You gotta love the guy. He is Mr. Entertainment, a charmer who has done it all, or at least he has tried to. He is currently back at the Cafe Carlyle, ready and willing to revisit his previous sell-out show, Standards and Stories, to kick off the Fall 2019 season. Danza's charisma is guaranteed to entertain. He shares stories, singing the American songbook standards to illustrate his journey from Brooklyn to Hollywood to New York and along the way, you can't help falling for the guy. He's been a boxer, an actor, a singer, a TV personality. He plays the piano, ukelele and trumpet and tap dances. Maybe everything is not top notch, but it's all delivered with honesty and heart. And, hey, "That's Life," as the song goes, if something does not pan out so well (like his short-lived Broadway show, Honeymoon in Vegas), Danza's motto seems to be, "I pick myself up and get back in the race.” After years of honing his talents, it is obvious that there is hard work behind this show. Danza has a warm vibrato and delivers his songs with long lines and distinct phrasing. He has adapted the habit of announcing the songwriters of his songbook, songs that tell stories, that characterize people and that are written with wit and lyrical talent. He renders them with know-how. "Angel Eyes" (Matt Dennis and Earl Brent) is palpably emotional, an outstanding rendition. After some patter about passing years and time, he delivers a nostalgic IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR "When I Was Seventeen" (Erwin Drake), accompanied by Dave Shoup's sensitive guitar. The evening’s opener, "As Long As I'm Singing," written by the multi-talented Bobby Darin, is as much Danza as Darin. Another song that seems to reflect Danza's youthful natural appeal is Artie Butler's ""I Don't Remember Ever Growing Up." Danza demonstrates his hoofing chops with "How About You," his face tense with concentration but breaking into a grin when the audience applauds. He offers a special nod to Sammy Cahn. They met in Hollywood and became a good friends. Through Cahn, Danza met the greats of the day: Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis, Jr, and for Danza, the singer whose voice was a soundtrack of his childhood in Brooklyn, his mother’s favorite, Frank Sinatra. Sinatra influenced Danza, and here he delivers a Cahn "Ole Blue Eyes" medley. These include, "Please Be Kind," "Until the Real Thing Comes Along,” and "The Second Time Around." When he brought out the ukelele, he suggested, "Practice this for 30 minutes every day, and in 30 days, you can play it for yourself and your friends for the rest of your life." He proved his point with a versatile selection of the uke's special appeal, from Hawaiian tunes to "Ain't She Sweet" to "Love Potion #9." His love for the standards and appreciation for songwriters, his warm memories of early Brooklyn family life and of his life and family today, are all part of Danza's show. Aptly he closes with a snappy, "If They Could See Me Now" (Cy Coleman, Dorothy Fields). Arranger and former musical director, John Oddo, is gone, but Tony Danza remains irrepressible with Dave Shoup on guitar, John Arbo on bass and Ed Caccavale on drums and Kenny Ascher on piano.
