while doing aerial?’ Sure, yes,” Lewis says, adding that her beau, Ciaran McCarthy (who convincingly portrayed Jay Gatsby in “Baz”), and she had been “still hanging in Las Vegas” and looking for the next big thing. She was quickly asked if she would appear on behalf of the show during the 89th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York.

“I was like, ‘Are we talking about the big parade?’ Of course!” Lewis says. “You say 'yes' and work everything out after.” That meant sliding a trip to New York into the schedule for the Human Nature shows. Lewis leaves Wednesday for a 3 a.m. call time at the parade and is back in time for Friday’s shows at the Venetian.

In the holiday production, Lewis is being employed in a manner similar to guest star Robin Meade in the 2014 performances. She’s singing in duet with Toby Allen, whose baritone voice is a healthy complement to Lewis’s soaring vocals, on “Baby It’s Cold Outside.” The two happily amble through the audience, Human Nature-style, during the number.

Lewis also is performing the Ella Fitzgerald holiday standard “The Christmas Song,” mixes with the full lineup on “Sleigh Ride” and delivers a medley of holiday hymns.

Whatever it is, Lewis can sing it.

“I sang hymns in my first public performance, actually,” Lewis recalls of a time in her hometown of Shelbyville, Ky. “I was about 3 years old, and I was in church, it was Christmas, and I did this call-and-response thing.”

Hey, they asked. And Ruby Lewis was ready with a one-word answer, and a performance for the ages.

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

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