Interview with Ron Fassler . . .
I had the opportunity recently to talk with multi-hyphenate Tony Danza, a performer who’s been steadily entertaining audiences for close to fifty years. It was 1978 when he made the switch from being a professional wrestler and boxer to a card-carrying member of SAG, discovered in a New York City gymnasium. A foresighted casting director liked his quality and had him audition for what would become the Emmy Award-winning sitcom Taxi, which won him the role of Tony Banta. Post-Taxi, Danza made a name for himself in the even longer running Who’s the Boss? as well as starring in major motion pictures, theatre, cabarets and concert halls everywhere. Standout roles on Broadway have included his debut starring in A View from the Bridge and working with playwright Arthur Miller, and as Rocky the Bartender in the 1999 revival of Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh. Later, he’d star as Max Bialystock in The Producers, and in the musical Honeymoon in Vegas. He can also tap dance, play a mean ukulele, and sing in an effortless manner than invokes the singer who inspired him and later became his friend, Frank Sinatra. Always busy, he just finished an off-Broadway run in Ben Andron’s Broken Snow and is currently starring on STARZ’s hit show Power Book III: Raising Kanan on Amazon Prime. And this winter, he stars with Mario Lopez in an original holiday movie, Three Generations, One Christmas
Now he’s gearing up for a return to the Café Carlyle (September 8-19), the fabled venue where he’s been appearing off and on for the past 11 years. We talked about the many things that go into the creation of his cabaret shows and here are highlights from our conversation:
RON FASSLER: You’re calling this Carlyle engagement “More Standards and Stories.” What can we expect with this new show?
TONY DANZA: I was trying to think of a title to differentiate it from “Standards and Stories,” the first show I ever did, and I was going crazy. So, I finally came up with “More Standards and Stories.” Clever, right? But it has a subtitle: “How Did the Garbage Man’s Son Get to the Carlyle?” It’s basically that story. And what I’m really excited about is that the ones I’ve done before were about my mother and this one’s gonna be about my father. I get to tell about my old man and I have a couple of pretty funny stories about him and me.
RF: I know in the past you incorporated songs that meant something to you and your mom, so I imagine you’ll do that this time for your dad, yes?
TD: Exactly. I’ve done the same thing but with all new music. We got some incredible arrangements, and I can’t wait to sing ‘em. The band is hot as hell. I’ve got James Sampliner as my music director and piano player and he’s a force. I met him when I was in Honeymoon in Vegas on Broadway.
RF: How have things changed in preparing a new show for the Carlyle since your first show there in 2015?
TD: What happened was to get into the Carlyle back then was really something; not easy. My manager called me and told me, “Hey, we got into the Carlyle.” I said, “Great. When?” He said, “Three weeks.” I said, “Three weeks? What, did somebody drop out?” He said, “Do you want the job or don’t you?” So, what was I gonna do? I didn’t have an act, I didn’t have a show, I didn’t have a piano player at the time. And out of that came “Standards and Stories.”
But as I said, usually my shows are about me . . . and somebody. This time it’s all about me!
RF: Going back to that time 11 years ago when you had to create a show out of thin air, how did you manage it.
TD: Well, I caught a big break. I somehow had the luck to have John Otto come in as music director, play the piano, and arrange 16-17 songs in that small window we had. And John Otto was a legend! He was Rosemary Clooney’s music director and was the main arranger for the Thundering Herd with Woody Herman. . . At first, I thought that this guy isn’t gonna play with me. And luckily, he did. In fact, I’ll be honest with you, there were many times when I would be singing, and I’d look back and see him at the piano and think, “Jesus, this guy is playing for me so how bad can I be?” John Otto really helped me and that was the beginning of it and we’ve been here ever since.
RF: That’s both humbling and extraordinary. And with your love of Sinatra permeating your work, are there other singers who share room in your heart that were influences?
TD: I loved Vic Damone. And I loved Mel Tormé.
RF: Did you ever get to see them perform live?
TD: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. I’ve been around a long time. The great thing about my life is the timing of it. I was in the right place at the right time. If you think about it, I go to college in 1968—those crazy years. Then I come back to New York, and I get into the boxing gyms in the 70s when it was the greatest time to be there! Muhammad Ali was training and Chicky Ferrara and Freddie Brown. Then in 1978, when I went to Hollywood for Taxi, they were all still running around. Sinatra was vigorous, and I get to be friends with Sammy Cahn [the Academy Award winning songwriter] who introduced me to everyone. He was like my second father and he knew everybody! My timing has been incredibly lucky.
RF: Would you say it’s your curiosity in your approach to different roles and a certain fearlessness you have that’s been essential to your success?
TD: I absolutely think that’s true. There’s certainly a fearlessness that you have to have. And with this upcoming Carlyle show, because it’s so personal, is scary. I’m bearing myself a little bit and when you get out there, you can make that connection when you have the Great American Songbook. I mean, you can’t go wrong with that music. It’s something that I think about and talk about it in the first act. That music, if you think about, all that music we grew up listening to is all about love; finding love, losing love, having love, needing love. Love, love, love. And look how we turned out?
Tony Danza’s “More Standards and Stories” will be performed at the Café Carlyle September 8-19 at Café Carlyle, 375 E. 76th Street, NYC. For ticket information, visit here.
Headline photo of Tony Danza by Jesse Bauer.
