By Bart Greenberg***With a quiet smile, a gentle manner and an eclectic choice of material, Jeremey Sussman took his audience on a journey from law school to cabaret performer with his debut show at Don’t Tell Mama, From No Business to 
Show Business. The octogenarian may have missed a note now and then, or reached for a lyric, but his charm and his connection with the audience made up for whatever slips that might have occurred. The self-described “recovering contract attorney” clearly got so much joy from sharing his story that the audience couldn’t help but be drawn in. Under the guiding hand of director Geoffrey Stoner and the skilled music director Gegory Toroian, who also provided all of the clever arrangements, with the backup of bassist Skip Ward and drummer David Silliman, the singer certainly had a golden team backing him up.
Sussman’s father had also had a brush with show business as a young adult, working as a social director in the Catskills, alongside another fellow by the name of Danny Kaminsky (aka Dann
y Kaye), who also had theatrical ambitions. But they had a dispute over the performance of the song “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” (E.Y. Harburg, Jay Gorney), a number Sussman performed late in the show with a powerful simplicity. He commemorated his father with the charming “Very Soft Shoes” (Marshall Barer, Mary Rodgers), complete with some appropriate dance steps.
His time in law school was marked with a very clever revision of “Guess I’ll Hang My Dreams Out to Dry” (Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne) with appropriate new lyrics. During that time, he also worked as a pianist in a bar where he performed such delightful obscurities as “One Meat Ball
” (Hy Zarel, Lou Singer) and “I Played Fiddle for the Czar” (Mack Gordon, Harry Revel), which he offered up with relish.
For “Here’s That Rainy Day” (Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen), Sussman moved to a stool—the only time he got away from the mic stand, dead center stage through the evening. This lack of movvement was the one flaw in the program; a more varied stage picture would have been welcome. The number did also feature some lush piano playing by Toroian. His humor about his legal career was summed up in a delightful rendition of “Samovar the Lawyer” (Dick Vosburgh, Frank Lazarus). Before he ended the show, he impishly advised the audience “You Meet the Nicest People in Your Dreams” (Al Goodhart, Al Huffman, Mann Curtis), once again enchanting them.
