By Carol Davis
 SAN DIEGO—There’s no question but when fans and critics alike smell success, they are all abuzz! That was the atmosphere in and around The Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park on opening night of the world premiere showing of Leslie Bricusse's and Anthony Newley’s musical tribute to Sammy Davis, Jr., Sammy.
The legendary Sammy Davis, Jr. might just as well have been born in a trunk. His uncle Will Mastin (Lance Roberts) and father Sammy Davis, Sr. (Ted Louis Levy) both entertainers, took young Sammy out on the road with them over the objections of his grandmother Rosa Davis (Ann Duquesnay), who thought the youngster should be in school, at the ripe old age of three. In essence, he grew up on the stage and on the road and during the hay days of vaudeville where apparently anything went. He never did get that formal education.
Davis, whose talent ran the gamut from dancing, singing and acting to performing with the famous or infamous Rat Pack in Vegas died at the young age of 65 from cancer. He smoked too much, drank too much, spent too much, worked too hard, was a womanizer and broke all the rules of convention. In other words, he did it his way even though that song belongs to the Great Sinatra with whom he had a long, sustained friendship. Sinatra also helped boost his career; he was so taken with Sammy. If you didn’t know that much about him before hand, you’ll see it illustrated in the show.
How does one go about putting a man’s life up on stage, one whose popularity and talent is larger than life, and bring it to the people? Let’s start with the talented team of Leslie Bricusse (an Oscar and Grammy winner/ the book, music and lyrics) who had known Sammy Davis, Jr. since 1961. Along with the late Anthony Newley (additional songs) they penned Stop The World I -Want to Get Off (STW-IWTGO) and Willie Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. Both admired and loved Davis.
According to Bricusse in the program notes, Davis became the ‘first American to record the songs from STW-IWTGO’. The two belonged to a mutual admiration society. They knew each other for thirty years. That qualifies him in my book to write the story.
Let’s continue with the talent of a leading man with the credentials of an Obba Babatundé as Sammy. Babatundé is a Tony Award recipient for his outstanding performance as CC White in the original Broadway production of Dreamgirls. Yes, he sings, dances and does a great job of not imitating Sammy but of being Sammy. His mannerisms, stature and looks somewhat resemble Sammy, but in no way does he try to sing or dance (Keith Young choreographed/musical staging, Rahn Coleman dance/ music arranger and Ian Fraser is the musical supervisor/vocal arranger and conductor) like Sammy.
Babatunté is talented in his own right as a song and dance man and does quite well on his own merits, thank you. He is on the stage doing both and with a score that includes more than twenty-three songs; he is in at least nineteen of those numbers yet on the stage for almost the entire two and a half hour (it will be cropped) performance.
Director Keith Glover has assembled an outstanding supporting cast to fill in the blanks as the audience follows the Davis’ career, with the good the bad and some ugly. As mentioned earlier Ann Duquesney is irresistible as Sammy’s grandmother Rosa. Aside from playing a pivotal part in the young Sammy’s life and later on as a support system, she has a voice to die for and uses it well. Both Ted Louis Levy and Lance Roberts represent a voice from the past as well as support for their start along the way. Ultimately, it was the younger Davis who supported the trio as the years went on.
For those of us old enough to have seen Davis either in person in Vegas or on television, or read about his escapades, his public life unfolded before our eyes. We knew what a complex life he led and how complicated a man he was. All this is depicted in Sammy as well as his conversion to Judaism, which surprised the world. It was one of the biggest entertainment stories of the times. It made every headline in the world, I’m sure. He joked publicly “he was entertainment's only one-eyed Jewish black man." He lost an eye in a serious car accident driving through the desert after a Las Vegas gig.
Davis had his demons, which led to drug and alcohol problems as well as the breakup of his marriage to May Britt, later on in his life. While in the hospital recovering from an accident after a night of partying with his friends in Vegas that not only caused the loss of his left eye but seriously fractured the bones in his face as well he needed a good rest from his reckless behavior. As the story goes, during a time of reflection and conversations with Eddie Cantor at the hospital, he saw the parallels between the challenges Jews and black Americans faced, ‘both historically and contemporarily’. This reflection ultimately led to his conversion, which he embraced throughout his life.
Always living on the edge, he married Swedish actress May Britt (Heather Ayers) to the disapproval of those who looked at intermarriage as a sin against, you name it. This was in 1960. It was only a few years before that there was rioting in the streets of Arkansas just to integrate the schools there. Davis and Britt were forced to have bodyguards; there was so much hate around that union. Later Davis would march with Martin Luther King, Jr. campaigning against segregation. He fought it in the military, in Vegas and throughout his lifetime.
