By Marilyn Lester***Doris Mary Kappelhoff, who became known as Doris Day, thought she was born in 1924, but on her 95th birthday, the Associated Press found her birth certificate showing a 1922 date. No matter as Rex Reed, her good friend noted as 
host of Sentimental Journey: A Tribute to Doris Day, there have been virtually no tributes for her centenary, no matter what the correct date. So, a shout-out to the Mabel Mercer Foundation for celebrating one of America’s greatest iconic film and singing stars on the second night of the 34th annual Cabaret Convention.
As Reed pointed out, the long-lived Day (she died in 2019) might have been perceived as America’s sweetheart, but she was a complex woman, whose several tragedies in life (many of them concerning romance) drove her ultimately to invest her love in animals, which she did with full force. By the time she passed, she’d become a recluse. In this well-crafted tribute, a handful of chosen performers presented songs relevant to Day’s life and career. First up was Maud Hixson (and Rick Carlson at the piano) with “Shanghai.” Day had originally set out to be a dancer. An automobile accident ended those dreams, but she discovered she could sing. She secured a job at WLW radio as well as in 
Charlie Yee’s Shanghai Inn. Of course, Hixson followed her first number with “It’s Magic.” In act two of Sentimental Journey, Hixson and Carlson returned with “My Buddy” and “My Romance.”
Shortly thereafter her start as a singer, orchestra leader and jazz musician Barney Rapp hired her and because he loved the tune “Day by Day,” suggest Ms. Kappelhoff become Doris Day. To commemorate this seminal moment in the singer’s history, Nicolas King offered a swinging “Day by Day” with excellent scat singing. King also sang “Canadian Capers.” In act two, King was back with “Nobody’s Heart.” With his singing partner of late, Seth Sikes, the two offered “The Joint Is Really Jumpin’ Down At Carnegie Hall.” Sikes sang a swinging “Lullaby of Broadway” in the first act and “I Got The Sun In The Mornin’/I Got Lost In His Arms” in act two.
Tedd Firth, music director for the evening, working with bassist Jay Leonhart and drummer Ray Marchica, two great jazz men, created the arrangements for the show. The heavy lean toward jazz rhythms was a refreshing direction for the Convention, adding zest to carry through three hours of performance. Firth is one of the most brilliant and most in-demand master of the eighty-eights in both playing and arranging.
Reed himself sang thrice during the show: “Blame My Absent Minded Heart” in act one and “The One I Love Belongs To Somebody Else” and “Why Can’t I”in act two. An added boost of personal reminiscence was given by Heather Mac Rae. Her father, Gordon Mac Rae (nicknamed Gordo by Day) and Day (nicknamed Dodo by Mac Rae) were great friends. Daughter Heather shared memories of the two and visits between their respective California homes. She sang “I Only Have Eyes For You” and the delightful “Tea For Two” from the 1950 film of the same name in which the two starred. The big surprise of the evening came with this latter tune: it was a duet with Firth singing!
Linda Purl sang a torchy “Love Me Or Leave Me” and “My Dream Is Yours.” Tom Wopat entered and presented an energetic “There Once Was A Man” with Purl and then soloed on “A Town Is A Blue Town” and a fun and jazzy “Makin’ Woopie.” Wopat returned in act two with Deborah Silver to sing “They Say It’s Wonderful,” the two dancing sweetly for a few bars. Silver performed solo, “Ten Cents A Dance.”
A favorite and a not-s0-favorite. In the first instance, Day always said her favorite movie was 1953’s Calamity Jane, which featured the 
Oscar-winning Best Song, “Secret Love.” Karen Oberlin, who has played a Doris Day cabaret act for twenty years, sang it with a slightly jazzy Latin beat, which served the tune very well. Oberlin’s second act song was “I’ll See You In My Dreams.” By contrast, Day absolutely disliked her mega-hit from the 1956 film The Man Who Knew Too Much, “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)” Day disliked it so much, she refused to sing “the song that won’t go away;” so to underscore that fact, Jay Leonhart with his bass front and center, led an audience sing-a-long of the tune.
Act one also featured the mega-talent of the Marvelous Marilyn Maye. Few performers can elicit the eruption of applause from an audience as she can, nor receive a standing ovation for simply being on the stage before a note is sung. With her typical wit and charm and 
humor, Maye set up “With A Song In My Heart,” pretending not to really know it. Of course she absolutely killed. As the final performer of act two, her jazz-blues rendition of “Blues In The Night” was as elegantly swinging and as near to perfection as any singer could possibly hope for.
To conclude Sentimental Journey: A Tribute to Doris Day, the entire cast entered and led the audience in a heartfelt “Sentimental Journey”–Day’s first No. 1 hit, recorded while she was a singer with Les Brown and His Band of Renown. The song’s release coincided with the end of World War II and became the unofficial homecoming theme for veterans returning from the war. It was a fitting homecoming theme too for remembering the extraordinary Doris Day.
Photos by Maryann Lopinto
