Still flashing that boyhood grin, Tony Danza is now a salt n’pepper haired 57-year old grandpa! Admittedly, he says he’s gotten a lot grayer and it ‘grows to a point…an in-grown mohawk!” He is forever young, however, as he bends backwards trying to please all his fans, many of whom have loved him since his television days in Taxi and Who’s The Boss. For a guy from Brooklyn who was discovered at a boxing gym, he’s come a long way baby! Being booked at Feinstein’s, says he, means you have to have a title for your show and since he’s developed a flair for tap-dancing (at which he’s pretty good), why not a show featuring songs about dancing.

From the opening “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “I Wanna Be a Dancin’ Man” and the well thought out medley “The Last Dance"/"At The Hop"/"Change Partners"/"Ballin’The Jack"/"Do You Want To Dance"/"Dancing In The Streets," Tony pulls out all the tricks of the trade from joke-telling, to tap dancing, to singing. He’s a vaudeville showman that makes us smile, keeps our fingers and toes tapping and is entertaining.

As a kid, he loved the tap dancers in the movies – Astaire, Kelly. They were his inspiration to learn to tap and now he’s even come up with his own dance…The Tony Two-Step!  I’m sure the lady he invited up on stage to do the routine with him was made a very happy woman.  Regaling us with stories about his stint as Max Bialystock in The Producers on Broadway and in Las Vegas, he reincarnated Max in “Betrayed.”

This Renaissance Man doesn’t miss a beat. He’s got charisma, is a bundle of oomph and you get the feeling he’ll do whatever it takes.  Why he’s even learned to play the ukelele and did a pretty good job on “Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry,” then taking up his coronet (which he purchased at a pawn shop for $150) tooting “Freddie the Freeloader.” Some nice harmonic moments with Sue Terry, on woodwinds, on “The Old Soft Shoe” and the audience are happy campers. One more medley to end the evening including “Come Dance With Me"/"Dancing on the Ceiling"/"I Won’t Dance” and we leave feeling warm and fuzzy.

Lenny Lacroix is Music Director/Piano, John Arbo – Bass/Vocals, David Shoup –Guitar/Vocals and Eddie Caccavale – Drums.

Tony Danza appears at Feinstein’s thru June 14^th.

Sandi Durell
Cabaret Scenes
June 5, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org