By Peter Lindblad
Getting a chance to perform with a full 62-piece orchestra as part of the Bee Gees tribute act Stayin’ Alive was certainly a thrill for Todd Sharman. Opportunities like that are rare.
More would come the band’s way thanks to the patronage of one of America’s most famous conductors and composers.
“One of the earlier ones we did was with Marvin Hamlisch in San Diego. Yeah, yeah, he was great,” said Sharman (pictured left), who’s been playing Robin Gibb with Stayin’ Alive since the early 2000s, providing lead and backing vocals. “He actually helped us out a lot [getting] our name around in the industry and referring us to different symphonies. So, for a point there, we were doing quite a few symphony shows.”
Sharman remembers them with fondness.
“We haven’t done one in a while now, but yeah, they’re different,” said Sharman. “They’re a lot of fun. It’s a different vibe, but sonically, it’s amazing.”
These days, Sharman’s “Stayin’ Alive: One Night of the Bee Gees,” the show’s full name, has stages all to themselves, covering some of the Bee Gees’ greatest hits for devoted fans everywhere, while throwing in some deep cuts from their illustrious catalog. Stayin’ Alive will bring its dazzling, multi-media show to the Barrymore Theatre in Madison May 14 and the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee May 15, delivering classics like “You Should be Dancing,” “Night Fever,” “Jive Talkin’” and “How Deep is Your Love.”
While people keep coming out to hear Stayin’ Alive reimagine all the great Bee Gees music ever produced, from the ‘60s pop era to their immensely popular disco period, there is something else that draws the faithful.
“The energy. There’s a lot of energy in the show, and a lot of people really love the harmonies and our blend and the sound,” said Sharman. “And the memories, actually. I had someone the other day tell me that the show brought back a lot of memories to them. And that’s, again, just a testament to the songs. When you’re hearing songs growing up, if something happens and you’re listening to this song, it will always kind of take you back to that. So that’s the kind of feedback we get. People are just enjoying it and telling us how they brought their grandchildren or their daughter.”
Noting how eager older fans are to introduce Bee Gees music to their kids and grandkids, Sharman admits the younger generation doesn’t always get it. There are exceptions, however.
“I mean, some of the younger kids are just staring at us like deer in the headlights,” said Sharman. “But then we’ve had like a 9- or 10-year-old guy, a kid … I think we were doing a show in Aurora, Illinois, and he was front row, and he was singing every song. It was mind-blowing. Watching this kid singing, and not just the hits. We’re doing ‘Fanny Be Tender’ and to have this kid singing along, we were just flabbergasted at how he was just right into it and into all the songs.”
Today, Stayin’ Alive includes Sharman, along with Tony Mattina (lead and backing vocals and guitar) as Barry Gibb and Joseph Janisse (backing vocals and keyboards) as Maurice Gibb, The band also consists of Smokin’ Joe Peeres on guitar, Chris Mullin on bass and drummer Tony Priolo.
As Sharman recalls, it all started back in 2001.
“A friend in the industry was putting a couple of shows together and asked me if I was interested in doing a Bee Gees show,” said Sharman. “And he put myself and Anthony Mattina together. And over the years, we’ve gone through various numbers. But since 2012, I believe, we’ve had the same core band together for the last 14 years. So, it’s been pretty great.”
Mattina is a dead ringer for Barry Gibb.
“Yeah, he was always a background singer in a lot of these other acts, and he would sing about high falsetto stuff, and they just figured, ‘Well, why don’t we put him up front and see what he can do?’” said Sharman. “We’ve been doing it ever since, yeah.”
Early on, Sharman said nailing the blend of Bee Gees’ harmonies took time.
“But, you know, we worked hard at it and got to a point where I think we were doing a pretty good job at it because, well, obviously it must be all right because we’ve been doing it for 25 years,” said Sharman.
In many ways, the show has evolved, with production values expanding by leaps and bounds to feature fantastic big-screen video clips, photos and imagery. It’s gotten to the point where many consider Stayin’ Alive to be the largest and most definitive Bee Gees’ production around.
“Well, it’s just the way the industry is going,” said Sharman. “I mean, a lot of it is just the visuals, you know, the advent of different things you can do with a computer and how you can generate basically a show from a laptop, really, and send it out to a huge video screen or a LED wall. I think you’ve got to keep up with what everyone’s doing, and I think everyone’s doing that now, what we started doing a long time ago, and it just adds to the show. Just people look [to see] there’s some nostalgia there that we put up on the screen and some fun stuff from the ‘70s, with some of the Bee Gees and the movies that they’re associated [with], but yeah it kind of needs to be there, I think.”
When he was young, Sharman remembers hearing the Bee Gees on the car radio.
“It might have been early ‘70s, driving,” said Sharman. “My parents used to take us down to Florida every year … I remember hearing, I think it might have been, ‘I Started a Joke’ or ‘Run to Me,’ and it was just so different at the time, and it just kind of caught my ear.”
Through CDs and other media, Sharman heard more of the Bee Gees’ material. They were everywhere in the mid-‘70s, and then they experience a downturn, as disco’s popularity faded.
“Yeah, I mean, they had a lot of great songs in the ‘80s and ‘90s, as well,” said Sharman. “I mean, I know they were pushed into becoming writers after the disco thing kind of went south. They were kind of shunned a little, and they had to, obviously, find another way to be relevant and keep working, so they just started writing songs for other artists. So that’s why you hear a bunch of songs in our show that some people may be surprised to realize that they’re actually written by the brothers.”
For his part, Sharman does love a particular part of the show, but to him, it’s all very special.
“One of my favorite parts of the shows is when we do ‘To Love Somebody,’ and the audience joins in on the chorus. That usually gives me shivers,” said Sharman. “You get some audiences that you don’t even have to tell them to sing, and they’re just right in step with us, singing all the songs. So, I think ‘To Love Somebody’ is a highlight. I really like a lot of them. It’s hard to pick one song because they’re such great songs.”
Compiling a set list nightly can be tricky, given that the Bee Gee’s huge catalog spans decades.
“I mean, they have a lot of great songs. They have a lot of great ballads. So, you’ve got to kind of pick and choose which one you do, and in what order,” said Sharman. “Because you can play all their ballads … it translates, but it’s not as energetic, let’s put it that way. I don’t want to lull people into a sleep, right? So, you’ve got to kind of find a good blend of older and newer songs and disco and the contemporary stuff they did.”
There’s a strategy involved. Sometimes, though, their versions haven’t gone over well with audiences, although to them, they sounded great.
“Over the years we kind of massaged it a little bit,” said Sharman. “We know where to put songs and where not to put them over trial and error. And songs that we can perform well. Some songs we tried and just for some reason didn’t click.”
At the end of the day, Sharman just hopes fans of theirs go home feeling satisfied. That’s all he can ask.
“I guess I hope they walk away feeling energized and happy and just glad to think that they enjoyed the closest they can come to seeing a Bee Gees show, because obviously you can’t see that anymore,” said Sharman, as Barry is the only real Gibb brother still alive. “And I always just want to entertain people and have them leave the venue happy and maybe dancing out the door.”