{"id":242977,"date":"2009-10-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-21T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/theater-review-sammy\/"},"modified":"2009-10-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-21T07:00:00","slug":"theater-review-sammy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/theater-review-sammy\/","title":{"rendered":"Theater Review: Sammy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Theater Review: Sammy<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Por Charlene Baldridge<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\"complements<\/a>
complements Old Globe Theatre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sammy Davis, Jr. (1925-1990) was an energy-infused hoofer and a far better, more expressive singer than most people remember. He was also known for his impressions, which he performed as an adjunct to dance and song. Along with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin he was a member of the infamous Rat Pack. His appetites and excesses, among them fashion, women, cigarettes and whiskey, were no secret.<\/span><\/p>\n

British musical theater composer Leslie Bricusse first met Davis when Davis came backstage in London after seeing Bricusse and Anthony Newley\u2019s musical, \u201cStop the World \u2013 I Want to Get Off.\u201d Davis recorded four songs from the musical, including \u201cWhat Kind of Fool Am I?,\u201d which received the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Song. According to Bricusse, Sammy kept singing his songs daily during the remaining 30 years of his career.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Fitting tribute is paid to Davis in the world premiere musical \u201cSammy,\u201d with book, music and lyrics by Bricusse and additional songs by Bricusse and the late Newley. Tony Award-nominated Broadway star Obba Babatund\u00e9, who calls Davis his mentor, portrays Davis, who never rested, never stopped moving. The same can be said for Babatund\u00e9 in this demanding role. There are few moments of repose vocally or physically, and if the show has a flaw, excess is to blame. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Babatund\u00e9, who is small in both girth and stature, may be an even better singer than Davis was. An excellent dancer, he inhabits Sammy, his moves and gestures, if not quite yet his mesmerizing, assured magnetism. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Babatund\u00e9 possesses grand sexual energy, however, and his song and dance number (\u201cSomething in Your Smile\u201d) with Mary Ann Hermansen as his early love (but never his wife) Kim Novak, fairly<\/span> sizzles in Keith Young\u2019s choreography and musical staging. The production is enhanced vocally by Heather Ayers as Sammy\u2019s second wife, May Britt, and Keewa Nurullah as Lola Falana, a later inamorata. Adam James impresses as Frank Sinatra and Troy Britton Johnson is fine as Dean Martin. James and Babatund\u00e9\u2019s duets, “Charley Charm\u201d and \u201cSalt and Pepper\u201d are highlights of the show. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Bricusse\u2019s economical book tells the story of Sammy\u2019s life, from his first road trip with the Will Mastin Gang at age 4 to his Kennedy Center Honors in 1987. Though Sammy encounters racism in the armed forces, Las Vegas and Hollywood, the show is fairly sunny until Act II, when Sammy\u2019s predilections lead him to drugs (\u201cThe Candy Man\u201d), alcohol and debauchery. Sinatra forces Davis to look at his life, and Babatund\u00e9 brings down the house with his eleventh <\/span><\/span> hour ballad, \u201cWhat Kind of Fool Am I?\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Thankfully, Bricusse does not explore Sammy\u2019s throat cancer, apparent cure, recurrence and tragic removal of his entire voice box. Instead, Grandma Rose (Ann Duquesnay), Sammy\u2019s last wife Altovise (Victoria Platt) and the excellent company pay tribute to \u201cThe Greatest,\u201d and Sammy sings us out on \u201cThe Good Things in Life,\u201d with dance and a few economical moves and gestures indicating the man who said he could and did, breaking racial barriers for entertainers that came afterward, including the late Michael Jackson.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As directed by Keith Glover, \u201cSammy\u201d is still flabby, based on the October 2 opening, but thoroughly entertaining. There is no talk of further life. One cannot imagine any production without the remarkably indefatigable Babatund\u00e9.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cSammy\u201d continues at the Old Globe Theatre, Balboa Park, through November 8 with performances 7 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Sundays; 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; $54–$89, <\/span><\/span>www.theoldglobe.org<\/span><\/span> or (619) 234-5623.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Charlene Baldridge es escritora de arte independiente y miembro del C\u00edrculo de Cr\u00edticos de San Diego.
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Theater Review: Sammy By Charlene Baldridge Sammy Davis, Jr. (1925-1990) was an energy-infused hoofer and a far better, more expressive singer than most people remember. He was also known for his impressions, which he performed as an adjunct to dance and song. Along with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin he was a member of the […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":242978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Theater Review: Sammy","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}