He ultimately won the Springarn Medal from the NAACP. Unfortunately, the years he spent in the Army fighting off racial prejudice and the barriers that were so prevalent in Vegas at the beginning of his career were skimmed over in the show in little skits, but showed the impact that had to have caused major scars in his life.
For those not old enough to remember there are volumes written about him. For those hoping to find out more about Davis’ life through this musical, I think you will be somewhat disappointed. Not so much in the entertainment value of this production of Sammy which is top notch, nor in the highlights touched on about his career but because Bricusse doesn’t delve deeply enough into the intensity and purpose of the real Sammy so that it almost makes him a caricature of himself racing through his life which he was always doing.
Sammy Davis, Jr. was not the Candy Man nor was his life sugarcoated. Some of the frosting in Bricusse’s story has to be dusted off so audiences can get to know more than just the entertainer. What made this entertainer tick, what were his conflicts and how his magic lasted throughout the generations is what will propel this show to the lights of Broadway.
The show (again 2 ½ hours long) does move at a rapid pace managing to include most of the tunes made popular by Davis: Once In A Lifetime; Gonna Build a Mountain; The Joker; The Candy Man; Who Can I turn To? What Kind Of Fool Am I? along with the many more original ones and others that move the plot along. Another Day in Harlem, Rosa’s Prayer, Black Sammy, White Sammy, Biscuits Better With Butter, Burlesque, Vaudeville, Getting My Act Together, Livin’ Large and Slow Down Sammy, (If he only had listened to his own words) are on the list.
Some of the questionable calls by Glover are the placement of The Candy Man sung in a drug-induced party while Davis was under the influence. Unless I was under a rock (OK rock candy) at the time, I had no idea the song was about drugs. Another annoying segment was his depiction of Sammy’s conversion. Give me a break, we don’t need any more dances from Fiddler to illustrate Jewish. Mostly missing among my favorites tunes was Mr. Bojangles.
Framed in Alexander Dodge’s glitzy sets that move from Hollywood to Harlem to Vegas to Hollywood to Vegas to New York, and illuminated by Chris Lee’s spot on neon lighting design and surrounded by a bevy of beautiful Vegas chorus girls the story of Sammy unfolds backward in time. Fabio Toblini’s costumes are perfect (except for the psychedelic segment) reflecting the times and duplicating the ‘Sammy’ look, changing as the story moves forward.
The show opens in 1951 at Ciro’s nightclub where the Mastin Trio is performing a gig. (Another Day in Harlem) From there we are taken on the long and oft times look at the disturbing, self destructive yet amazing life of one of the greatest entertainers of 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. It ends with his receiving the Kennedy Center Honors in 1987.
The show boasts more than a dozen characters including a terrific chorus of the beautiful Vegas signature show girls dressed in the Vegas feather head dresses and not much more of anything else. Mr. Blue Eyes (Adam James), Eddie Cantor (Perry Ojeda) and Troy Britton Johnson who gave a horrible imitation of Dean Martin (in a Vegas segment that went on for way too long), Kim Novak another paramour (Mary Ann Hermansen), Altivise Gore, his last wife (Victoria Platt) and Lola Falana (Keewa Nurullah) who many thought might become another Mrs. Sammy Davis, are also highlighted. His relationship with Novak was made short work of by the studio heads that were trying to cut Sammy’s obsession with white women off at the pass.
Davis and Britt and Davis and Gore adopted children. There were three or four in all. Either I was jotting something down or I missed any mention of it, which surprised me since they must have played some part in his life.
When Davis died, the lights on the Vegas Strip went dark for ten minutes. It was almost unheard of at the time.
Barring any unforeseen meltdowns, Sammy will have a life after San Diego. As you read this, I’m sure changes are being made and possible deals are being worked out. Lou Spisto executive producer of The Old Globe told me during intermission that there were several producers in the audience. As mentioned earlier, this is too important a piece to stay in mothballs. Whatever it looks like by the time it reaches Broadway, (and it will need some more spices added into the mix) hopefully Babatundé will be there with it, now’s a good time to see it kinks and all. Catch it now before you have to pay big bucks on Broadway.
Sammy continues through Nov. 8 on the main stage of the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park.
For more information visit www.theoldglobe.org.
See you at the theatre.
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