By Michael Portantiere*** Full of charm, charisma, and talent well known to his fans for his work on TV (“Taxi” and “Who’s The Boss,” among others.), Broadway (A View from the Bridge, The Iceman Cometh, Honeymoon in Vegas), etc., Tony Danza is coming to 54 Below for three shows, from Feb. 11 – 13, with his latest project, Sinatra & Stories, a Frank Sinatra tribute show. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with him via phone to get some details of what his audiences have in store for them.
NITELIFE EXCHANGE: Tony, is this a new show?
TONY DANZA: It’s fairly new. I’ve never done it at 54 Below, but I did it at the Carlyle—and I just finished doing 18 shows in seven cities! The whole show is about two mothers: Frank’s mother, and mine. His mother had a lot to do with him getting started, and he was devoted to her. My mother, when I was a kid, used to make me clean the house with her, and while we were cleaning, we would listen to Sinatra records. She worshiped the guy—she was one of the original bobby soxers. I really got into his records, even though I was only about eight years old. And then I remember, when I was in high school, “Strangers in the Night” hit the radio, and I thought, “That’s that Frank guy my mother loves. Now he has the number one song in the country!” Well, 20 years later, through a crazy turn of events, I ended up spending a lot of time with him and his crowd in Los Angeles, in New York, in Vegas. I was so lucky to be there, when he was still vigorous and out and around.
NLE: That’s great that you had a personal connection.
TD: Yes. I tell stories about him in the show, and of course we do so much of his music, plus there’s some tap dancing. I do a tap challenge with the drummer. Oh, and here’s something I didn’t know but I found out in my 
research: Sinatra played the ukulele! I play the ukulele, so I adapted one of his songs for the uke, “Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry.” We’ve got a great four-piece band; our piano player, James Sampliner, I met on Honeymoon in Vegas, and our drummer, Eddie Caccavale, is one of the greatest ever.
NLE: Tony, the one time I met you in person was several years ago at Patsy’s restaurant, when you were there for a release party for Bobby Rydell’s memoir. Of course, Patsy’s was a famous hangout for Sinatra and his pals back in the day. Were you ever there with him?
TD: No, he didn’t go there that much towards the end. He used to hang out there when he was younger, when Jilly [Rizzo] had the place. But do you know what you’re supposed to do every time you go into Patsy’s? There’s that statue of Sinatra on the bar, and when you walk by it, you’re supposed to touch his shoe.
NLE: Thanks for telling me, I did not know that! Since you got to spend so much time around Sinatra, can I assume that you saw and heard him perform live frequently?
TD: Oh yeah, and you know what I did? I inculcated my son into Sinatra’s music. My son Marc was 
born when I was 19, so I used to travel with him all the time. He was with me the first time I met Sinatra, when Marc was 10. Just about a week before, I had taken him to see Sinatra perform with Buddy Rich in an incredible concert under the stars. It was magical. What happened was, there was a moment in the show when Sinatra took over leading the band.
So a week later, there I am introducing my son to Sinatra, and this little kid says to him: “We saw your show last week, your show with that drummer guy.” Sinatra asked him how he liked the show, and Marc said, “You know what I really liked? When you took over leading the band and you made them play really fast and then you cut them off and turned to the audience and said, ‘Not bad, huh?’” Well, Sinatra couldn’t believe this little kid was telling him about his act in all this detail. He got down on his knees, took my son in his arms, and hugged him. It was insane. Marc still talks about that, his moment with Sinatra.
NLE: One last question before I let you go: Do you do “New York, New York” in your act?
TD: No!!! I wanted to go off the beaten path a little bit. I do “Don’t Worry ‘bout Me,” “Nice ‘n’ Easy,” “I Can’t Believe That You’re in Love With Me,” “Learnin’ the Blues.” I’m excited to play 54 Below again; I think it’s a really important part of the music scene in New York. And I live on 67th Street, so I’m going to walk to work for this show!
Top photo by John Russo; middle and bottom photos by Jesse Bauer
