Shaw pays tribute to legend Bobby Darin

On the blue-illuminated stage of the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, Robert Shaw and the band practiced before the house doors opened at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Once open, audience members trickled in as a trumpet set the mood back to the 1950s, the days of Bobby Darin. 

Shaw and the Stardusters performed “Dream Lover — A Tribute to the music of Bobby Darin” as the show’s first appearance in Bloomington.

“Earlier this summer in July was the first time it was performed,” Trish Thayer, director of operations for Lonely Street Productions, said.

Working out of Tucson, Ariz., Thayer joined Shaw after he formed Lonely Street Productions.

While Shaw resides in Indiana to create and perform tributes to past artists such as Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, much of the business and marketing is done from Tucson.

Lonely Street made its home at Palace Theatre in Nashville, Ind., only an hour drive from Shaw’s hometown of Memphis, Ind.

Not only is the show meeting Bloomington for the first time, but the performance was Shaw’s first show on the Buskirk-Chumley stage.

“This is a big one,” Shaw said before the show with a bottle of water in hand and his hair already slicked back in the popular 1950s style.

His nerves did not show while he stood on stage, however.

Shaw has been performing since he graduated high school in 1997. The 32-year-old has traveled across the country acting, singing and dancing. 

He belonged to the Chicago-based cast of the Broadway musical “Million Dollar Quartet” from 2009-2010, understudying the roles of three different music legends: Sam Phillips, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley.

“I’m not an impersonator,” Shaw said. “I try to get as close to the music as I can, to pay tribute to these artists.”

Shaw made sure to read up on every aspect he could find of Darin’s life before attempting to write and perform a tribute to him.

The show was laced with facts of his life and musical career. “I like to immerse myself in the person’s life,” he said.

Darin’s life was not one full of roses, though.

After being diagnosed with rheumatic fever and then a weakened heart at age six, Darin died at 37, leaving his music to be enjoyed by those who were not even alive yet.

“He made the most of his life because he knew he had to,” Shaw said. “He’s a musical treasure.”