As is often the case with rumors, this has proven impossible to substantiate. What we know for certain is that the group (now going by the handle "Frankie Scinta and the Scintas") played a one-off engagement at M Resort last July 25 and then a Thanksgiving gig in Mesquite. Sandwiched in between was a benefit concert ("A Night in Blue") for the Friends of Boulder City Police Department. Since then, the group has been touring the Midwest and have a date at Hard Rock Rocksino, near Cleveland, in February.
The glory period of the Scintas was 2001-06, when the group was one of the star attractions at The Rio, with their show Laugh Out Loud with the Scintas. They moved to the Sahara – and starting bumping down the food chain – in 2007. They were back at the Las Vegas Hilton, their pre-Rio base of operations that same year. This time, they hung on longer, staying until 2009. After a couple of years on the road (including several sporadic gigs back in Vegas at the Suncoast) they were engaged as the resident act for the tiny (270-seat) showroom at The D, but that didn’t last either.
The group has never been quite the same since 2012, when sister and star vocalist Chrissi Scinta began to suffer a hemorrhaging throat, which had a paralytic effect on one of her vocal cords, effectively silencing her and necessitating surgery. Frankie, Joe and "adopted Scinta" Peter O’Donnell soldiered on with singer Janien Valentine (also from Buffalo) taking Chrissi’s former place. The latter attempted a comeback at The D but, during rehearsals, "My voice just gave out on me again," she told gossip columnist Norm Clarke. This debility has put more of the show’s load on Frankie Scinta but, with his wide range of impersonations that range from Dean Martin to Ray Charles to Tom Jones, he seems more than up to the task.
While praising the Scintas’ D show, Las Vegas Review-Journal critic Mike Weatherford presciently wrote, "To say they are the best at what they do is not to assume there is still an audience for it in today’s Las Vegas. This downtown residency will be a test of whether an act like this works better in suburban and tribal casinos."
Indeed, the Scintas’ period of being in fashion appears to have passed in Vegas and a website with the group's upcoming tour dates that we've consulted in the past is now defunct. However, Frankie Scinta told one interviewer he’d hang in there until the bitter end, saying, "Whether it’s in a 270-seat room, a 10,000-seat auditorium, or in a piano bar with one little old drunk lady watching me sing," he’d still be there doing what he loves.
