How tribute acts work

What a tribute act is

Wikipedia defines a tribute act as a music group, singer or musician that specifically plays the music of a well-known act. Some are single performers who mimic an artist's songs and style; others are full bands. Many go further than the music and copy the vocal style and the whole look of the original to get as close as they can, while a few add a twist, playing a famous band's songs in another genre entirely. Bands usually take a name that echoes the original, often with a pun. The common thread is that the audience comes for songs it already knows and loves, performed in the room.

A revue, not a single band

The show in Myrtle Beach is not one tribute band playing one artist's catalogue. It is a revue: several tribute artists, each honouring a different star, follow one another across the evening, while a single house band, backing singers and dancers stay on stage throughout. That structure is why the night covers several decades and genres, and why it suits a mixed audience. It is also why the cast can change from season to season without the show losing its shape. The band, the staging and the running pattern stay; the faces at the front of the stage are what rotate.

The natural-voice approach

The production's performers look like the star they portray and use their own natural voice to pay homage to that star's music, backed by a live band and dancers. That is the line the show draws between itself and a mimed act: the singing is billed as live. It means you hear real performers working at an impression, with all the life that brings. On a strong night the likeness can be striking; on others the band and the songs carry more of the weight. Either way you are watching skilled singers and musicians, not a playback.

From Las Vegas to the Grand Strand

The production behind the show debuted at the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas on 5 May 1983. It reached Atlantic City in 1988, opened on Waikiki Beach in 1993, came to Myrtle Beach in 1994, where it has run year-round, and followed in Branson, Missouri, in 1995. Its awards include Show of the Year and Entertainers of the Year from the International Press Association. In Myrtle Beach it played in nearby Surfside Beach until October 2010, before moving the following year into the entertainment complex where its theatre stands today.

When the tribute joins the band

The format has produced one of rock's odder stories. In 1996 the heavy metal band Judas Priest hired Tim Owens, the singer of a tribute band called British Steel, to replace its departed frontman. It was the first publicised case of a tribute performer joining the band being honoured, and it inspired the 2001 film Rock Star. Later examples followed in Kiss and Yes. Stories like these are a reminder that tribute performing is a craft in its own right, built on close study of a singer's voice, phrasing and movement.

Getting the most from the night

Go in expecting a celebration of the songs rather than a museum piece. Look at the current season on the booking page so you know roughly which eras the cast covers, then let the evening surprise you. Sit back during the band's arrangements, which are often where the craft shows most clearly. Join in when the room does; that is the point. And remember the practical rules: about two hours with an intermission, a snack bar but no dinner, no flash photography or filming, and free cancellation through GetYourGuide until 24 hours before.

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