Lyrics & Lyricists
Yes, I Can!—The Sammy Davis Jr. Songbook
92nd Street Y, NYC, February 24, 2019
Reviewed by Peter Haas for Cabaret Scenes
“I’ve got to be a star like another man needs to breathe,” Sammy Davis, Jr. once remarked. A star he was, as underscored in the 92nd Street Y’s February edition of its Lyrics & Lyricists series. Titled Yes, I Can—The Sammy Davis, Jr. Songbook, the program was a departure from L&L’s traditional offerings in that it focused on a performer rather than on a writer. Further, the show had no narrator, but it was carried, superbly, by its music and its talented cast of five. The result was a smoothly flowing, constantly riveting show. Among the evening’s stars was Davis himself, mostly in merry mood, via projected film clips that took him from boyhood to stardom, his time as a member of Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack, and on to his final years.
On stage, choreographed in lively fashion by director Tazewell Thompson, were Harriett D. Foy, Jared Grimes, Max Kumangai, Matthew Saldivar, and Betsy Wolfe, plus a lively six-piece band under the direction of pianist Michael O. Mitchell. Their numbers, two dozen in all, included several by Adams and Strouse (“Night Song,” “This Is the Life,” “Yes, I Can,” “A Lot of Livin’ to Do,” among others); by the Gershwins, including “There’s a Boat That’s Leavin’ Soon for New York” (from Porgy and Bess, in which Davis had starred as Sportin’ Life); by the European writer Friedrich Hollaender (“Falling In Love Again”); by Bock and Harnick (“In My Own Lifetime”), along with the Walter Marks song that may have identified Davis best, “I’ve Gotta Be Me.”
In a one-two punch, the L&L presentation coincided with the airing of a television documentary on Davis, produced by the L&L evening’s artistic director and writer, Laurence Maslon.
