This is a weekly feature on BroadwayLiving.com. It’s just like the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”. You know how it goes…someone throws out an actor’s
name and you have to try to connect them to Kevin Bacon in six steps or less.
I thought it might be fun to do the same thing with the
theater’s luminaries. I will be trying to connect them to the
longest running show in Broadway history, The Phantom of the Opera and
its very first “Phantom”, Michael Crawford.
Sammy Davis, Jr. was born the son of vaudevillian dancers. After his parents’ divorce and a short stint living with his paternal grandparents, Sammy began traveling with his father, Sammy Davis, Sr., on the vaudeville circuit. Under the tutelage of his father and his honorary uncle, Will Maston, Sammy was dancing on the stage by the age of four. Soon
he was incorporated into the act which became know as the Will Maston Trio.
Growing up in vaudeville, Sammy developed an incredibly
wide range of talents as a dancer, singer, comedian, actor, impressionist
and instrumentalist. With these talents Davis, Jr. gained wide spread recognition. In
1956 he made his Broadway debut in Mr. Wonderful. In this star vehicle he didn’t have to stretch much, he played a nightclub entertainer trying to make it big. The show included roles for Davis, Sr. and Maston as “Dad” and “Uncle”,
respectively, and most of the second act was simply the nightclub act of
the Will Maston Trio.
In 1959 he became eternally linked with Las Vegas, Frank
Sinatra and Dean Martin when he became a charter member of the Rat Pack. Davis, Jr. headlined at the Frontier Casino for many years but wasn’t allowed to reside in the hotel as the white performers did. He
was forced to find accommodations elsewhere because of racial segregation.
Sammy returned to Broadway in 1964 when he took on the role of Joe Wellington in the musical Golden Boy. The adaptation of the Clifford Odets’ play featured Davis, Jr. as a boxer from Harlem struggling to rise to fame in a “White Man’s” world. The
show, whose plot included an inter-racial relationship for Wellington, earned
Sammy a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a musical.
Sammy’s nightclub and recording career flourished
and he also made several movies, among them the original Ocean’s
Eleven (1960) and Porgy and Bess (1959) but he would only
make two more Broadway appearances. He returned in 1974 for a two-week
special event called Sammy which also featured the Nicholas Brothers. His
final turn was as the character Littlechap in a short-lived revival of Stop
the World –I Want to Get Off in 1978.
1) Sammy Davis, Jr. was in Golden Boy with Don Crabtree
2) Don Crabtree did the original production of 42nd Street with Beth McVey
3) Beth McVey was the original Madame Firmin in The Phantom of the Opera with Michael Crawford.
“Where do you turn
when you burn with this feeling of rage?
Who do you fight
when you wanna’break out but your skin is
your cage?”
…Joe
in Golden Boy
So that’s the game. Join me each week as I
try to come up with new ways of connecting Michael Crawford to the entire
theater community.
