Some time around 8:15 Saturday night, Ron Lewis sent the sounds of The Duprees’ ageless pop hit “You Belong to Me” echoing through the Johnston Senior Center’s multi-purpose room.
Lewis, the one-time lead singer for Rhode Island musical icon Reminisce, was dressed in black tie as he moved from one side of the room to the other, putting smiles on the faces of people who made up what OPTX retail manager Ted Nelson called a “very unique and mixed crowd.”
He wound up at a table where Kathy Maine, an activities assistant at the senior center, was sitting. He slowly took Maine’s hand and continued singing that all-time hit song amid cheers, applause and smiles.
It was a night billed as “Saturday Night Dinner and a Show,” and designed exclusively to raise revenue for the award-winning senior center to continue offering what has often been rated as one of the most diverse array of senior citizen programs in Rhode Island. Roughly 125 people were in attendance.
“Everybody who walked out of here was tickled pink,” said Tony Zompa, the center’s executive director, who has hosted many different events through the years. “I’d say this was our best event ever.”
Few people, if any, would dispute that statement.
Even Lisa D’Ambra, the booking agent for the Steve Quirini-led Starzz Entertainment, was almost overwhelmed with the night’s happenings.
“I’ve never seen a room so alive,” she said. “We were the entertainment, but we also had a blast.”
And perhaps that’s why Zompa and the center’s assistant director, Millie Santilli, talked about having Starzz Entertainment back next year for what officials hope will be the second annual “Saturday Night Dinner and a Show.”
What the center’s team – including staffers and volunteers – did was combine Steve Palmieri’s annual donation of food for a great Italian dinner, including dessert, with the multi-talented troupe of Starzz and donations from many friends into a night that began with special hors d’oeuvres table and ended with Quirini doing his famous Elvis Presley impersonation.
“I’ve never seen such an atmosphere in our multi-purpose room,” Zompa added. “This was the total package. Our dance floor has never been so packed. The food and entertainment was over the top.”
The setting was superb. On each tabletop, for example, was sat two bottles of wine donated by New York Life Insurance local licensed agents Christopher Conti and Pete Matteo. There were also red, orange and green placemats and a weight that anchored bouquets of balloons.
“Everybody commented about the food,” Zompa said of the annual donation made by D. Palmieri’s Bakery, which can be reached at 401-621-9357 and is located at 624 Killingly St. in Johnston. “The food was absolutely delicious, and those desserts ... oh my goodness, they were unbelievable.”
From start to finish, Starzz Entertainment took center stage, with Donna and Perry Gonsalves manning the troupe’s sound system and people like disc jockey Tommy Falcone – a.ka. Tommy Tunes – pumping up the crowd and setting the stage for Lewis and Quirini.
What the audience didn’t know about Lewis is that a while back, he came out of retirement after a star-studded career as lead singer with Reminisce because – as D’Ambra later explained – “he wanted to work with Steve [Quirini].”
As for Quirini, his Elvis impersonation – which included one of the King’s life-like outfits and singing “Welcome to My World” – was highlighted when he took a page out of Presley’s once-famed presentation of giving a silk scarf to the ladies.
Add to that the numerous gift certificates donated by people who wanted to be identified as “Friends of the JSC,” and the result was a one-night dinner and show that drew rave reviews.
Perhaps Matteo – who also owns and operates Bar 101, and along with Conti donated all the wine and a $50 gift certificate to Luigi’s – said it best after presenting attendees with senior financial information:
“Show time at it’s very best!” he said. “I’m not sure there’s a place around that could match the food and entertainment that was served here tonight.”
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