perldiver

On July 5th, avivasedai and I went to "Danny and Sylvia: The Danny Kaye Musical" at the St. Luke's theatre. It was a two-person show about the career of Danny Kaye and his wife, Sylvia Fine. Here's the story is broad strokes:

• Danny was a brilliant performer but had no support skills (business, etc);
• Sylvia was a brilliant composer, manager, and networker;
• Danny had no career before meeting Sylvia. Sylvia was just starting out when she met Sylvia;
• The two of them met, fell in love, got married, and both of their careers took off like rockets;
• After a few years, Danny started to chafe at having someone else managing everything--he wanted to feel like he was more than a trained monkey who went where his wife told him; and,
• They eventually divorced, although they continued to work together.

As to the theatre and audience: it's in the converted basement of an old church. It seats maybe 120; of those, about 100 were senior citizens. Avivasedai and I had front-row-center seats. We chatted with some of the other audience; none of them could believe that we'd heard of Danny Kaye. I mean, come on—I grew up on The Court Jester, what's not to love?

As to the show:  it's a series of vignettes covering how the characters meet, various performances in Danny's career, and how they split up.  The fourth wall pretty much doesn't exist—"Danny" monologues to the audience regularly, and once he comes out into the audience and performed right to avivasedai (it was funny).

As to the performers:

Kimberly Faye Greenberg, the woman playing Sylvia, did a great job; this was made easier by the fact that I knew nothing about Sylvia Fein when I walked in, so there was nothing to compare against, but I totally believed that she could be what her character was:  phenomenally organized, a brilliant businesswoman, and a gifted composer and musician.

Brian Childers, the guy playing Danny, did a fine job as an actor—I always believed his performances when he was talking to Sylvia—but didn't quite nail it for me when it came to being Danny (e.g., talking to the audience, or singing). I don't know what it was, but it felt too forced. I could see his eyes too clearly, and they always looked a little bit panicked. I enjoyed the show, but I couldn't really sink into it.


Overall, I give this show about 3.5 stars.  It's definitely worth seeing if you live in NYC and have ever seen / enjoyed a Danny Kaye movie.